Aaron L. Miller

About Aaron L. Miller

Aaron L. Miller, PhD (Oxon) is Lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology at California State University, East Bay, and Associate Adjunct Faculty, Department of Kinesiology, St. Mary’s College of California. A trained socio-cultural anthropologist, he teaches humanities and social science courses to undergraduate and graduate students in the field of kinesiology, and is the host of the podcast, “The Power of Sports”, which is available via Apple Podcasts. Miller is the author of Discourses of Discipline: An Anthropology of Corporal Punishment in Japan’s Schools and Sports (Institute for East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley), a translated version of which was published in Japanese as Nihon no Taibatsu by Editorial Republica (Kyowakoku) in 2021, and Buying In: Big-time Women’s College Basketball and the Future of College Sports (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), as well as dozens of other essays, journal articles and book chapters about education, sports, culture, power, violence, and social justice.

How Can We as Anthropologists Be the Change We Wish to See in the World?

This is a question that I have struggled to answer, but it has also lit a fire under me, spurring me to teach, write, podcast, and live more intentionally. After I completed the doctorate and finished my first book, I found work but I wanted more optimal choices to mesh with my life and career values. So, I began to wonder, what was the impact of my work? How could it be measured? And what had I done in the book but regurgitate theories that had already been chewed by enough scholars? The book sat on my bookshelf and a [...]