astronomy

Tom Boellstorff

Tom Boellstorff is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tom Boellstorff rather than just read about it. In short: Tom Boellstorff (1969-) is an anthropologist based at the University of California, Irvine. In his career to date, his interests have included the anthropology of sexuality, the anthropology of globalization, digital anthropology, Southeast Asian studies, the anthropology of HIV/AIDS, and linguistic anthropology.

Key takeaways

Tom Boellstorff belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tom Boellstorff to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tom Boellstorff from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tom Boellstorff (1969-) is an anthropologist based at the University of California, Irvine. In his career to date, his interests have included the anthropology of sexuality, the anthropology of globalization, digital anthropology, Southeast Asian studies, the anthropology of HIV/AIDS, and linguistic anthropology.

Career Tom Boellstorff earned his Ph.D. in anthropology at Stanford University in 2000. He joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine in 2002, receiving tenure in 2006. He is the winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize given by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists. From 2007 to 2012 he was editor-in-chief of American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association, and co-edits the Princeton University Press book series "Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology." He has been co-chair of the Association for Queer Anthropology (formerly the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists). He has received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies and research support from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. In 2016 he was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has conducted research on LGBT sexualities in Indonesia and on culture in virtual worlds, including disability experience in Second Life (see the documentary Our Digital Selves: My Avatar Is Me). His work has been published in American Anthropologist; American Ethnologist; Annual Review of Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology; Current Anthropology, Environment and Planning D; Ethnos, Games and Culture, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies; Information, Communication, and Society; International Journal of Communication; Journal of Linguistic Anthropology; Journal of Asian Studies; and Media, Culture, and Society. He is also the co-editor of Data, Now Bigger and Better! (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2015) and Speaking in Queer Tongues: Globalization and Gay Language (University of Illinois Press, 2004).

Biography Raised in Nebraska, Boellstorff moved to California to obtain bachelor's degrees in linguistics and music from Stanford University. He engaged in HIV/AIDS and LGBT activism in the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Russia, at times with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now Outright International) and the Institute for Community Health Outreach, where he worked as Regional Coordinator before entering graduate school in anthropology. His husband, Bill Maurer, is Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Publications Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human (Princeton University Press, 2008, Second Edition 2015) Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method (Princeton University Press, 2012; coauthored with Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce, and T.L. Taylor) A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia (Duke University Press, 2007) The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia (Princeton University Press, 2005)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tom Boellstorff

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tom Boellstorff claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tom Boellstorff before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tom Boellstorff ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tom Boellstorff

In research: Tom Boellstorff appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tom Boellstorff in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tom Boellstorff is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1969 births, 21st-century American anthropologists, American Anthropologist editors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tom Boellstorff outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tom Boellstorff in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tom Boellstorff means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tom Boellstorff out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tom Boellstorff in simple terms?

Why does Tom Boellstorff matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tom Boellstorff?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tom Boellstorff.