THE LIMINAL is an inquiry-in-writing about all things betwixt and between: creativity, identity, relations, conversations. Grounded in the relationship between language and the body, this newsletter is a cross-pollination of anthropology, literature, poetry, art, personal essay, and science.
Each issue centres upon a theme, with original writings scaffolded by curated resources and tools to connect the month’s inquiry with your own body + life.
In anthropology, liminality describes an ambiguous threshold, neither here nor there; previous ways of being dissolve as new ones emerge. It can be a difficult, trying space. to be. It is also a space of immense creativity, possibility, and social transformation.
I started THE LIMINAL as a newsletter in January 2020 to maintain sanity and connection while writing my PhD dissertation in anthropology. It was also, unwittingly, the very beginning of a global pandemic.
Since then, “liminal” has become somewhat of a catchphrase for our times, used to describe the not-yet and potentiality of all we are facing and questioning and reimagining in our built and natural worlds—our relationships with work, our bodies, our politics, our planet, our art, and one another.
T H E | L I M I N A L is a space that asks more questions than it answers (like anthropology itself), and lingers in the wonder of paradox.
Take a wander through the archives, pour yourself a cup of tea, and let’s sit together in conversation.
I’m so glad you’re here.
With heart,
Allie
About Allie
Dr. Alexandra (Allie) Middleton is an anthropologist by vocation, a writer by soul, a photographer by heart, and a yoga, meditation, and embodied writing teacher by spirit.
Allie is an assistant professor of medical anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, and holds a PhD in Anthropology from Princeton University and a BA from Duke University. Her academic work integrates medical anthropology with feminist science and technology studies to probe the everyday lived and embodied experiences that give rise to frontier medical technologies, from prosthetics to assisted reproduction. You can read more about her research here. Allie’s first book, The Connector, which examines lived and embodied relations with experimental neuroprosthetics, is under contract with Duke University Press.
Allie is also an essayist and creative nonfiction writer, with work published in The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Off Assignment, The Washington Square Review, and Entropy. Her writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays.
Allie is the founder of WITHIN, a method, online workshop series, and global community for writing from/through/into the body, weaving writing with the practices of yoga, breathwork, and meditation.
A West-Coast native (Bend, Oregon + San Francisco, California), Allie has lived and worked in North Carolina, Colorado, Brooklyn, Togo, West Africa, Brazil, and Sweden. Since 2018 she has been based in Sweden, and currently calls the borderlands of Southern Sweden and Copenhagen home, where she lives with her husband and young daughter.
Above all else, Allie believes deeply in human connection and the power of a story well told.
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to get full access to T H E | L I M I N A L newsletter, website, and archives. Never miss an update.
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
Join the community
Be part of a vibrant global community of humans navigating life in the betwixt and between.
