Tierra McMahon

Tierra McMahon

Assistant Professor

IE University

Hello and Welcome!

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I am an Assistant Professor of (Socio-Cultural) Anthropology at IE University in Spain. Professionally, I have dedicated myself to anthropology, convinced of its generative potential for treating key issues of our time. I also have training in Economics, International Relations, and Philosophy across four continents. Previously, I worked as an Economist and Policy Analyst at the OECD in Paris and served at UNESCO under the aegis of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. These professional experiences and my educational trajectory have greatly impacted my understanding of key features of knowledge production and world-making on a global scale, which I seek to bring to my research and teaching.

My current research examines the (enduring) political economy of modernity in urban Morocco with attention to how modernity narratives (and other teleological spinoffs) are employed to justify or change social practices. I am particularly interested in how cultural evolutionary theories persist in contemporary contexts and shape ritual practice as well as theory produced on it. I am currently developing a conceptual framework to better address the ongoing relational denigration of different peoples and practices by means of spatio-temporal othering, beginning in Morocco with the topic of animal sacrifice.

I also conduct research on artificial intelligence, exploring the relational denigration of humans vis-à-vis AI, theorizing this as Sub-Alpha Humanism. This research draws attention to this under-explored ‘risk’ of AI, particularly relevant to post-human imaginaries and futures.

Interests

  • Animal sacrifice; mutuality, serving & hierarchy; conceptions of nature; religion in practice; the (enduring) political economy of modernity; performance & publics
  • Practice-led research; relations between `ethnographic’ fieldwork & theory; the quantitative-qualitative research methods divide construct

Education

  • PhD/MRes in (Social) Anthropology, ~2025

    London School of Economics

  • MSc in Social Anthropology, 2019

    London School of Economics

  • MRes in Economics, 2014

    PSL Research University -- Paris Dauphine

  • MA in International Relations, 2012

    American Graduate School in Paris

  • BA in Philosophy, 2003

    Middle Tennessee State University

Current Research

Sacrifice, Sport, and Street Art in ‘Le Maroc Utile’: Performing and Negotiating ‘The Modern’ in Morocco and Beyond

My current research examines the political economy of modernity in Morocco with attention to how modernity narratives are employed to justify or change social/cultural practices. Focused on a region known in the local vernacular as ‘le Maroc utile’ (‘the useful Morocco’), the project explores conceptions of this–not uncontroversial–category of place and attends to performances and negotiations of ‘the modern’ in spheres of activity that figure largely in the lives of those who live there. The spheres of activity include: 1) sacrifice 2) sport and 3) street art, and are explored through anthropological methods, including long-term fieldwork. Through the scope of these inter-related spheres of activity and by co-practicing activities with my interlocutors, the aim is to understand the influence of these performances and the greater negotiation of Moroccan modernity in the 21st century. A second aim of the research is to apply findings from ‘the Moroccan case’ to discussions of modernity and modernization that have gained traction globally and which speak to some of the key challenges of our time, including those that address the Anthropocene and speaking for others.

Teaching

IE University

Lecturer

  • Ethnography (Spring Term 2026)
  • Culture and Society: Fundamentals of Anthropology (Autumn Term 2025)
  • Anthropological Approaches to Contemporary Worlds (Spring Term 2024, 2026). Teaching Evaluation 4.78/5.
  • Advanced Research and Writing Skills (Autumn Term 2023). Teaching Evaluation 4.64/5.

London School of Economics

Postgraduate Teaching Assistant

  • AN283 Anthropology, Art, and Poetics: Winter 2024. Teaching Evaluation 4.4/5.
  • AN100 Being Human: Introduction to Social Anthroplogy: Winter 2023. Teaching Evaluation 4.67/5.
  • IR115 Globalisation and Culture: Summer School 2023. Teaching Evaluation 4.81/5.

Co-convener, Summer Seminar Series

  • Digesting David Graeber’s Sacrifice Syllabus: A postgraduate and professional seminar series on sacrifice exploring classic conceptions of sacrifice to modern takes (e.g. sacrifice zones) that speaks to questions of envirnonmental policy, human-non-human relations, and future-making. (Summer Term 2023)

Selected Awards

  • Firth Award for Best Paper of the Year by a Researcher 2025, London School of Economics
  • Award in recognition of providing exceptional pastoral care, 2024-2025, London School of Economics
  • Recipient of the Rosemary and Raymond Firth Award (2024-2025), Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics.
  • Nomination for Outstanding Teaching Award during the 2023-2024 academic year, LSESU, London School of Economics.
  • Award in recognition of providing exceptional pastoral care, 2023-2024, London School of Economics
  • Outstanding Teaching Awards for both courses taught, 2023-2024, IE University.
  • Highly Commended Class Teaching Award Received for academic teaching conducted during the 2022-2023 academic year, London School of Economics.
  • London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) Research Support Award Received funding award for innovative methods training and research (2022-2023).
  • London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) Language Fund Awards (2021 & 2022).
  • London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) Studentship Award, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) (2020-2024).
  • The LSE Bloch and Parry Award for Best MSc Dissertation (2019).
  • The MTSU Young Alumni Achievement Award, received for outstanding achievement in career, public service and volunteering from Middle Tennessee State University (2017).
  • The John A. Lee Memorial Scholarship, American Graduate School in Paris, competitive scholarship received annually (2009 – 2012).
  • U.S. Policy Debate Awards - multiple awards won at state and regional policy debate tournaments, including 1st place at Vanderbilt University (2001 – 2003).
  • Michael Martinelli Honors Scholarship for high academic achievement at MTSU Honors College (2001).

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