Podcasts from the SfAA

This is part II of a 2 part series, part I can be found here.

This recording starts about 1 minute into the session due to technical difficulties.

CHAIR: LOW, Setha

CHAIR: KESSLER, Bree (CUNY Grad Ctr)

LAWRENCE-ZUNIGA, Denise (Cal Poly-Pomona)

Confronting the Tastes of Preservationists and the “Other.”

Neighborhood gentrification resulting from historic preservation advocacy in suburban Southern California communities creates misunderstandings and tensions between homeowners, as well as between homeowners and city officials. This paper examines dilemmas confronted by an anthropologist investigating consumption practices in the social construction of preservationist identities and taste among upper middle class homeowners. Preservation advocates express a variety of opinions and emotions in constructing the “other” non-preservationist homeowners. These range from professing understanding with ambiguous discomfort to open contempt and hostility, even veiled racism, which leaves the anthropologist in a delicate situation about whether and how to intervene. dllawrence2@csupomona.edu (F-129)

NEWMAN, Andrew (CUNY Grad Ctr)

Park Activism: Place, Power, and the Politics of Ethnography in/of Public Spaces.

When neighborhoods gentrify, the struggles that arise between activists, profit-seeking interests and municipal governments are frequently centered on parks. This paper presents two case studies on the ethnic, racial and class politics that surround the “rehabilitation” of parks in New York City and Paris. In addition to describing “park activism,” I consider the role of anthropologists in park related politics. Each case study is marked by different forms of urban inequality and divergent roles played by city governments, and each case raises questions about how the ethics of engagement mesh with claims of expertise made by activists, planners, and ethnographers.
anewman@gc.cuny.edu (F-129)

CURRANS, Elizabeth (William & Mary Coll), SCHULLER, Mark (York Coll), and WILLOUGHBY HERARD, Tiffany (UC-Irvine)

Between Creativity and Conformity: Citizenship and Space in Santa Barbara’s Anti-War Movement.

Based on interviews with participants and our own involvement in recent antiwar mobilizations in Santa Barbara, California, this paper examines public spaces as sites for negotiation of the meaning of citizenship. Divergent political positions and tactical choices among people protesting the US government’s planned invasion of Iraq point to different forms of citizenship being enacted in the streets. In particular, patriotic claims to space, evident in the utilization of flags, banners highlighting military service and police escorts, were deployed in ways that marginalized more radical voices invested in direct action and broader cultural critique. egcurrans@wm.edu (F-129)

UDVARHELYI, Eva Tessza (Grad Sch, CUNY)

Betwixt and Between: The Challenges of “Translation” between the Critical Mass Movements in New York and Budapest.

Critical Mass (CM) is a form of bicycle activism that takes place in hundreds of cities worldwide. The histories of the CM in New York and Budapest reveal the significance of the socio-political context in shaping a global movement into specific responses to local realities. This presentation will explore some of my ethical dilemmas around the issues of 1) the constantly shifting and perpetually confusing nature of my double role as activist/researcher, 2) the often divisive differences between the local meanings of and relationships to the state, and 3) my attempts at creating channels of communication and acting as a translator between the two movements. evatessza@hotmail.com (F-129)

DISCUSSANT: LOW, Setha (CUNY Grad Ctr)

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This is part I or a 2 part session, part II can be found here.

CHAIR: LOW, Setha

CHAIR: KESSLER, Bree (CUNY Grad Ctr)

The Safety in Surveillance: The Ethics of Multicultural Spaces in the Moore Street Market.

Creating a space that retains the historical Latino presence but also is a “safe” space in the sense that the place is sensitive to the specific cultural and social needs of different constituencies in the neighborhood may prove essential to ensuring the Moore Street Market’s long-term survival. Yet, “safety” in the Market and in the surrounding neighborhood has focused on increased police presence and internal monitoring by the vendors themselves. This paper discusses the ways that surveillance regimes, within a neighborhood where succession and gentrification are slowly occurring, assist and challenge the creation of a more multicultural Moore Street Market. bckessler@gmail.com (F-99)

SCHENSUL, Jean (Inst for Community Rsch)

Development and Drugs: Contesting Spaces in the City.

In this paper I use data from primary and secondary sources to examine the relationships among the forces of urban renewal, drug marketing, and drug use in a small city in the Northeastern United States. First I will describe the history of apartheid-like policies that have supported disinvestment, dispersed drug markets, and concentrated impoverished populations in socially and economically depleted zones of the city. Next I will discuss and evaluate ways drug dealers, users and activists command, contest and re-arrange sociogeographic space to accommodate social and economic interests and drug practices and to manage risk during a decade of urban reinvestment programs. Jschensu@aol.com (F-99)

AUDANT, Babette (CUNY Grad Ctr)

Public Market or ‘La Marqueta’?: Framing the Future of an Ethnic Market.

Race plays an important and not-sosubtle role in drawing boundaries between people in and around Brooklyn’s Moore Street Market. The neighborhood’s former racial and ethnic diversity is a powerful local myth, though today the market is “Latino.” This paper addresses the challenges of recommending changes that balance desires to open the market to the neighborhood—and hastening already-occurring ethnic succession by newer Mexican immigrants—while respecting its place in the lives of Puerto Ricans. Making the market economically viable may depend on making it more accessible; economic rationale may be justifying a particular vision of public space. b.audant@gmail.com (F-99)

MCKINNEY, Bill (CUNY Grad Ctr)

Ethnography and the Emergence of a Service Centered Anthropologists’ Role.

This paper explores my impact as a place based anthropologist on the emergence and development of a Felon Re-Entry, crisis intervention and youth crime deterrence program based in North Philadelphia called Men In Motion in the Community (MIMIC). Philadelphia has the highest homicide rate amongst major cities in the US. In response to the violence, organizations have emerged with varying strategies to reduce violence as well as support victims and the communities most touched by the issues. MIMIC has come into existence in direct response to a specific communities issue of violence and incarceration. bmckinney@gc.cuny.edu (F-99)

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CHAIR: WALLACE, Tim (N Carolina State)

RAPOPORT, Erin (U British Columbia)

Ru’kotz’I’j Tinaamit: A Mayan Beauty Pageant in San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala.

Wherever they occur, beauty pageants are steeped with localized meanings. This paper focuses on an indigenous-run pageant in a small Guatemalan town on Lake Atitlán. During two months of ethnographic fieldwork I conducted a series of interviews whose findings are presented in this paper. I explore the various roles of pageant participants and discuss a localized history of the event. Following the institutionalized folklorization of the event in the early 1990’s, my data show that it has become highly politicized. I conclude with a discussion of the ways in which recent pageant winners have displayed a strong interest in female, public, political involvement in their town and in their country. erinrap@gmail.com (F-14)

MILIDRAGOVIC, Darja (U British Columbia)

May Our Past Not Be Our Future: Local Perspectives on Factors Contributing to Changing Family Size in San Jorge La Laguna.

Guatemala has one of the highest levels of social and economic inequality in Latin America; it also has one of the highest rates of fertility and lowest rates of contraceptive use on the continent. This general reality requires us to better understand the specific conditions and strategies of individual communities in Guatemala. Based on two months of ethnographic fieldwork in one of the poorest communities in the country, this paper focuses on emic perspectives of factors contributing to changing family size in San Jorge la Laguna, Sololá. This paper, reflecting the voices of Jorgeño men and women, reveals their perspectives on present socio-economic conditions, religion, gender roles and relations, family planning, education, and the future of their children. dacamili@hotmail.com (F-14)

SCHMID, Mary Beth (UNC-Chapel Hill)

“Living Loans” and Micro-credit in Santiago, Atitlan, Guatemala: A Comparative Study of Two Socioeconomic Organizations for Women.

This paper combines phenomenological and analytical research on indigenous women living in Santiago, Atitlan, Guatemala, a community on the shores of Lake Atitlan devastated by civil war and hurricane Stan. I provide: a) “snapshots” of my ethnographic experience with Atiteco women’s lives and; b) analysis and evaluation of two NGO aid organizations, one of which is a grassroots all women’s organization and provides material economic resources and education for its members; the other, a micro-credit organization based in the United States providing capital and education concentrating on money management. While both organizations had positive results, the micro-lender seems to be more effective. Nevertheless, both NGOs help vulnerable women revalue their identity and roles in their globalizing world. (F-14)

MAGEE, Erin (Loyola U)

Happily Ever After: Beliefs About Marriage in San Marcos La Laguna.

The following paper was written after a two-month period of research in San Marcos La Laguna in the District of Sololá Guatemala. It examines how the contemporary Kaqchikel Mayas of this highland Lake Atitlán town define and perceive marriage and its impact on their society. Essentially, marriage is viewed as encompassing four crucial contributors to the cultural workings of the town: parental and familial importance and impact; procreation and child-rearing; religion, and; binding commitment. Furthermore, this paper discusses how views on these particular aspects of a relationship are changing, possibly in light of globalization and the introduction of tourism. (F-14)

http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/wallace/Guatemala%20index.htm

303.819.8985 phone

emagee924@gmail.com

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This is Part II or a 2 part session, part I is available here.

Due to a few glitches in the audio, the first speaker’s paper was unfortunately lost.  There is also a 20 second spot of silence in the second paper.

CHAIR: MCNAMARA, Laura (Sandia Nat’l Labs)

Culture, Torture, Interrogation, and the Global War on Terrorism.

Journalist Seymour Hersh ignited a firestorm among anthropologists by alleging that Raphael Patai’s 1973 ethnography The Arab Mind was a “bible” for neoconservative decision makers involved in setting torture practice and policy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. In this paper, I review the many ways in which anthropologists and others interpreted Hersh’s claims, and then discuss what I have found in the publicly available FOIA archives maintained by the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the relationship between culture and torture. Anthropologists’ public outrage over the “use” of ethnography in torture constituted a peculiarly narrow reaction to the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. I argue that anthropologists should instead be actively engaged in the problem of interrogation: for example, documenting how interrogation constitutes a cultural encounter; identifying how the evolution of interrogation practice reflects changes in institutional worldview among the federal agencies charged with prosecuting the Global War on Terror; and assessing how the evolution of interrogation may reveal a significant shift in the relationship between criminal justice and military institutions in the context of the Global War on Terror. lamcnam@sandia.gov (TH-183)

FERGUSON, R. Brian (U Rutgers-Newark)

The Challenge of Security Anthropology.

Suddenly burgeoning demand by US and other security agencies for “cultural knowledge” and “ethnographic intelligence” has the potential to transform the discipline of anthropology. The first part of this presentation outlines the many types and situations of potential anthropological engagement. Some are unproblematic in terms of professional ethics, but most are situated in a broad gray zone, where ethical questions arise. The second part focuses on the Human Terrain System, and published plans for global ethnographic surveillance. My position is that these engagements do contradict anthropological ethics, and represent a significant danger for the discipline as a whole. bfergusn@rutgers.edu (TH-183)

RUBINSTEIN, Robert A. (Syracuse U)

Ethics, Engagement and Experience: Anthropological Excursions in Culture and the Military.

I have been engaged in the ethnographic study of United Nations peacekeeping since the 1980s. As in any ethnographic research, I developed deep social ties to the people with whom I worked. These people include military officers and troops from many countries. Following my return from “the field” some of these informants asked me to aid them in improving their cultural understanding of the people and places with whom they worked. Thus began a variety of excursions of working with the military. This paper describes some of those activities and the ethical and
practical issues raised by this engagement. rar@syr.edu (TH-183)

IRWIN, Anne (U Calgary)

Military Ethnography and Embedded Journalism: Parallels, Intersections and Disjuncture.

During the summer of 2006 I spent three months conducting ethnographic field research with an infantry unit of the Canadian Forces that was engaged in combat operations in southern Afghanistan. During that period, a number of print and photojournalists were “embedded” in the same and similar units, reporting on the activities of the combat troops. On the surface the methods and goals of embedded journalism appear similar to those of ethnographers: immersion in a culture or sub-cultural aiming to record and represent in context the experiences of members of the culture. Encounters with journalists during my field work and with the products of their work subsequent to the fieldwork have inspired me to question the parallels, intersections and disjuncture between embedded journalism and military anthropology. This paper examines how the particular context of war informs the methods and goals of both ethnographic fieldwork and embedded journalism. (TH-183)

HOFFMAN, Danny (UW-Seattle)

The Sub-Contractor: Counterinsurgency, Militias and the New Common Ground in Social and Military Science.

The focus on US military programs like the Human Terrain System may obscure a more pressing intersection between anthropology and military strategy: the outsourcing of war to local, surrogate militia forces. The real “culturalist” turn in the military is toward mobilizing indigenous groups for counterinsurgency. Thus the number of anthropologists who find themselves working in communities “sub-contracted” to provide their own security is growing, raising new ethical concerns and presenting new opportunities for engagement. Based on fieldwork in West Africa, I argue that anthropologists might make their most valuable contribution by exploring through theory the consequences of sub-contracted war. (TH-183)

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This is Part I or a 2 part session, Part II can be found here.

CHAIR: MCNAMARA, Laura (Sandia Nat’l Labs)

Scholars, Security and Citizenship, Parts I and II.

Military organizations have discovered that cultural knowledge is useful knowledge. The resulting interest in anthropology is worrisome to many anthropologists. In the United States, debates rage around initiatives such as HTS and Minerva, but anthropologists outside the US also grapple with the ethical, methodological, and political implications of emergent intersections among scholars and soldiers. This panel brings a range of international, intellectual and institutional perspectives, past and present, to bear on the engagement of anthropology with the military. In doing so, we explore what it means to fulfill one’s scholarly and civil commitments in a time of war. lamcnam@sandia.gov (TH-153, TH-183)

TOMFORDE, Maren (German Armed Forces & Command Coll-Hamburg)

Should, Must, or Must Not Anthropologists Cooperate with the Armed Forces?: Ethical Issues and the German Bundeswehr.

During the Third Reich, anthropological knowledge played a central role in reaching political goals and state “security.” Especially anthropologists supported Hitler’s ideologies to a large extent and helped to legitimise the Nazi ideology. A critical assessment of the role anthropology played for Nazi Germany will help us to examine ethical responsibilities of academics concerning current security issues. Is it a moral responsibility of anthropologists to offer their insights e.g. about Afghan culture to the State in order to prevent the further deaths of German soldiers? Where are the boundaries between active responsibility and passive observance of scholars? These are the central questions to be answered. (TH-153)

BEN-ARI, Eyal (Hebrew U)

Anthropology, Research and State Violence: Some Observations from an Israeli Anthropologist.

I utilize my observations as a scholar studying the military to do four things. First, I situate the controversy over relations between anthropologists and the military as a peculiarly American rendering of global academic processes. Second, I contend that while colored by American biases, this debate nevertheless carries implications for scholars around the world because of the structural centrality of American academia. Third, I maintain that as anthropologists we have a political duty to continue studying the military and processes of militarization including studies enabled by the armed forces because of what they reveal about the use of state-mandated force. Fourth, I explain how fieldwork such as I have been carrying out among Israeli troops and commanders implicates a number of issues necessitating a process of reflection and dialogue with the subjects of our study. (TH-153)

FUJIMURA, Clementine (US Naval Academy)

“Motivated” and Other Challenges for the Military Anthropologist.

This paper explores the complex cultural dynamics that surround one military anthropologist’s efforts to both teach to and conduct ethnographic research in a military community. As will become clear in this discussion, US military culture is by no means cohesive. Involvement in the institution by an anthropologist demands that she exercise all the skills an anthropologist might claim: participant-observation; adaptability; intuition, and; care in learning a new culture. Questions of the ethics of engagement are addressed as are the ethics of disengagement. cfujimur@usna.edu (TH-153)

PRICE, David (St. Martin’s U)

Anthropology’s Third Rail: Counterinsurgency, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Political Uses of Militarized Anthropology.

I examine the context in which anthropologist Gerald Hickey’s Vietnam War era anthropological applied knowledge contributed to a series of Rand Corporation reports; Hickey’s work is contrasted with the decision of a contemporary anthropologist of Hickey’s, Delmos Jones, to withhold his research from those who might use it for militarized ends. These two examples provide a historical frame with which to consider not only some of the ways that anthropological research is inevitably linked to both ethical concerns and political contexts, but to examine the approaches and outcomes of two significantly different reactions to wartime efforts to draw upon applied anthropological knowledge. dprice@stmartin.edu (TH-153)

FRY, Douglas P. (Åbo Akad U, U Arizona)

Anthropology in the Name of Security.

How can anthropology contribute to security? A prevalent paradigm sees security primarily in military terms, as nationally-focused, and relatively short-term (i.e., for a particular crisis or war). Anthropology’s “usefulness,” therefore, becomes one of providing specific cultural knowledge. However, “the study of humankind” is worth more than this. Anthropology can offer contributions to security that are systemic (not simply particular), that focus on the long-term, and that go beyond the militarily-focused. This broader role of anthropology–as a contributor to common, comprehensive security–is more in line with the ethics of the discipline than a militarily-focused paradigm. dfry@abo.fi (TH-153)

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CHAIR: FRENCH, Diana E. (UBC-Okanagan)

Staying Out of the Rain: An Umbrella for Community Based Research Ethics.

Many First Nations in Canada have their own clearly defined research policies and ethics protocols. However, these are not always coincident with the requirements and procedures of university based Research Ethics Boards. Stipulations are often made by those with little or no background in anthropology, and with outdated views on the expectations and needs of indigenous communities. This paper will examine how research permit systems administered by First Nations can help to minimize the difference in perspectives and lead to more fruitful collaborative research. Issues to be examined include the selection of appropriate community cultural experts, the construction and management of informed consent forms, and the long-term caretaking of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. diana.french@ubc.ca (W-125)

MURCHISON, Julian (Millsaps Coll)

‘The Anthropologist’s NGO’?: Examining the Practice and Theory of Collaborative Work.

This paper examines the early stages in the formation of SOMI, a NGO dedicated to supporting education and culture in southern Tanzania. Tanzanian colleagues developed the initial ideas for SOMI and invited the author to join them as a collaborative partner. Working from practical experiences with local politics, planning strategies, and emergent challenges, this paper analyzes the way a foreign anthropologist serves as a form of social capital for the NGO, and investigates ways that an engaged anthropologist can operate as a stakeholder and co-leader while still embracing models of development and anthropology that embrace collaboration. murchjm@millsaps.edu (W-125)

Julian M. Murchison
Asst. Professor of Anthropology & Sociology
Millsaps College
murchjm@millsaps.edu
601-974-1437
www.millsaps.edu/socio/murchisonbio.shtml
www.songeamississippi.org

BENNETT, Elaine (U Connecticut)

Reciprocity in Research: Fulfilling Community Expectations by Returning Knowledge.

While conducting research on childhood malnutrition in a Kaqchikel village, I found that mothers who participated wanted something tangible for the information they provided about child feeding practices. This paper examines the development and pilot-testing of a nutrition education program I developed for the introduction of complementary feeding for children aged 6 months to 3 years. This program included the kind of information the women wanted in a format that responded to their literacy and economic level. I developed photo recipes and cooking classes for developmentally appropriate complementary feeding to overcome documented stunting among this age group. elaine.m.bennett@gmail.com (W-125)

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This session was sponsored by the Society for Humanistic Anthropology

Session abstract: Anthropologists come home from the field with amazing stories brimming with passion, excitement, pathos, humor, and drama. Academic publication requirements, however, often flatten out the stories, strip the ethnography of the excitement, and fail to convey the rich texture of everyday life. The papers in this session invite you to share in an infusion of anthropology with life, half as exciting as fieldwork. Alongside academic ethnography and its requirements there are other ways to write about justice, ethics and the practice of anthropology in genres that are informed by our fieldwork and anchored in ethnographic concerns. The papers in this session, which include SHA Fiction Award winners, open up an exhilarating and stirring humanistic anthropology to a wider audience. aemt@mail.rochester.edu (F-35)

CHAIR: EMMETT, Ayala (U Rochester)

In the City of Jerusalem.

Local Palestinian and Jewish women’s struggle for peace that I describe in my ethnography Our Sisters’ Promised Land has so far not materialized. Informed by my fieldwork, the short story “In the City of Jerusalem” follows the shocking disappearance of a journalist and revisits heartbreaking questions about ethics, identity, suffering and human rights. aemt@mail.rochester.edu (F-35)

The Shrine

Written as an experiment in fictionalized ethnography, “The Shrine” is a short story that explores the impact of “modernization” and “globalization” on a small village in the West Indies. Using the techniques of literary narrative enables the author to personalize these conceptual abstractions and also to dramatize his own relationship to a community that he has studied for more than four decades. angrosin@cas.usf.edu (F-35)

TRACHTENBERG, Barbara (Boston University)

The Right Documents

Each week, after taping immigrant Central American mothers, Julia, an ethnographer, wrote her field notes in her car under the overhead light, the neighbors probably wondering. The women—having achieved a motherhood Julia had never been able to garner for herself—and their lives, stayed with her in the years ahead. This creative non-fiction story captures Julia’s conversations with the women, represented by one composite character, an immigrant mother in a relationship with Julia. The story brings to light an ethnographic process of reaching deeper into oneself by reaching out to those who so generously share their lives with the anthropologist. (F-35)

CHIERICI, Rose-Marie (SUNY-Geneseo)

I Was Born on the Side of the Road as My Mother Was Going to the Market: The Amazing Story of My Colleague

Anthropologists seldom have the opportunity to tell the stories of the remarkable individuals we meet. My friend and colleague Thony introduced himself with the above words, then thoughtfully and carefully crafted a narrative that revealed how his life’s trajectory unfolded. Born in a remote village, he is now the medical director of a burgeoning community health program. Shaking off the requirements of intellectual discourse and the confines of formal writing, I share Thony’s story to illustrate the bonds we create with our co-workers, the insights we gain in the course of fieldwork, and the many layers of complexity that a life history unveils. chierici@geneseo.edu (F-35)

Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Anthroplogy
State University of New York at Geneseo

CHIN, Nancy (U Rochester)

Notes Home to My Family From Field Work in a Tibetan Village.

I co-direct Project Drolma, a community health improvement project on the Tibetan Plateau in a village I refer to as “Drokpa.” We have made a ten-year commitment to work with the villagers, returning annually to work on projects with them. Fieldwork has been invigorating, exasperating and rewarding as we keep trying to implement health programs amidst logistical constraints, infrequent communications, and unpredictably inclement weather. Notes I wrote to my family capture the multiple challenges, confusions, exasperations and rewards of fieldwork and give the project’s dilemmas unfiltered vibrancy of lived experience. nancy_chin@urmc.rochester.edu (F-35)

DISCUSSANT: SIMONELLI, Jeanne (Wake Forest U)

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One measure of effectiveness in applied anthropology can be found in the “stories” of those who have used anthropological knowledge to assist people in “creating culture” through the discovery of new ways to better sustain ourselves. Unsustainable behaviors reduce the effectiveness of a culture as a continually adaptive process. Sustainability requires a vision and practice not to consume beyond the renewal capacity of the landscapes upon which they are dependent. If culture is dynamic and purposeful, then sustainability requires continuous “culture change” into the future. Another level of sustainable behaviors is illustrated by the perceived need to intervene, or not, in the “culture,” of subordinated peoples. wbaber@anthro.ufl.edu (TH-74)

CHAIR: BABER, Willie L. (U Florida)

Roanoke City Public Schools Project: Identifying Next Steps.

Identity described as an outcome of inadequate acculturation, or as the loss of functional adaptation altogether, is believed to lie at the center of a significantly lower graduation rate of African Americans in Roanoke City Public Schools, and in the U.S. at large. This paper describes the Roanoke City Public Schools Project as an intervention defined by the community itself. The way forward is the organization of the Roanoke City community, involving less then 100,000 people, and the community’s discovery of interventions. The process, thus far, appears to be largely independent of culture-debate per se; this early outcome may be a reflection of the cultural diversity inherent in Roanoke community’s commitment to solving the problem. wbaber@anthro.ufl.edu (TH-74)

NIGH, Ronald (CIESAS)

Material Rationality and the Defense of Native Maize: Citizen-Farmer Solidarity in Chiapas, Mexico.

Seven out of ten Mexican adults are suffering from diet related illness that also affects nearly half the country’s children. Diabetes type 2 is now the principal cause of death in both urban and rural environments. The reason for this situation is the profound transformation of consumption habits resulting from a food policy that has explicitly favored the invasion of industrialized ‘junk foods’ and actively discouraged regional food production. Citizens are reacting, however, by renovating the bonds of solidarity of the traditional agro-food systems through the creation of a system of organic farmers markets and other local business relations. rbnigh@gmail.com (TH-74)

IDRIS, Mussa (U Florida)

Trust and Entrepreneurship Among the “New” African Immigrants in the United States.

“Trust” is central to successful entrepreneurial activities among the ‘new’ African immigrants (after 1965) in the U.S. Drawing from among entrepreneurial experiences of the ‘new’ African immigrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal in the U.S., I assert that successful immigrant entrepreneurs are cognizant of the need for “trust” and building it up in cultural, social and economic networks among themselves and beyond. Created and re-created networks depend upon high levels of “spirit” and “practice” of “trust” in social relations made out of wider cultural experiences. These experiences serve the common good, and may be seen as alternatives to unregulated markets that promote an ideology of “trust” in ways that do not actually exist, certainly not for African immigrants. mussa@ufl.edu (TH-74)

Moles, Jerry

DISCUSSANT: DOWNING, Theodore (U Arizona)

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Anthropological historians may variously trace applied anthropology to a fraught status in nineteenth century colonialism, to a more explicit, “politically correct” status, or to points in between. Since the 1990s, the neologism of “public anthropology” coined by Renato Rosaldo and Rob Borofsky has occupied an ambiguous space obliquely or alongside applied anthropology. While applied anthropology has long focused on action that may or may not include forms of ethnographic writing, public anthropology explicitly demands anthropological action through writing. This session will consider the intersection between applied anthropology and public anthropology that intentionally engaged forms of ethnographic writing can create. Bilinda.Straight@wmich.edu (TH-126)

CHAIR: STRAIGHT, Bilinda (W Mich U)

METZO, Katherine (UNC-Charlotte)
Collaboration and Co-Authorship

This paper explores how to move collaboration into the writing process. Within applied anthropology, team-based research and collaboration are increasingly the norm. Public anthropology has successfully brought about changes in outreach and engagement. While co-authorship is common in both areas, the writing process is often unequal. Moving towards a more collaborative approach in writing builds on existing relationships between anthropologists and consultants while making our research more relevant to local communities and within academic circles. The author uses examples from her research and collaborations in Russia’s Lake Baikal Region to consider the differences between collaboration and coauthorship. kmetzo@uncc.edu (TH-126)

LANGFORD, Jean M. (U Minn)

Dying Words: Khmer Stories and Bioethical Possibility.

Stories from marginalized communities are more than reiterations of cultural difference; they suggest unique perspectives for engaging with social problems. This paper explores Khmer stories of death for the insights they offer to contemporary bioethics. Physicians and Khmer laypersons or monks employ different kinds of language to address the dying and the dead. While it might appear that one is a technical language of matter, and the other a sacred language of spirit, each language presumes a particular relationship between matter and spirit. Khmer stories illuminate the Christian entailments of a secular bioethics, and evoke other possibilities for approaching death. langf001@umn.edu (TH-126)

GOUGH, Meagan (U Sask)

You Never Sit by The Same River Twice: Reflections on Recording the Life Histories of Two Elders from the Sto:lo First Nation in British Columbia.

This presentation illustrates aspects of my academic and personal journey to record and write two Sto:lo elders’ life histories. The goals of our life history project are to make a positive contribution to the Sto:lo community in culturally significant and practical ways, and to foster the general advancement of multidisciplinary theory and practice regarding how research involving Aboriginal Peoples is conducted. Implicitly, this opportunity for each Elder to “testify” to their experiences, challenges larger issues regarding how history has been told, and by whom. I would like to illustrate how trust and rapport, considered essential to doing ethnographic, oral and particularly life history work, developed in our project. (TH-126)

MCKENNA, Brian (U Mich-Dearborn)

Doing Anthropology as a Radical Journalist: Theorize Global, Write Local.

In The Last Intellectuals Russell Jacoby showed how the 20th century’s great muckrakers were followed by lost generations who entered universities and became socialized into academic culture, abandoning their civic voices. With Thomas Eriksen (Engaging Anthropology 2006) I argue for an engaged practice where “anthropologists step out of their academic cocoon to embrace the wider public” to help replace these lost critical voices. I discuss how I translate my ethnographic studies of Mid-Michigan into radical journalism for local (Lansing’s City Pulse) and national newspapers (CounterPunch). I explore techniques, contestations, and fault lines between scholarly, applied and journalistic writing. Anthropology can become radical journalism in form and practice in the way it analyzes local structures of feeling to illuminate taken-for-granted ideas for local communities. mckennab@umd.umich.edu (TH-126)

DISCUSSANTS: KRATZ, Corinne (Emory U) 

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Anthropologists’ work on, for and with the military has received much attention recently. The resulting debates have helped identify various important questions regarding opportunities, dangers and ethical challenges in such engagements. However, many of these apply not only to work with the military, but also to anthropologists engaged in development, health care, business and other professions. Applying, practicing and advocating place anthropologists in complex relationships with employers, clients and research subjects. This roundtable brings together experienced practicing anthropologists to reflect on how the current focus on anthropological engagement with the military can inform a robust disciplinary discussion of common issues. kbfosher@gmail.com (TH-33)

CHAIRS: FOSHER, Kerry (MCIA, Syracuse U) and SELMESKI, Brian (Air U)

PANELISTS: BABA, Marietta (Mich State U), NOLAN, Riall W. (Purdue U), RUBINSTEIN, Robert A. (Syracuse U), and TURNLEY, Jessica Glicken (Galisteo Consulting Group Inc)

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This is part II or a 2 part session. Part I is available here.

Patient Narratives on What Constitutes Meaningful HIV Prevention Counseling. Talking about sexual practices, preferences and problems during a routine clinical encounter is not common. In fact, many patients and healthcare providers report feeling uncomfortable managing even a cursory discussion of sex. Moreover, for people living with HIV, frank discussions about sexual expression with a healthcare provider are complicated by legal issues, concerns about feeling judged, and the underlying belief that such discussions are incongruent within the medical setting. Through ethnographic interviews with HIV specialty care providers and their patients we explored the “black box” of meaningful prevention discussions. kimberly.koester@ucsf.edu (W-13)

CHAIR: KOESTER, Kimberly (Ctr for AIDS Prev Studies, UC-San Francisco)

LUNDGREN, Rebecka (U Maryland)

Bridging the Gap between Providers and Clients: Reducing Stigma and Discrimination in VCT Services.

Participatory research is part of the tool kit of applied anthropologists. This paper reports on use of an innovative  participatory method, Partnership Defined Quality, to develop a shared vision of high quality voluntary counseling and testing among providers and community members as part of a quality improvement initiative in Central America. Workshops with providers, sex workers, and men who have sex with men explored beliefs and practices related to provision and utilization of services. Client concerns included discrimination and confidentiality; providers cited inadequate supplies and health concerns. Increased understanding of differences between provider and client cultures guided quality improvement efforts. lundgrer@georgetown.edu (W-43)

DOLWICK GRIEB, Suzanne (U Florida)

Local HIV Epidemics in a Transnational Community.

The Garinagu, a matrifocal African-amerindian indigenous group, have been heavily reliant on migration since their beginnings. The Garinagu form a transnational community and this has shaped their cultural practices. HIV/AIDS is prevalent among the Garinagu in their home countries as well as in New York City (NYC), where a large proportion of Garinagu resides. Interviews and surveys were used to explore the relationship between gender roles, migration, and HIV among the Garinagu in Trujillo, Honduras and NYC. In this transnational community, two differing epidemics can be seen that must be dealt with using individualized approaches. sdolwick@ufl.edu (W-43)

YODER, P. Stanley (Macro Int’l) and LUGALLA, Joe (U New Hampshire)

Social Context of Disclosure of HIV Test Results.

This study sought to understand how individuals reveal their HIV test results to others and the ways that social relations affect the disclosure process. The data were collected through openended interviews administered in Swahili to informants who had just been tested for HIV, and those who were living with HIV/AIDS in Dar-es-Salaam and Iringa regions. Analysis shows that social relations influence decisions that individuals make about disclosure. Most people preferred to reveal their HIV status to close family members. Most also mentioned fear of being rejected and discriminated against as major reasons for not disclosing their test results to others. paul.s.yoder@macrointernational.com (W-43)

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Each blog post has a comment section at the bottom of the entry (if there are no comments it will say “no comments”).  This is a an easy way for us all to continue the conversation started in these podcasts.  You do not need to create an account to post a comment and I will email the session or speaker if the comment is directed to them to ensure they see the comment.  The speakers in this session have already shown a strong interest in holding a conversation here with listeners.  Please don’t hesitate to start or participate in it!

Session abstract: Professional and Academic Collaboration: Strengthening the Preparation of New Professional Anthropologists. In this session professional anthropologists, academics, and young anthropologists will discuss ways in which to strengthen the development of new professional anthropologists. The role that mentoring can play and how to structure and coordinate support will be explored. Participants will discuss the desired and needed aspects in mentoring as well as the challenges in preparing students for internship experiences and new professionals entering the workplace. The session will focus on creating a conversation among presenters and audience to explore issues identified by the presenters. ltgpartners@earthlink.net (W-70)

CHAIR: TASHIMA, Nathaniel (LTG Assoc)

PANELISTS: BUTLER, Mary Odell (U Maryland), DAVENPORT, Beverly (U N Texas), DELINE, Marisa (U Maryland), and HORA, Matthew (U Wisc-Madison)

DISCUSSANT: CRAIN, Cathleen (LTG Assoc Inc)

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