As you may recall, the SfAA Podcast project began at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the SfAA. As part of the pilot project it was decided that the podcasts from the meeting would be hosted for just a few months.

The project was a great success and was well received by many people. This site has had almost 5,000 visitors since April 2007! After careful consideration it was decided that the 2007 podcasts should be re-hosted on the website so that we all may continue to enjoy them!

Emails were sent out to the 2007 speakers this morning asking their permission to re-host the podcasts. I’ve already received many responses and I believe that we may be able to re-host every 2007 session! Stay tuned for updates- I’m hoping that the 2007 podcasts will begin to be re-posted sometime next week!!

And, just in case you’re wondering- the 2008 podcasts will not be taken down after a few months

The podcasts were taken down from this site on August 1, 2007. The corresponding blog posts for each session will remain on the website though. As you may, or may not, know this project was the first time that podcasts had been made available for sessions at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA). Some participants had expressed a desire to have the recordings made available for only a few months, to this end it was decided that the podcasts would be taken down. I’d like to see the podcasts remain on the website next year so this is something that I’ll be looking into changing.

At the time that I’m writing this post there have been 3,216 visitors to this website! This number greatly exceeded my expectations and I think it really speaks for the value and interest in these podcasts. Additionally there have been 88 search engine searches that included the words “anthropology” (or a sub-discipline) & “podcast” that led visitors to our site. Twenty one websites, not all “anthropological”, have linked to this site and referred 1042 visitors to this site!

The podcasts will be continued at the 2008 Annual Meeting in Memphis, TN. I am beginning to work on the project for next year, my focus now is on figuring out what “worked” and didn’t “work” this year i.e., that should be improved upon. I have received a fair amount of emails from site visitors offering their suggestions and it’s been super helpful to have this feedback. I’d still like to hear from people- what did you like or dislike about this year’s project? Did the blog posts have enough or too much information about the participants? Did you hate the layout or colors of the website? Do you want more podcasts next year? Etc. etc. Feel free to email me at jencardew at gmail dot com OR leave a comment on this post.

Please continue to check this site throughout the rest of the year for updates, etc. You can get automatic notifications of new posts to the site also (via RSS and email notifications).

updates about the project and a re-cap will be posted on Friday August 3, 2007.

I wanted to remind everyone that the SfAA podcasts from the 67th Annual Meeting of the SfAA will be taken down from this website on August 1, 2007. To this end, make sure you download the podcasts that you want before then. Also, if you know someone that might be interested in any of the recordings- make sure you tell them about the website soon so that they will have the opportunity to download the podcasts before then too. After August 1 there will be more frequent updates, calls for help, and calls for participation on this site, so please continue to subscribe to this site’s RSS feed or email updates of new posts so that you don’t miss out! If you’ve had thoughts/comments/complaints/etc. that you haven’t submitted, now would be a great time to do that too so that they can be considered when we plan for next year!

Why are the podcasts being taken down you ask?

What an excellent question! The decision to make the files available for a few months was mainly based on two factors. Tom May and I picked a date to remove the files after hearing some participants concerns of having the files available long-term. Also, we are storing the files on a file server at the University of North Texas this year. The Center for Distributed Learning at UNT was not able to guarantee free server space past the date.

Going forward, I believe that we (still looking for volunteers!) will keep the files up either permanently or for a longer period of time. This will all depend on how much feedback and communication we receive from participants on the matter. The server space for next year has been taken care of, so that will no longer be a factor.

There have been 3,088 visitors to this site since April 9, 2007!

Quite a few anthropology bloggers and readers actively participate in a bi-weekly blog carnival, called Four Stone Hearth. Every two weeks someone “hosts” the carnival on their website. Each carnival consists of anthropology-related articles and postings submitted by bloggers and readers, discussion about the articles takes place on the website. This week’s Four Stone Hearth is being hosted at Sherd Nerd.

Four Stone Hearth is a wonderful community of intellectuals and welcomes submissions and discussion from anyone with an interest in anthropology (all sub-fields and topics). It’s a great opportunity for you to stay up-to-date with the happenings in the field and to meet people with similar interests.

All of the hosts offer RSS, so you can use your blog reader that you signed up for to keep up with the SfAA podcasts to keep up with the Four Stone Hearth also!

Learn more about Four Stone Hearth here.

Visit this week’s Four Stone Hearth at Sherd Nerd here.

Learn more about blog carnivals here.

Learn more about RSS and blog readers here and here.

And, don’t forget to download the SfAA podcasts before July 31st and to tell your colleagues about them!!

I wanted to remind everyone that the SfAA podcasts from the 67th Annual Meeting of the SfAA will be taken down from this website on August 1, 2007. To this end, make sure you download the podcasts that you want before then. Also, if you know someone that might be interested in any of the recordings- make sure you tell them about the website soon so that they will have the opportunity to download the podcasts before then too. After August 1 there will be more frequent updates, calls for help, and calls for participation on this site, so please continue to subscribe to this site’s RSS feed or email updates of new posts so that you don’t miss out! If you’ve had thoughts/comments/complaints/etc. that you haven’t submitted, now would be a great time to do that too so that they can be considered when we plan for next year!

Shortcut to podcasts:
Gretel Pelto’s Malinowski Acceptance Speech
Malinowski Blog Post

“Dude, That’s My Space!”
“Dude, That’s My Space!” Blog post

“Global Health in the Time of Violence, Part I”
“Global Health in the Time of Violence, Part I” Blog post

“Global Health in the Time of Violence, Part II”
Global Health in the Time of Violence, Part II” Blog post

Florida Public Archaeology Network” Blog post

“Contributing to Cultural Understanding” Blog post

“South Florida’s Impact on Anthropology, Part I”
“South Florida” Blog post

“Environment & Conservation Policy” “Environment & Conservation Policy” Blog post

“Expanding (or Exceeding?) Our Reach” “Expanding (or Exceeding?) Our Reach” Blog post

“Applying Linguistic Anthropology in the Classroom & Beyond”
“Applying Linguistic Anthropology in the Classroom & Beyond” Blog post

All of the podcasts from the 2007 Annual Meeting of the SfAA have been published (see left hand side of the screen for shortcuts to the podcasts). The site will be rather quiet for the next few weeks, but postings will pick back up in July as we begin to plan for next year. There will be postings asking for opinions/suggestions for improvement, things you’d like to see happen, for volunteer applications, and for general announcements. I encourage you to subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed so that you don’t miss any of the posts, you can do so here (RSS reader) or by email here. Don’t forget that you can leave comments and feedback on this page and you can email me (don’t be shy!).

As of this morning, this site has had 2,292 visitors since April 9! Thanks everyone!!

(This podcast was taken down on August 1, 2007. As part of the pilot project, it was decided that the podcasts from the 67th Annual Meeting would be made available only for four months. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

This session was re-published on May 30, 2007 because Eric Jones submitted some biographical information and Linda Whiteford with Doug Henry added an introduction to the panel and to each presentation- thanks everyone!

The first few minutes of Dr. Whiteford’s presentation did not record, but the rest of the session did record.

Applied social scientists have been studying disasters and complex emergencies for close to fifty years, with questionable results in terms of the application of knowledge. This panel asks what we have learned, how has it been applied, and what are the results? For instance, can our increased understanding of how the concept of ‘risk’ is manipulated result in policy changes? What have we learned from Katrina and other well-researched disasters, and are those findings being applied? How do complex emergencies become chronic disasters, and what is the role of social science in their mitigation?

Using Ecuador as an case example, Linda Whiteford and Graham Tobin demonstrated the value of collaborating with local partners at all levels. Doug Henry compared the bureaucratic commonalities between relief for West African refugees and those from Katrina. Greg Button traced the history of political policy failures relating to disaster research since World War II. Tony Oliver-Smith used the examples of Hurricanes Mitch and Katrina to explore those aspects of reconstruction that can contribute to sustainable risk reducation and lower environmental degradation. Finally, Eric Jones and Art Murphy performed a cross-cultural meta-analysis of disaster literature to examine formal and informal mechanisms of social support for mental health.

The participants (listed in the order of their presentations) are:

Linda Whiteford

• Recent publications:Globalization, Water, and Health: Resource Management in Times of Scarcity, (co-edited with Scott Whiteford). School of American Research Press, 2005.Primary Health Care in Cuba: The Other Revolution (co-authored with Laurence G. Branch). Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2007 (forthcoming).
• About the presentation: WHITEFORD, Linda M. (University of South Florida), and TOBIN, Graham A. (University of South Florida). Interlockers: From Disaster/CE Research to Social Policy. This paper uses the case of Ecuador as an example of disaster research being used to shape social policy and asks if the case is dependent on the country size, its position in the realpolitic, personal relationships and other idisyncracies, or if there are generalizations to be drawn from the case. Similar research being conducted in Mexico challenges the assumptions of applicability of the Ecuador findings. We discuss potential barriers and obstacles to the replicability of the results from Ecuador to Mexico, and search for means to overcome them.

Anthony Oliver-Smith

• University of Florida
• About presentation: OLIVER-SMITH, Anthony (Florida). Spaces of Feasibility: Human-Environment Relations, Vulnerability and the Research-Practice Gap in Post-Disaster Reconstruction. In post disaster reconstruction, the fundamental question to be asked is how the process can address the systemic environmental, economic and social variables that produce disasters in a way that is sustainable, reduces vulnerability, and enables people at the household and community level to survive. This paper examines the cases of Hurricanes Mitch and Katrina to explore those aspects of reconstruction that feasibly within the limits of action permitted by existing structures can reduce both environmental degradation and vulnerability to hazards.

Doug Henry

• University of North Texas
• 940-565-3836 (office)
• DHenry at pacs dot unt dot edu
• Doug Henry’s Power Point W-98
• About presentation: HENRY, Doug (University of North Texas). The Chronic Nature of Acute Crisis in Catastrophe and Relief. In hurricanes and violent war, poverty and marginality combine to ensure that acute emergencies become persistent. Bureaucratic constraints can be deconstructed, yet then reconstructed as barriers to efficiency, coordination, and future disaster mitigation. During relief, top-down approaches are normalized, preventing the development of individual agency among those displaced. This paper considers the structural commonalities of displacement from both New Orleans and Sierra Leone, West Africa, and the barriers to change and reform encountered in each.

Eric Jones (with Arthur D. Arthur & Isabel Perez Vargas)

• University of North Carolina, Greensboro
• ecojones at uncg dot edu
• website: http://www.uncg.edu/ant/
• Interests: human behavior in extreme settings (migration/colonization, hazards,
  disasters, economic collapse, etc.), ecological anthropology, economic
  anthropology, Latin America
• About presentation: JONES, Eric C. (UNCG) and MURPHY, Arthur D. (UNCG). Why It Was This Way Here and That Way There: A Review Cross-Cultural Disaster Studies. Generally, social science cross-cultural disaster studies have focused on post-disaster mental health or social support. Mental health research tends to toward the impact on individuals of the trauma associated with an extreme event, while chronic hazards are under researched. Within the field of social support, two broad distinctions are useful: 1) the differentiation of formal from informal support, and 2) the consideration of both positive and negative social relations. Cross-cultural research on interventions considers the relative import of ethnicity, class, gender and age in each setting as diverse disaster responses are seen in some settings yet not in others.

Much unfortunately, the recording of the session did not turn out. Some of the participants have elected to re-record their presentations for the project and others have submitted electronic copies of their papers and power point slides. I want to apologize again to the participants of this panel and thank them for their cooperation!!

The participants (in order of their presentations) are:

Crysta Metcalf

• Principal Staff Anthropologist
  Social Media Research Lab, ARC
  Motorola Labs
  crysta dot metcalf at motorola dot com
• Metcalf’s Power Point

Tracey Meerwarth

• Aerotek

Margaret Szymanki & Luke Plurkowski

• Palo Alto Research Center

Sarita Seshagari (with Aman Sagar & Dhawal Joshi)

• Motorola Labs

Crysta Metcalf, Christine Miller, & Elaine Huang

• Motorola Labs, Wayne State University, & Motorola Labs (respectively)

Christina Wasson (discussant)

• Director, Online Master’s Program

• Department of Anthropology

• University of North Texas

• cwasson at unt dot edu
  

• Website

• User Experience Reading List

I have updated the schedule for the last three podcasts from the SfAA, if you are interested please visit it here.

Also, I am going to be working on the podcasts project for next year over the summer. So far, I have received some helpful comments and feedback. I’d like to invite you to share your comments, feedback and suggestions also if you have them. Feedback about what you liked this year (website, layout, timing, recordings) and what could be improved upon (I take criticism well, you won’t hurt my feelings) would be most helpful. You can leave such comments on the comments/feedback page or you can email them to me.

As a reminder, I will be looking for volunteers for next year (pre-conference, at conference, and post-conference) so if you are interested, email me or keep checking this site for updates.

(This podcast was taken down on August 1, 2007. As part of the pilot project, it was decided that the podcasts from the 67th Annual Meeting would be made available only for four months. Sorry for the inconvenience!)The participants (listed in the order of their presentaions) are:

Jacqueline Cattani (introduces the session)

• University of South Florida
• cattani at health dot usf dot edu
• Cattani Power Point Presentation

Geoff Kelley

• University of Georgia

David Casagrande

• Western Illinois University
• Personal website
• 
• bighouse404 at hotmail dot com
• Phone 309-298-1567
• David Casagrande is an assistant professor of environmental anthropology at
  Western Illinois University. His interests include human ecosystems, cultural transmission of ecological knowledge, ecological restoration thatexplicitly includes humans, urban ecology, environmental policy, and medicinal plants. He has conducted research in Venezuela, Mexico, and
  post-industrial cities in the USA.

Meredeth Gartin & Amber Wutich

• Arizona State University

Jacqueline Cattani

• University of South Florida

The SfAA sent out a short email yesterday to announce the passing of Robert Hackenberg.

In this email, there was also an announcement for the SfAA podcasts. Traffic to the site has dramatically increased in the last two days, and I believe it is because of the SfAA email.

For those of you that are visiting the site for the first time, I’d like to suggest a place to start. The “About Podcasts & Blogs” page (upper left hand corner) has information about what a “blog” is, what a “podcast” is, and how to get automatic notifications of new podcasts and blog posts (via email or RSS). There is also a link to an excellent video that explains what “RSS” is.

Links to the podcasts and blog posts that have already been published are available on the left hand side of the screen.

Also, feel free to leave comments/suggestions/feedback on the “comments/feedback” page!

(This podcast was taken down on August 1, 2007. As part of the pilot project, it was decided that the podcasts from the 67th Annual Meeting would be made available only for four months. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

This was a two part session, however only part I was recorded, as the second session was more of a discussion and we did not have the microphones to accommodate such a conversation (maybe next year!).

The participants (listed in order of presentation) are:

Dr. Alvin Wolfe (Introduces each speaker as well as the intro to the panel)

• University of South Florida

Lynn Deitrick

• Medical Anthropologist/Ethnographer
• Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network
• Deitrick Book Chapter (in press)

Michele Ogilvie

• University of South Florida Alumni

Elizabeth Bird & David Himmelgreen

• University of South Florida

Michael Angrosino (Discussant)

• University of South Florida

John Primo presented, however the audio portion of his presentation is not available.

• University of Georgia
• jprimo at uga dot edu
• john.primo at noaa dot gov

When I moved this blog and podcast site from the Google hosting over to the WordPress hosting, the site visit count started over (we had about 250 pre-conference). Since this site was launched on April 9, 2007 we’ve had over 1,200 visitors (and that does not count my visits~ which has probably been about 1000). You can view a map of the site visitors here. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case, but the number of site visitors on the map do not match the number of site visitors reported by WordPress; it could be in part because the “days” are not the same, the map’s starts at midnight and WordPress’ starts around 7 pm EST. With a little research, I’ve decided that WordPress is the more accurate reporting.

As you can see, site visits drop off during the weekend. I can also see the sites that are referring traffic to our site, so far the link on the SfAA website (Thanks Neil!), Savage Minds, Anthropologi.info, are sending a lot of traffic, but the most traffic is being sent from emails. So thank you to ALL of the bloggers and the folks that have helped to spread the word via email!

Also, don’t forget to check out the Buzz Around the Web page to see what folks are saying about the project. Feel free to leave a comment too.

One of the things that I have tried to keep in mind throughout this whole project is that the term “podcast” might not be familiar to everyone and that most people will not know what “RSS” is or the readers that serve as a home for the RSS feeds. In an effort to make this website accessible to everyone, I’ve set up an “about blogs & podcasts” page and set up easy ways to subscribe to this site’s RSS feed (via RSS and email notifications) so you, the reader, can enjoy automatic updates without having to check the site daily.

These are all confusing terms and are not the easiest of technologies to wrap your head around. BUT, there is now a video that makes these concepts much more understandable! Common Craft has created a fantastic, entertaining, educational, and short video that explains what RSS feeds are, how they work, and why you should use them. Watch the video here. (And feel free to email questions)

After you’ve watched the video and are convinced that a (RSS) reader is the way you would like to get updates about news and new blog posts, don’t forget to subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed. Also, stay informed about anthropology on the internet via blogs with your new RSS reader (After you have your reader, click on the xml button on the top right hand corner of the boxes on this page for any of the blogs that you want to “subscribe” to). There will be year-round updates on this website about the progress of the project for next year and updates about how to participate! Just think of how easy it would be to learn update these updates and opportunities if you did not have to check the website everyday.