My name is Justin Myrick and I have just recently joined the SfAA Podcast team. I want to tell you a little about the podcast project, and what the this project means to me and ultimately what it provides for students, professors, researchers and practitioners in any field who see the potential for their work to be put into “action.”
Quickly, this project is a student ran effort to record and digitize selected speakers at the SfAA conferences annual meetings. The team then posts the sessions as mp3s on the internet at our website (www.sfaapodcasts.net) absolutely for free to the public. People (anyone) can download the podcasts and get rich material on current research and hear about exciting applied approaches to doing anthropology and other multi and interdisciplinary work. More information can be found by exploring our website.
I am going to explain the importance of this podcast project by telling you how I came across the project and the reasons that lead me to look for such a thing. It was late one night, I had done a lot of reading and I was thinking of how could I get my anthropological literature on audio so that I could listen to it during my commute on the train. Then I was thinking, “I wonder if there is any supplemental material on the internet…say an anthropology podstcast of some kind? And how interesting and useful that could be. So I began searching several keywords trying to find anthropology podcasts, and I found very few—mostly AAA news podcasts and the like. Then I came across the SfAA Podcast website and there was a blog posted titled “How are you using the podcasts?” And I thought, how great is this, here are people who are spearheading a project, recording professionals speaking at conferences and they are asking feedback from their listeners trying to make this podcast the most effective tool and resource it could be. And that is what it is, a really good, easy access, easily consumed resource. This is a great resource for students who are uncertain about career goals, about research opportunities and most importantly about the value of applied approaches in the sciences, especially anthropology. This podcast project makes it easy for those who cannot attend academic conferences to get an idea about applied anthropology and to hear from speakers who are talking about their work doing applied anthropology, showing the broad range of possibilities in the field.
The SfAA Podcast project is among those at the forefront in the trend to creatively expand academic resources and it is through people who are creatively thinking about how to make those resources widely and easily available that creative people like you can use these resources productively. I am sure that in the future will be seeing the use of podcasting throughout the disciplines to provide even more democratically available resource. And another note about its usefulness, for those of you who are the subjects and topics of many research projects, this is a direct way to review those projects you participated in, and now you have an archive online which you can review and quite possibly make that project or another more democratic, I mean participating directly in the research, with your own questions—I am referring to participatory research and action research.
Take care and I hope to hear from you about any comments or ideas for our little podcast project here, Ooh, and spread the word about us, we’re free!
Justin Myrick
P.S. This is a relatively new project, and if you access the archives you will notice that the sound quality of the podcasts is not the greatest. Well, now the SfAA Podcasts are fully sponsored by the Department of Anthropology at UNT, so we got more money because of the potential recognized in this project and the sound quality will improve immensely this year—in other words, don’t worry it’ll sound good. So, help support us and subscribe through itunes or click on the RSS button on our site.
CHAIRS: Carla Guerrón-Montero (U Delaware) and Philip D. Young (U Oregon)
Session Abstract
These two sessions, organized by Carla Guerrón-Montero and the Consortium of Practicing and Applied Anthropology Programs (COPAA), featured practitioners and academics who have contributed to NAPA Bulletin No. 29 (2008). Participants in these two sessions discussed, from a variety of perspectives, the theoretical and practical skills that anthropology students should develop during the course of their studies to prepare themselves for careers in applied anthropology, whether as full-time practitioners or as applied anthropologists within academia. Speakers also provided specific advice to undergraduate and graduate students on the benefits and challenges of careers in applied anthropology, in both the national and the international arenas.
NOTE: All of the papers presented in sessions I and II were condensed versions of papers that will be published in NAPA Bulletin 29. Not all of the authors of the papers in NAPA Bulletin 29 were able to participate in these sessions. The NAPA volume consists of twelve essays by fourteen academics and practitioners. It provides specific experience-based advice to students on the benefits and challenges of careers in applied anthropology in the national and international arenas
Please see the end of this post for a wonderful summary of important points made in both part I and Part II of these sessions.
Below is a list of the speakers in the order of their presentation as well as their paper abstracts as found in the 2008 SfAA Annual Meeting program. Note that as the session chair, Phil Young introduces each speaker. I’d like to thank Phil Young and the speakers for providing such a great description of the session and for submitting additional information to compliment this post and the audio.
Shirley J. Fiske (Consultant, U Maryland)
Careers in Anthropology: Federal Government
The federal government is arguably the largest employer of anthropologists outside of academia. The career opportunities are diverse, and range from careers in international development and assistance where the anthropologist is stationed overseas to domestic federal agencies that review the performance federally funded programs at the request of Congress. This paper discusses trends in federal careers and the diversity in employment by offering a detailed account of career opportunities for anthropologists in the federal government and well as describing those opportunities in agencies with a critical mass of anthropologists.
Barbara Pillsbury (Int’l Hlth & Dev Assoc)
Anthropologists in Executive Leadership
Executive leadership is about managing and inspiring others to achieve goals greater than what can be accomplished through individual work. Leadership can be learned – and typically is learned over time. This essay features the careers of three anthropologists who came into executive positions of increasing responsibility. It assesses rewards and losses that occur along the way and discusses ways anthropology assists in executive leadership, emphasizing that leadership is seeing yourself as someone who mobilizes and empowers others. Finally the chapter summarizes advice to anthropologists interested in executive careers. The context is primarily the world of international development assistance.
Creating Your Own Consulting Business: Small Business Start-up and Operating the Small Business
This paper acquaints the budding professional with the basics of starting and operating a small business based on the skills, educational background, and experience of a professional anthropologist. One practitioner focused on grant-writing, research and community development in the United States, the other on ethnographic applied research, policy research, strategic planning and group facilitation in the United States and internationally. While their projects differed in domain, location and type, they all 1) were grounded in anthropology, 2) focused on facilitating social change, 3) relied on a flexible toolkit developed over time, and 4) were successfully implemented through good consultant practices.
Gisele Maynard-Tucker (UC-Los Angeles)
Becoming a Consultant Power Point
This paper aims at giving students some advice for entering the world of development. In doing so, I will discuss the necessary skills required, such as a background in research, along with the knowledge of foreign and native languages, and how to get fieldwork experience. I will also give some advice about contacting development agencies and preparing for overseas work and will comment about what to expect while working in developing countries in the field of public health. Apart from giving counsel, I have attempted to show that being a consultant is a great opportunity to learn more about the human race and that the job is full of challenges and rewards.
Important points made by presenters and in the discussion that followed Parts I and II
• Internships and field schools are an important part of the training of applied anthropologists. Two varieties of field school designed specifically to train applied anthropologists were discussed: service learning and the country team concept. In service learning the student works with an agency in the field to design and implement a program that will be of benefit to local communities. The country team concept involves a field team usually consisting of a government or military organization and an NGO, who design and implement a training program that benefits the students while also contributing to humanitarian field activities. To illustrate the latter, segments were shown from a video that documented a field school in Romania designed to train people to set up refugee camps under hostile conditions.
• Students wishing to engage in applied research and practice from an academic base need to carefully formulate a strategy for career advancement early on. The academy remains conservative and much applied work counts for little or nothing at many universities when promotion and tenure time comes around.
• Collaborative research practice presents a special opportunity for students to move beyond counterproductive debates about public anthropology and engage in applied, publicly oriented work in many different ways. Students wishing to engage in collaborative research should become familiar with the broad range of such approaches, choose their methods with care, prepare for intense time (and other) commitments, expect project expansion, and start early, but proceed with caution. Not all academic environments are open to collaborative research approaches.
• Federal careers in anthropology have increased from 1973-2007 to over 1,000 jobs in the anthropology and archaeology series, a consistent long-term increase.
• Federal jobs include regional jobs outside Washington, DC, international jobs, and they increasingly include jobs contracted by the government, so that anthropologists are increasingly working in consulting firms or as independent contractors.
• There is a good chance that you will be hired in a specialty or job category (for example, social scientist, policy analyst, or agricultural specialist, especially if the job is international) that is somewhat outside of anthropology.
• Consequently you will need an area of specialization that becomes your calling card – your expertise in addition to anthropology – to get you in the door.
• Being hired is recognition that you have something in your tool kit that is useful. Stay alert for possibilities and opportunities even if it is a “stretch” to use your perspectives, theory, and concepts.
• Excellent free advice on all business and legal aspects of starting and operating a consulting business are found at www.entrepreneur.com and www.nolo.com.
• Good consultant practice give clients project results clearly written with recommendations that are doable and timely.
• Consulting fees are often negotiable and can be a daily rate plus expenses or a flat fee per project. Check rates on the USAID web site. Check the IRS web site for current lodging and mileage rates.
• Being an independent international consultant requires mastering the skills of applied anthropology, having a strong research background and field experience, fluency in two or more languages (your native language and at least one other) and having a marketable skill in addition to anthropology, such as nutrition, administration, agronomy, or public health.
• Benefits include being able to choose the country of work and the assignment.
• Employers want people with experience. Agencies prefer those with broad experience who are able to adapt and perform in different situations. Acquiring numerous field experiences in various contexts and cultures will empower you and will facilitate your contract negotiations with international development agencies and firms.
• Good consultants must have the ability to mediate among donor organizations, offices in charge of project administration, and local government offices and to articulate their sometimes varying goals and expectations into recommendations that will improve the lives of the intended beneficiaries.
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.
CHAIRS: Carla Guerrón-Montero (U Delaware) and Philip D. Young (U Oregon)
Session Abstract
These two sessions, organized by Carla Guerrón-Montero and the Consortium of Practicing and Applied Anthropology Programs (COPAA), featured practitioners and academics who have contributed to NAPA Bulletin No. 29 (2008). Participants in these two sessions discussed, from a variety of perspectives, the theoretical and practical skills that anthropology students should develop during the course of their studies to prepare themselves for careers in applied anthropology, whether as full-time practitioners or as applied anthropologists within academia. Speakers also provided specific advice to undergraduate and graduate students on the benefits and challenges of careers in applied anthropology, in both the national and the international arenas.
NOTE: All of the papers presented in sessions I and II were condensed versions of papers that will be published in NAPA Bulletin 29. Not all of the authors of the papers in NAPA Bulletin 29 were able to participate in these sessions. The NAPA volume consists of twelve essays by fourteen academics and practitioners. It provides specific experience-based advice to students on the benefits and challenges of careers in applied anthropology in the national and international arenas
Please see the end of this post for a wonderful summary of important points made in both part I and Part II of these sessions.
Below is a list of the speakers in the order of their presentation as well as their paper abstracts as found in the 2008 SfAA Annual Meeting program. Note that as the session chair, Phil Young introduces each speaker. I’d like to thank Phil Young for providing such a great description of the session and for submitting additional information to compliment this post and the audio!
Peter Van Arsdale (U Denver)
Learning Applied Anthropology in Field Schools: Lessons from Bosnia and Romania
The service learning concept places responsibility on the sponsoring university and the student, in concert with an agency in the field, to devise and implement a program of service that will benefit local communities. By contrast, the country team concept places responsibility upon a field team, which usually consists of an NGO and military or government organization, to devise and implement a training program to benefit the student while contributing to humanitarian field activities. Both broadly engage “applied anthropology.” Slides from field schools in both countries will be included.
A link to the video played in this presentation will be uploaded in the next few days.Please note that the audio from when the video was presented has been cut out of the podcast. Van Arsdale played the video about 13 m 50 s into the presentation and noted that the ammunition being used in the simulation was live mock ammunition.
Practicing Anthropology from Within the Academy: Combining Careers
In this paper, I use my own career as a lens through which to view the challenges of combining an academic career with that of a (part-time) practitioner of applied anthropology. My main focus is on the particular variety of practice known as international development. Based mostly on my own experiences both in and outside of academia, but with occasional references to what I know of the experiences of academic colleagues who have also done applied work, I offer advice to students who want an academic job and would also like to do applied anthropology of one sort or another.
Luke Lassiter (Marshall U)
Moving Past Public Anthropology and Doing Collaborative research
In recent years, “public anthropology” has become one of the many labels used to describe a growing and ever-more ubiquitous concern with anthropological relevance, public engagement, and action. While there is little agreement about just what exactly “public anthropology” is, it nevertheless has come to have many different and overlapping meanings. This paper is about moving past these debates and engaging how students can realize public engagement via collaborative research. I begin with a brief statement about moving past public anthropology, follow this with discussion of collaborative ethnography and public engagement, and suggest some general advice for doing collaborative research.
Important points made by presenters and in the discussion that followed Parts I and II
• Internships and field schools are an important part of the training of applied anthropologists. Two varieties of field school designed specifically to train applied anthropologists were discussed: service learning and the country team concept. In service learning the student works with an agency in the field to design and implement a program that will be of benefit to local communities. The country team concept involves a field team usually consisting of a government or military organization and an NGO, who design and implement a training program that benefits the students while also contributing to humanitarian field activities. To illustrate the latter, segments were shown from a video that documented a field school in Romania designed to train people to set up refugee camps under hostile conditions.
• Students wishing to engage in applied research and practice from an academic base need to carefully formulate a strategy for career advancement early on. The academy remains conservative and much applied work counts for little or nothing at many universities when promotion and tenure time comes around.
• Collaborative research practice presents a special opportunity for students to move beyond counterproductive debates about public anthropology and engage in applied, publicly oriented work in many different ways. Students wishing to engage in collaborative research should become familiar with the broad range of such approaches, choose their methods with care, prepare for intense time (and other) commitments, expect project expansion, and start early, but proceed with caution. Not all academic environments are open to collaborative research approaches.
• Federal careers in anthropology have increased from 1973-2007 to over 1,000 jobs in the anthropology and archaeology series, a consistent long-term increase.
• Federal jobs include regional jobs outside Washington, DC, international jobs, and they increasingly include jobs contracted by the government, so that anthropologists are increasingly working in consulting firms or as independent contractors.
• There is a good chance that you will be hired in a specialty or job category (for example, social scientist, policy analyst, or agricultural specialist, especially if the job is international) that is somewhat outside of anthropology.
• Consequently you will need an area of specialization that becomes your calling card – your expertise in addition to anthropology – to get you in the door.
• Being hired is recognition that you have something in your tool kit that is useful. Stay alert for possibilities and opportunities even if it is a “stretch” to use your perspectives, theory, and concepts.
• Excellent free advice on all business and legal aspects of starting and operating a consulting business are found at www.entrepreneur.com and www.nolo.com.
• Good consultant practice give clients project results clearly written with recommendations that are doable and timely.
• Consulting fees are often negotiable and can be a daily rate plus expenses or a flat fee per project. Check rates on the USAID web site. Check the IRS web site for current lodging and mileage rates.
• Being an independent international consultant requires mastering the skills of applied anthropology, having a strong research background and field experience, fluency in two or more languages (your native language and at least one other) and having a marketable skill in addition to anthropology, such as nutrition, administration, agronomy, or public health.
• Benefits include being able to choose the country of work and the assignment.
• Employers want people with experience. Agencies prefer those with broad experience who are able to adapt and perform in different situations. Acquiring numerous field experiences in various contexts and cultures will empower you and will facilitate your contract negotiations with international development agencies and firms.
• Good consultants must have the ability to mediate among donor organizations, offices in charge of project administration, and local government offices and to articulate their sometimes varying goals and expectations into recommendations that will improve the lives of the intended beneficiaries.
Session took place in Memphis, TN at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2008.
We’re beginning our 2008 round of podcasts! I’d like to thank Russell Willems for doing the audio editing!
Below is a list of the speakers in the order of their presentation as well as their paper abstracts as found in the 2008 SfAA Annual Meeting program. Note that as the session chair, Kedia introduces each speaker.
CHAIR: Satish Kedia (U Memphis)
Presidential Plenary Session in Honor of John van Willigen:
The Art and Science of Applied Anthropology in the 21st Century.
Anthropology has historically represented a bridge between the arts and sciences in explorations of human cultures. Anthropologists’ seamless blending of humanity and scientific rigor to address contemporary public issues to meet the needs of the larger community, both globally and locally, pushes us to the forefronts of engaged scholarship. As our discipline evolves and adapts to continual changes in the cultures and institutions around the world, the work of applied anthropologists becomes even more critical in transforming their knowledge into meaningful practices. This session will respond to some of these issues and provide frameworks for the future direction of applied anthropology and its practitioners in the 21st century. The plenary session will include an open forum and a reception in honor of John van Willigen.
Susan Andreatta (U NC-Greensboro)
Marietta L. Baba (Michigan State U)
Truth and Reconciliation: Acknowledging Mutual Theory-Practice Exchanges in an Era of Anthropological Engagement
The history of anthropology reveals the relevance of larger contexts to theory-practice relations. Practice has played a leading role in periods of economic and political turbulence in nations around the world. Periods of theoretical development often are related to, or follow on from, engagement in the larger world, whether this is acknowledged or not. The present era of uncertainty is one that challenges theoretical structures to respond to rapid changes in our contexts; engagement, not only criticism, is an ethical responsibility and a requirement for learning. This paper acknowledges the historical and current exchanges of theory and practice, and explores ways to reconcile these crucial forms of inquiry with new intellectual approaches that can encourage synergy between them.
Erve Chambers (U Maryland)
Applied Ethnography, Part Two
Nothing in anthropology brings us closer to bridging the artfulness of our profession and the scientific rigor of our discipline than does the melding of those processes that underlie the production of ethnography and the conceptualization of culture. How are ethnography and culture transformed as we learn to situate both as processes in which we participate rather than as properties that we declare? How are the practice of ethnography and the declaration of culture affected by our relationships with research clients, our obligations to the subjects of our inquiries, and our engagement with what we perceive to be a greater public good?
