e-Newsletter | February/March 2010 (pdf)

In This Issue

• Welcome by Elizabeth Nanas
• On Mary’s Mind by Mary Butler
• Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Change by Emily Altimare
• NAPA Bulletin Summaries: Fall 2009 and Spring 2010
• Anthropology News CFPs

Welcome to NAPA e-News

Living in Hong Kong for the year has been both challenging and exciting.  As many of you know, nothing truly prepares you for fieldwork and I must admit that I feel quite taken with the ups and downs, the joys and distress of my experience. But 2010 is The Year of the Tiger! All of the festivities have given me renewed energy and so many opportunities to learn about some similarities and differences between the ways we celebrate the New Year in Detroit’s “Mexicantown” and the ways Mainland and Hong Kong Chinese celebrate the Lunar New Year.  We all love any excuse to light off fireworks, spend time with family, and indulge in great food. Yet in Hong Kong, the formal celebrations last longer and I don’t know anyone who is spending time in front of the television watching football. Shops have been closed down and outdoor markets have opened to sell beautiful flowers and miniature orange trees.  I am so pleased that I brought home-grown Detroit-dollars to give away.

According to tradition, the powerful grace and brave-independent spirit of the Tiger protects the household from fire, thieves, and ghosts. At the same time, the Tiger often finds trouble in its tendency to take risks and live dangerously. The brave courage of the Tiger is bolstered by the perpetual search for excitement. The Tiger protects and charms, leads and performs, rebels and stands for justice. Contemplating the meaning of the Tiger has me thinking about our own traditions in the United States generally, and Detroit’s Mexicantown specifically. What is the meaning of our celebration? How do totemic identifications shape New Year rituals and traditions? How do we negotiate the work and labor in the context of celebration? What do our symbols, rituals, and practices communicate to us and to others?

I hope you’ll let me know if you have any thoughts or observations about celebratory rituals in the United States or elsewhere. I am particularly interested in the ways that celebration informs or adds-value to the practice of applied anthropology.

In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy this edition of NAPA’s e-News. We have several great volunteer opportunities for you so please contact us. This edition features a great article about fieldwork at General Motors by Emily Altimare as well as information on AnthroNews CFPs and the Fall 2009 & Spring 2010 NAPA Bulletins.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Kung Hei Fat Choy!

May you make lots of money! Happy New Year!

Elizabeth Nanas @

enanas@wayne.edu

On Mary’s Mind

Well, it’s wintertime everywhere.  I’m not sure what your problems may be, but here in the mid-Atlantic it has been the snowiest winter in memory.  At the high point I had 40 inches of snow in my yard.  The pond was frozen, the geese abandoned me, it was a depressing gray and white world.  In the midst of it all, there was an insane robin who was in complete denial of the whole thing.  Not a bad idea actually.

We all had a wonderful time at the AAA meeting in Philadelphia in December.  There were many NAPA events, including the Annual Business Meeting and the regular meeting of the NAPA Governing Council.  Especially productive was the “Stay Connected” Special Event in which many of us came together to talk about what you need from your organization and what we can do for you.  Events like this help the NAPA leadership to understand where we are reaching our constituency and where we might look for new ways to help.  I met many of you at this event and I kept a list of all who expressed an interest in becoming involved in NAPA’s work.  Stay tuned.

We have numerous volunteer opportunities in NAPA right now.  NAPA has committees for Communications (the Website among other things), Ethics, Local Practitioner Organizations, Membership, Mentoring, Organizational Relations (the Employer Expo), Program, Publications and Workshops.  We especially need people to work on the Communications Committee and on Organizational Relations.  However, all committees are eager for new people.  The names of committee chairs and the charters describing what their committees do will soon be up on the website.  For more information now, you may email me, maryobutler@verizon.net, and I will put you in touch with the chairperson of the committee you are interested in.

NAPA Special Interest Groups (SIGs) try to build community among practicing anthropologists working in specific employment sectors.  There are currently three SIGs: the Design Anthropology Interest Group, the Evaluation Anthropology Interest Group, and the Occupational Therapy Interest Group.  The Design Anthropology Interest group is gearing up for new activities under the leadership of Chris Miller.  The Evaluation Anthropology Interest Group, led by Eve Pinsker, will be working on developing sessions in Evaluation Anthropology at the 2010 American Evaluation Association Meeting San Antonio, Texas as well as the AAA meetings in New Orleans.  The Occupational Therapy Interest Group ran a highly successful field school for anthropology and Occupational Therapy in Antigua Guatemala during summer 2009 and will do so again in summer 2010.  Gelya Frank is the head of the OT SIG.  I urge you to take advantage of these interest groups if they are in areas of interest to you.

NAPA is working hard to improve and deepen the content of the website.  I have appointed a Task Force led by Ken Anderson to review the website and make recommendations for improvements.  NAPA has hired Mike Scroggins to help the Communications Committee develop content—news and job announcements—for the webpage.  I know that there have been some glitches in the startup of the new website.  I thank you all for your comments and your patience.  We are working on it.

Finally, as much as we would all like to go to the tropics right now, we have cancelled the NAPA Spring Governing Council meeting that was to be held in conjunction with the SfAA meeting in Merida, Mexico.  We are replacing this meeting with quarterly conference calls to discuss NAPA business with elected members of the GC, with program chairs, and with anyone else who is interested.  These calls—like all NAPA meetings—are open to all of you.  I will post announcements of them on the web page.  If you would like to call in, email me and I will send you dial in information.  The next GC meeting is as yet unscheduled but will be held in May.

Sincerely,

Mary Odell Butler, NAPA President

maryobutler@verizon.net

Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Change: Ethnographic Fieldwork in GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant

Emily Altimare

Michigan State University

In the winter of 2009 the future of General Motors (GM) looked bleak.  Having worked as an intern at GM’s Research and Development Center in Warren, MI for three consecutive summers under the mentorship of Elizabeth Briody I was both personally and professionally interested in what GM’s potential bankruptcy would mean.  After obtaining my master’s degree in Applied Anthropology from Northern Arizona University I decided to pursue my Ph.D. at Michigan State University (MSU).  MSU appealed to me for two main reasons.  First, it offered me the privilege to work with Marietta Baba, who focuses on organizational culture and who herself has completed research on GM.  Second, if I was in Michigan, dissertation research on an element of GM seemed promising.

With insecurity about GM’s future looming, Elizabeth suggested that I propose a research project to Randy Thayer—the plant manager of Lansing Delta Township (LDT) at that time.  LDT is one of GM’s most modern and impressive facilities, for which, great care and preparation went into the construction of the physical plant as well as the culture. I petitioned that anthropological investigation of the restructuring efforts offered an opportunity to learn directly from those most affected by the changes.  Field work and the cultural analyses resulting from it are designed to describe and subsequently explain cultural phenomena as those phenomena evolve through time.  Participants in the culture under study would reveal their beliefs, expectations, values, and behaviors in patterned ways; the patterns could then be examined for consistency and longevity.

In winter 2009, when my project began, LDT had weathered a number of recent challenges, including manpower replacement, work rules, team-build issues, issues with its Global Manufacturing System (GMS), a two-tier wage system, and outsourcing.  LDT also experienced a strike in April 2008.  In addition, LDT faced turmoil from ongoing uncertainty  about GM’s future as well as sweeping changes to be enacted to help keep the corporation viable (e.g., regionalization of plant management, two-tier wage systems).  These and other factors created and underscored the state of flux of the plant culture.

After receiving Randy’s permission to conduct my project at LDT, IRB approval, and my committee’s go ahead to collect pre-dissertation data I was allowed to being my fieldwork.  Initially, one of the greatest challenges, something my methods class did not explicitly cover, was feeling comfortable in an environment that was so foreign.  Despite being a brief twenty minute drive from MSU’s campus, the manufacturing environment felt other worldly—I had been naïve to think I would be exempt from some of the trials of fieldwork that one would anticipate when doing work abroad.  Additionally, I lacked a job on the line, and I often felt my comparative inactivity was as overt as someone doing pushups in the middle of a library.

Luckily, these types of challenges were not deal breakers.  To date my fieldwork—which is still in process—has been multifaceted.  I have been given the opportunity for participant observation on the plant floor of LDT.  This has included time spent in the body shop, paint shop, and general assembly.  I have completed and continue to conduct formal and informal interviews with both hourly and salaried individuals, and I have participated in countless activities at LDT such as new employee training.  As previously predicted the plant has been in a state of flux.  In particular, the last calendar year has included the following events for the corporation: loans from the Unites States government, corporate leadership changes, plant closures, product line changes, union concessions, bankruptcy, and finally emergence from bankruptcy.  At LDT some of the major changes that have occurred in addition to the large corporate events have included: transitioning from one shift to two with plans for a third shift in March of 2010, a regionalized plant management shared between LDT and the Lansing Grand River Plant, changes in production schedules, and tremendous changes in the workforce—in particular the transfer of nearly 500 employees from the now closed Springhill, TN, plant to LDT.  In addition, there have been changes to LDT’s plant management and the loss of many salaried positions.  My ongoing ethnographic fieldwork aims to document, analyze, and offer insight on the impact of these changes on the plant culture, the nature of work in a modern manufacturing plant, and the experience of a previously unimaginable event, bankruptcy, on a community that in many ways has been born and raised by GM.

• To discuss applied anthropology in transforming manufacturing settings, please feel welcome to contact Emily at altimare@gmail.com.

• If you have a fieldwork story to tell, please contact Elizabeth Nanas at enanas@wayne.edu.

NAPA Bulletin, Volume 32; Fall 2009

The Global Food Crisis: New Insights into an Age-old Problem

David Himmelgreen, Volume Editor

Satish Kedia, General Editor

The food riots and demonstrations that occurred in more than 50 countries in 2008 signaled the oncoming global economic recession. Skyrocketing food and fuel prices spurred on violence in poorer countries where there is no social safety net and in places impacted by food insecurity and malnutrition. Today, while the prices for some food staples have retracted some, the deepening economic recession poses a threat in wealthier nations including the United States and members of the European Union. The World Food Program (WFP) has cited the increase in world food prices as the biggest challenge in its 45-year history, calling the impact a “silent tsunami” that threatens to plunge millions into hunger. In this volume, practicing and applied anthropologists examine the current global food crisis in a variety of settings including Belize, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, and the United States. Further, they use a variety of theoretical orientations and methodological approaches to understand the chronic nature of food insecurity and the ways in which global food policies and economic restructuring have resulted in increasing food inequities across the globe. Throughout this volume, the authors make suggestions for combating the global food crisis through the application of anthropological principles and practices.

Upcoming NAPA Volume 33: Spring 2010

Intersections of Faith and Development in Local-Global Contexts

Keri Vacanti Brondo and Tara Hefferan, Volume Editors

Satish Kedia and David Himmelgreen, General Editors

Over the past three decades, neoliberal economic models have encouraged states to withdraw from the provision of social and development services. In response, non-governmental organizations have mushroomed to meet the needs and promote the interests of those living in poverty. While scholarship on NGOs has exploded in recent years, anthropological attention to organizations and initiatives grounded in and inspired by religious faith has been scant. Through a case study approach, papers in this NAPA Bulletin engage with a range of religious development initiatives in health and social service delivery in Latin America, Africa, and the United States. Authors consider four central questions in their work: 1) How do the actors involved in faith-based initiatives perceive these endeavors as spaces to negotiate and contest social and economic injustices?; 2) To what extent do the individuals involved in faith-based development see a linkage between the provision of social, medical, and economic support service and evangelism?; 3) How are faith-based models shaped by the specific cultural contexts in which they emerge and evolve?; and 4) What is the role of the anthropologist as practitioner within studies of faith-based development initiatives? In exploring such questions, the volume also hopes to spur additional ethnographic investigation into the complex worlds of faith-based organizations and an expanded awareness of the varied ways that anthropologists are connected with them.

Anthropology News CFPs on Anthropology Education and Disaster Relief

Topic: Anthropology Education (September 2010)
Proposal Deadline: March 25, 2010

Many have argued that we have reached a dramatic transitional moment in education with recent shifts in the global economic climate, developments in communication technologies, and fierce debate on education policy. What do these far-reaching changes mean for the future of anthropology education as it is conveyed and experienced in the classroom? We welcome proposals for In Focus commentaries, Teaching Strategies, Field Notes articles, photo essays, news stories and interviews that examine this topic from the perspectives of teachers, advisors, educational researchers, administrators and students.

Although this series focuses on the anthropology classroom itself, authors can examine the issue on a number of scales, from reflections on personal classroom experiences to critiques of broader educational trends and their impacts. Between these two sides of the spectrum, contributors might discuss the implications of specific recent initiatives, such as the Royal Anthropological Institute’s effort to promote pre-university anthropology education through a new Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, the creation of new anthropology programs (from IUPUI to the Smithsonian) emphasizing hands-on training and practice, or Michael Wesch’s use of YouTube in the classroom.

For complete CFP, see: http://aaanet.org/issues/anthronews/CFP-AnthroEducation.cfm

Topic: Disaster Relief and Recovery (October 2010)
Proposal Deadline: March 25, 2010

On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, killing over 200,000 people and leaving an estimated 1,000,000 homeless. AAA immediately began receiving inquiries from members seeking information on the status of colleagues in Haiti and how they might contribute to recovery efforts through providing expertise or funds to organizations such as Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health. This outpouring of concern and interest in providing assistance was far from unanticipated, given our members’ frequent engagement with human rights, public health and social justice issues, as well as the involvement of both practicing and academic anthropologists in short- and long-term disaster relief and recover efforts throughout the world.

For the October issue of Anthropology News, we seek proposals for In Focus commentaries, Teaching Strategies, Field Notes articles, photo essays, news stories and interviews on the topic of post-disaster relief and recovery, in Haiti and elsewhere across the globe. Have you been involved in such an initiative through research, advocacy, service provision or program assessment? Do you see opportunities where anthropologists might contribute more or differently to relief efforts, or where contributions are problematic? What types of expertise might anthropologists provide in responding to emergency situations and helping to sustain longer-term development efforts that might mitigate the impact of future disasters or improve quality of life and infrastructure on broader levels? How can work at former disaster sites and longer-term research with previously impacted populations inform present-day situations? We welcome article proposals addressing these themes and more.
Guidelines
To participate, email a 300-word abstract and 50-100-word biosketch to Anthropology News editor Dinah Winnick. Proposals for photo essays should also include five high resolution photographs (tiff or jpg), each with a caption and credit. Selected authors will be notified of their status in early April, and full articles —commentaries of 1000-1400 words or shorter pieces of other article types —will be due early May.
Proposal submission deadline: March 25, 2010
Early submissions are encouraged

NAPA’s e-Newsletter is edited by

Elizabeth Nanas. Ideas & submissions may be addressed to her at:

E-Mail: enanas@wayne.edu

Skype Phone: 313-915-4933

Skype Chat: enanas72

As announced at the Section Assembly meeting in Philadelphia, in an effort to facilitate the participation of and increase members’ access to international and community-based scholars at the AAA annual meetings, registration waivers will be made available to all 38 section members of the Section Assembly. The SAEC requests applications from sections to redeem these registration waivers for qualifying scholars they hope to bring to the 2010 AAA meeting, on 17-21 November, in New Orleans. Qualifying scholars need not be current AAA members and cannot hold employment in university-based anthropology departments nor work as practicing anthropologists in any of the discipline’s four main subfields (archaeology, sociocultural, biological, linguistic). Registration and membership fees will be waived for the qualifying scholar nominated by sections to receive this waiver. Sections and individual qualifying scholars are responsible for all other conference-associated costs.

Each section is qualified to receive one waiver on a “use it or loose it” basis. Unused or unallocated waivers will go back into a pool and a lottery held to redistribute them. If you wish or anticipate the need for a second waiver, please let us know when you submit your original request by including information for a second qualifying scholar and rank each scholar accordingly.

Procedure:

Sections should email SA Convenor Mary Gray <mLg@indiana.edu> with a description of the proposed 2010 section-organized session, name of the qualifying scholar nominated to receive the section’s waiver, and a short description of the nature of the scholar’s proposed meeting participation as well as her or his credentials and qualifications (i.e., non-anthropologist, community-based scholar, international scholar, etc).

Deadline: 1 March 2010 (extended to March 12)

Waivers are not transferable. Sections are encouraged to pool resources through co-sponsorships.

From Mary Odell Butler:

It’s a great time to be a practicing anthropologist. The opportunities
for us to contribute to the significant changes occurring in the US and
around the world have never been greater. As we approach the
AAA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, it’s time for all of us to think
of where NAPA has been, where we want to go in the coming year
and how we can begin to prepare for it. I really hope that you will
join us for all of the things that NAPA will be doing in Philadelphia.

NAPA has moved forward with some of the things that are part of
the NAPA Strategic Plan completed last year. One of the first things
we have addressed is the lack of guidance for anthropologists who
wish to build careers in practice—either at the entry level or at midcareer.
During 2009, Tom Greaves assembled a Task Force on
Mentoring to help improve services to anthropologists seeking to
enter practice. The Mentoring Task Force will tell us about what it
has found at the NAPA Governing Council meeting on December 3
and the NAPA Annual Business meeting on December 4.

The development of an ethics code for the future is a critically
important issue for NAPA and for practitioners generally. At the
2009 AAA Business meeting, the AAA Ethics Committee will present
the results of the comprehensive review of the Code of Ethics.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of a big practitioner presence at this meeting on Thursday, December 3 at 6:30pm (Program # 1-182). The position taken by the Association is crucial to the future of practitioners within AAA.

Click here for the full newsletter.

Click here to download the October 2009 e-Newsletter as a PDF:

http://practicinganthropology.org/files/2009/10/NAPAeNews_Sept2009.pdf

Due to requests, we are also offering the October 2009 e-Newsletter in plain text here:

e-Newsletter | October 2009

Welcome to Our NAPA e-Newsletter

In addition to welcoming you to our e-Newsletter, I first want to thank so many of you for your active engagement with NAPA through our LinkedIn Group, Twitter, and Facebook forums. We hope the dialogue continues and develops into something that will be of value to you and your work for years to come.

In this edition, I would like to call your attention to the article “Ethics in Online Fieldwork” by Brian Estes. This article is timely in its alignment with the current Anthropology News theme and the AAA focus on ethics within our discipline. I am also very pleased to introduce Barry Bainton through a new column, “Who’s Afraid of Practice.” This column will be an ongoing dialogue that will also continue on LinkedIn—where we hope you will join us in lively discussion.

Please note that I will be on a research fellowship in Hong Kong from now through July 2010. Please continue to contact me through my email, enanas@wayne.edu, through the NAPA LinkedIn Group, and through Skype as user: enanas72.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Nanas

NAPA e-Newsletter Editor

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IN THIS ISSUE

(1) Welcome, Elizabeth Nanas

(2) Ethics in Online Fieldwork, Brian Estes

(3) Volunteer Opportunities

(4) Who’s Afraid of Practice, Barry Bainton & Elizabeth Nanas

(5) Calls for Proposals

(6) Conference Announcements

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Ethics in Online Fieldwork
Brian Estes, MA

George Mason University and

Public Policy Associate, AAA[1]

In July 2008, the NAPA Governing Council aired concerns about reinstating language from the 1971 AAA Ethics Statement.  Among their concerns was the need for our ethical standards to “reflect the new ways that anthropologists work.”[2] With an increasing number of academic and practicing anthropologists conducting fieldwork online and incorporating information and communication technologies (ICTs) into their ethnographic toolkit, standards for ethical practice within virtual realms (e.g. social networking sites, listservs, online interest groups, blogs, virtual worlds, etc.) are becoming increasingly relevant to our discipline.

Although digital ethnographers must wrestle with the same ethical issues as their offline counterparts, those operating in virtual realms and using ICTs are often faced with a distinct set of challenges relating to privacy, data security, the temporality of “public” data, informed consent in quasi-public spaces, digitization of cultural heritage, risks to censored research participants, and the protection of one’s ‘virtual’ self (i.e. avatar), to name a few.  In order to adhere to the central tenets of the AAA’s 2009 Code of Ethics, anthropologists must carefully evaluate the ICTs they employ throughout the course of their research and the impact that their studies could have upon the “netizens” of virtual communities and worlds.

Several anthropologists have already joined the ranks of scholars evaluating the ethical implications of online fieldwork, and many can offer useful suggestions for responsible ethnographic work in virtual environments.  The Association for Internet Researchers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Online Ethics Center at the National Academy of Engineering provide resources that can help prepare anthropologists for online research.  The AAA could do much to build upon these resources and provide guidance for those both within and outside the discipline.

Notes

[1] Please note that these are my personal views and not those of the AAA or its Committee on Ethics.

[2] National Association for the Practice of Anthropology.  2008.  “NAPA Position on AAA Return to 1971 Ethics.” http://www.practicinganthropology.org/docs/reports/aaaethicsposition.pdf, accessed August 17, 2009.

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NAPA Needs Your Involvement!

Task Force on Mentoring

We need your ideas to build on the success of our mentoring program. To get involved, please contact the Chair of NAPA’s Mentoring Committee, Tom Greaves, greaves@bucknell.edu, or NAPA President, Mary Odell Butler, maryobutler@verizon.net.

Membership Committee

To help us develop recommendations and actions for the Membership Committee, contact NAPA’s Membership Committee Chair, Micki Iris, at: miris@northwestern.edu.

NAPA e-Newsletter Articles, Ideas, Announcements

We need your involvement to make our e-Newsletter even more informative and engaging. Please contact Elizabeth Nanas at enanas@wayne.edu or through Skype as user: enanas72.

LinkedIn

Join us on NAPA’s LinkedIn Goup at http://www.linkedin.com/to meet colleagues, start a discussion of particular interest to you, and engage with a diverse group of practicing anthropologists.

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Who’s Afraid of Practice?
Barry Bainton, Ph.D., B. R. Bainton Associates

Elizabeth Nanas, M.Ed., Wayne State U. & Hong Kong U. of Science and Technology

This new section will feature discussions about the meaning of “practicing anthropology.” The title of this section plays with the notion of practicing anthropology as a big bad wolf and as a location where intimate dramas and scholarly plots have been played out in both private and public contests over who and what belongs as anthropology. I hope that you will provide me with feedback regarding your own experiences, perspectives, and concerns regarding the notion of practice across time and space. We are pleased to begin our discussion with Barry Bainton who has been a central figure to our LinkedIn dialogues regarding the notion of a philosophical split between basic/academic and applied/incorporated anthropology.

Barry: Hi, Elizabeth. What got you interested in the question, What is applied anthropology?

Elizabeth:   The most vivid memory I have of “basic versus applied” anthropology came from a conversation at the 2005 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting where I met  a doctoral student housed at a top ranked university.  As our pleasant discussion progressed, I noted that I was studying cultural anthropology with dual concentrations in medical anthropology and business organizational anthropology.

Barry:  That’s an interesting combination especially as we are debating a national health care system reform. How did she respond?

Elizabeth:  At that point, everything about the conversation changed—it felt like the lights became a little more dim, like there was a suspicious and unwanted gaze thrust upon me, like the person I had been talking to had just vanished leaving a specter of her image for me to contend with. She told me that she was a traditional anthropologist and then proceeded to tell me about her negative perceptions of anthropologists who are aligned with business ventures. I asked her if she considered the Academy a business and the conversation ended.

Barry:  I am not surprised. We have been having that discussion for more than half century.  Anthropologists, such as Elliot Chapple, Conrad Arensberg,  and Solon Kimball from the Human Relations school of thought  in the 1940/1950 period were engaged in “applied” work that contributed significantly to both the academic and practical growth of anthropology. Yet, to me this is one key to the lost history that holds anthropology back.

Elizabeth:  This was my first experience with anyone who held the position that there was a distinction between “basic” and “applied” anthropology. And since this time, I have had many opportunities to participate in and observe some of the ways that we, as anthropologists, think with these problematic terms and hastily-constructed borders.

Barry:  Back in the 1970’s when we formed SOPA (Society of Professional Anthropologist), the discipline was confronting a demographic and philosophic crisis, not very different from today: Too many students and graduates in anthropology and too few traditional academic or museum positions. Government and the private sectors looked attractive as an alternative employment venue for many ABDs and MAs in anthropology. The trouble was the profession was not training students for these sectors. This became the focus of my dissertation.

Elizabeth:  My training has been at an institution where professors do not seem to make much of a distinction between anything other than the four fields of anthropology. I have often been surprised to find that there are those who self-identify as “traditional” verses “applied” anthropologists.  My position is that we are all practicing anthropology so long as we are engaged with the literature and methods of our discipline. Furthermore, I don’t believe that anyone can dissociate themselves from application.

Barry:  You have a good point. The very fact that anthropologists publish their findings means that they are applying their research to promote themselves within the academy and the discipline. Further, if the anthropologist doesn’t use it for some practical end, you can bet someone else will.

Elizabeth:  Anthropology may appear to be a lone venture, but like any discipline ours is a flowing complex of people, innovations, and ideas. For me, the question is not about “basic” versus “applied,” but rather one about our roles within clusters of participants—and this also then implies that there are anthropologists who are not participating in the professional organizations.

Barry: I think this is what we should be exploring: ways to connect these two functionally-constructed branches, “academic/basic” and “practicing/applied” in the NAPA LinkedIn site and here in the Newsletter. Academic anthropology needs input of real problems from the applied world and the applied world needs the development of theory and methods to solve those problems.

Elizabeth:  And we all need to see how permeable our totemic identifications with one or the other are. I envision an examination of our  discipline’s social network and think this would likely reveal that the only boundaries between us are those that we have constructed to assert ourselves for various strategic reasons. As the AAA increasingly takes into account the diverse kinds of anthropologies being practiced, I hope that we become better equipped to see our interrelation rather than fragmentation.             For more on our conversation, join us at NAPA’s LinkedIn Discussion Group. We look forward to continuing this discussion and beginning new discussion in this e-Newsletter as well.

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Calls for News, Proposals, and Ideas

NAPA is seeking contributions for our bi-monthly e-Newsletter. Submission Deadline: November 5, 2009. For the November/December 2009 NAPA e-Newsletter that will supplement the Anthropology News focus: (1) Aging and the Life Course, and (2) The Future(s) of Anthropology.  

Anthropology News Addresses Repatriation: Submit Your 300-Word Article Proposal by November 16, 2009. In recognition of the 20^th anniversary of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Anthropology News seeks contributions for a thematic issue on repatriation, broadly conceived. The full CFP is available at www.aaanet.org/issues/anthronews/CFP-Repatriation.cfm .

AAA is pleased to announce the launch of “Public Anthropology Reviews,” a new review section in American Anthropologist. Public Anthropology Reviews will highlight anthropological work principally aimed at non-academic audiences, including websites, blogs, white papers, journalistic articles, briefing reports, online videos, and multimedia presentations. The editors will also consider other traditional and innovative mechanisms for communicating anthropological research and concepts outside of academic realms and welcome suggestions. Please note that this review section will complement existing review sections and will therefore not review books, films or museum exhibits.

We are now accepting submissions for materials to be reviewed in the June 2010 issue of AA. Please send materials for review, ideas for review essays and inquiries to the review editors:  Melissa Checker (CUNY Queens C), Alaka Wali (Field Museum) and David Vine (American U) at publicanthreviews@gmail.com

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Upcoming Conference Announcements

If you have conference announcements, please contact Elizabeth Nanas at enanas@wayne.edu

For a continuously updated list of meetings, please visit the AAA’s “Other Meetings” link at: http://aaanet.org/meetings/meetings_cal.cfm

American Anthropological Association

Philadelphia, PA USA, December 2 – 6, 2009. For details, see: http://aaanet.org/meetings/

The End/s of Anthropology

What is the relevance of anthropology in today’s world?  Where does our discipline stand in the age of hyper-science and the genome; during an era in which ethnography – as a method and form of textured representation – is being mobilized with vigor and confidence by those working in other disciplinary formations; at a moment when the questions we’re asking are also being answered by others in the humanities, social sciences, and media (and often with much more popular recognition)? Does anthropology still provide a unique contribution? What are its contemporary goals, and are they different from those of previous intellectual generations?

The 2009 meetings of the American Anthropological Association will provide a critical space to tackle these scholarly, theoretical, and political concerns head-on as we examine our academic and public roles in relation to the most pressing problems confronting our world today. We intentionally offer the double entendre of “ends” (as both conclusions and purposes) in order to focus attention on anthropology’s changing relationships to other disciplines and to a variety of publics. Perhaps thinking collectively about our traditional subjects, objects, and projects would allow us to find new sources of energy for anthropological work. We hope to generate serious conversation about these issues as we continue to reinvent anthropology for this new millennium.

Society for Applied Anthropology

Merida, Mexico, March 24-27, 2010. For details, see: http://sfaa.net/sfaa2010.html

Theme: Vulnerabilities and Exclusion in Globalization

Globalization is changing the context in which we work, the people we work with and the way in which applied researchers and practitioners address real world problems.  The 70th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Mérida, México will bring attention to the growing challenges facing applied practitioners in the 21st century, especially the effects of globalization on the peoples we work with resulting in higher levels of exclusion of vulnerable populations. How do these factors impact applied practice and social science research? Participants are encouraged to submit presentations, roundtables and workshops around this theme.

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NAPA’s e-Newsletter is edited by

Elizabeth Nanas. Ideas & submissions may be addressed to her through:

E-Mail: enanas@wayne.edu

Skype: enanas72

Skype Phone: 313-915-4933