National Association for the Practice of Anthropology

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

[ Download the entire December issue! ]

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.

In this April/May 2009 Newsletter:

1. Welcome  (Elizabeth Nanas)
2. On Mary’s Mind (Mary Odell Butler)
3. NAPA Occupational Therapy Special Interest Group Update (Amy Paul-Ward, Gelya Frank)
4. Designing an Anthropology Career (Sherylyn H. Briller, Amy Goldmacher)
5. Volunteer Opportunities
6. News from the Program Chair (Carol Hafford)
7. Conference Announcements
8. NAPA Student Achievement Award
9. WAPA 2009 Praxis Award CFP

This issue marks the beginning of a newly designed Newsletter that includes regular features and also provides fresh opportunities for NAPA members to engage in conversations that contribute not only to professional development, but that also cross boundaries to challenge the borders of practicing anthropologies.

We understand that too much content can become an unwelcome chore, and we will strive to create a balance between expanding our Newsletter while maintaining a reasonable product that does not overwhelm. Your ideas and feedback will be essential in negotiating this balance.

Over the next year, we will experiment with new columns and we seek your contributions in shaping this mediated production.

The NAPA e-Newsletter will continue to be published bi-monthly and sent to you through a link that may be downloaded through http://www.practicinganthropology.org/. Regular columns will include Mary Odell-Butler’s “On Mary’s Mind,” AAA-related news

and announcements, a Local Practitioner Organization highlight, a product or book review, and announcement of events and conferences. If you represent an LPO, have a product or book you would like to review, or know of any upcoming events that would be of interest to our readers, please do not hesitate to contact me at: napaenews@gmail.com.

I hope that you will enjoy the new design and the expanded content of this Newsletter. I look forward to providing you with a resource that is timely, of interest, and useful to your applied projects.

NAPA’s e-Newsletter is edited by Elizabeth Nanas. Ideas & submissions may be addressed to her at:

Wayne State University

College of Engineering – IME

4815 Fourth Street, Room 2033

Detroit, MI 48202

Phone: 313-205-8595 (cell/text) E-Mail: napaenews@gmail.com

As you read this issue, please consider its strengths and opportunities for

improvement. Do you love it? Do you hate it? I hope to hear from you regarding your ideas, rants, and raves. With your involvement, we can transform our e-Newsletter and our section into a quality production that will enhance our practice and push the boundaries of our discipline. I look forward to working with you all in developing this vision.

Sincerely, Elizabeth Nanas NAPA e-News Editor

On Mary’s Mind

Having survived my first Governing Council Meeting as President of NAPA, I returned from Santa Fe with much to share about my experience. The SfAA meeting was well-attended considering the economic challenges we are all facing—within our professional organizations and within the Academy. It is always invigorating to have the privilege of taking part in so many activities—the stimulating discussions, the parties, the old and new friends, the restaurants, the city, the sunshine. When I got back to Washington, it was winter and I was reminded of the day-to-day work of developing and promoting our section.

As always, our General Council Meeting experienced minor glitches and these complications certainly helped me think about the opportunities and challenges ahead. Often taken for granted, food service was not made available at our meeting site and our ever-faithful Council would have likely passed out had it not been for the attention of

SfAA’s Executive Director, Tom May. Adding to our troubles, we couldn’t figure out how to get the conference phone

to stay on the line and electrical problems posed an obstacle to the use of laptops—a necessary tool that has become a staple of planning, organization, and strategy. And, of course, there was too much on the agenda …nothing like one’s first ever GC Meeting as President to keep one humble. Nevertheless, I am encouraged by the energy of our GC. Of particular importance, we adopted a new format for the Governing Council Meeting with longer discussions of issues that are important for us rather than reporting on what we have already done. This brought up many new directions for NAPA’s development as well as innovative opportunities for NAPA as a whole in terms of mentoring, increasing our membership, and encouraging new voices within our leadership.

As one of the large number of us who had little help in figuring out how to become a practitioner, I think that mentoring is one of the most important things we do. It’s hard to figure out a lot of the job skills we need when we’re still in school. NAPA needs to provide continuous mentoring to new professionals while establishing good referral and on-line services to undergraduate anthropology students and the general public. I will be appointing a Task Force on Mentoring to be headed by Tom Greaves to build ideas for our mentor program. Interested? Let me know: maryobutler@verizon.net

We brainstormed ways to increase our membership by offering special kinds of membership to special kinds of

people. We talked about special rates for unemployed anthropologists, part-time anthropologists, retired

anthropologists and those who already belong to other AAA sections. We thought of ways to get the message out about what we do and to be more attractive to new members by improving our services to them. The Membership Committee, led by Micki Iris, will be developing recommendations for the GC and Business Meetings to be held in Philadelphia. Got ideas? Contact Micki at miris@northwestern.edu

My own history has led me to choose leadership development as my personal project for my presidency. I became a

practitioner when I was denied tenure in an academic department. I was angry at “anthropology” and stayed away from the Academy for eight years until Ed Liebow, my colleague at Battelle, dragged me back to the AAA meetings. I was fairly doubtful about this involvement at first, but then I started to make friends in a new kind of anthropology— an anthropology with stakeholders who I could identify with and with whom I could share experiences, ideas, and visioning. A couple of years later, I asked someone what I should do to become more involved. “Volunteer for something,” she said. So I did. And I have never been lonely or bored at meetings again.

In the next year and a half, I would like all of us who are part of NAPA to reach out to enlarge the group of NAPA members who are part of the leadership. I will be approaching some of you directly, but I don’t know everyone. If you’ve ever thought in the rosy glow of meeting time that you would like to be more involved, this is the time. Volunteer for something. NAPA needs you. And, I promise you won’t regret it.

In the meantime, enjoy the springtime. Be back in June. Until Next Time,

Mary Odell Butler, NAPA President

2

Update from NAPA-Occupational Therapy Special

Interest Group: Linkages and Bridges

Amy Paul-Ward, Ph.D., MSOT, Florida International University

Gelya Frank, Ph.D., University of Southern California

The Occupational Therapy & Occupational Science

Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group was organized in 2006 as a part of the American Anthropological Association, National Association for the Practice of Anthropology. The NAPA-OT SIG includes individuals from a wide range of disciplines interested in issues related to health, well-being, disability, social justice, occupation, participation, and rehabilitation. “Occupation” refers to meaningful and purposeful activity related to health and well-

being across the lifespan, for individuals, families, communities and populations.

One of the primary objectives of the NAPA-OT SIG is to build alliances and collaborations between anthropology and occupational therapy and occupational science. An area of particular interest to the group is exploring the feasibility of developing interdisciplinary and cross-training programs in occupational therapy and anthropology. A special theme issue of Practicing Anthropology 30 (3) (Summer 2008), edited by NAPA-OT SIG members Pamela Block, Gelya Frank and Ruth Zemke, focused on “Anthropology/Occupational Therapy/Disability Studies: Collaborations and Prospects.” Contributors included Pamela Block and Eva Rodriguez, Rachel Thibeault and Michèle Hébert, Yda J. Smith and Sarah Munro, Margaret A. Perkinson, Devva Kasnitz and others.

Building linkages will be furthered by the NAPA-OT Field School in Antigua, Guatemala, project that will launch this summer (http://www.proyectovision.net/images/NAPA-OT-Flyer.pdf). The goal of the six-week field school (July 6-August

14, 2009) is to provide a setting where anthropologists and occupational therapists can study, practice and learn together in

an international setting focusing on social justice. The field school will partner with the NGO Common Hope (www.commonhope.org) and its curriculum will allow students to engage in research and/or hands-on practice in local institutional contexts focused on child development, provision of services to older adults, and community based disability studies/disability rights.

In the area of cross-training, several NAPA-OT SIG members are exploring the feasibility of graduate-level training programs to enable doctoral students in anthropology to pursue clinical degrees in occupational therapy as part of their studies. This undertaking is significant in that there are currently more occupational therapy faculty positions than qualified individuals to fill them. Both anthropology and occupational therapy are holistic in their approaches to understanding human experience. Moreover many anthropologists are already actively engaging in meaningful research issues that are fundamental to occupational science and occupational therapy (e.g., phenomenological accounts of the disability experience, socioeconomic, political and cultural influences of occupation and well being, etc).

Our short term goal is to develop awareness and institutional links or programs to bring Ph.D. and MA level anthropologists into

occupational therapy to fill faculty roles and develop new forms of practice that are already emerging. Some of the topics

with ongoing collaborations include:

• How disability affected and is affected by gender;

• Sexuality of persons with disability and cultural norms;

• Clinical processes that hinder or facilitate cooperation;

• Intersection of technology and accessibility;

• Limits of clinical measurement instruments to capture occupational change;

• What may be defined as ‘success’ in occupation;

• Intersections of ethnography or ‘thick description’ of clinical practices;

• Organization of rehabilitation services that respect familial, cultural and spiritual dimensions of being;

• Social policy implications of empirical studies;

• Migration, refugee status and dis-abling immigration policies of states.

At the recent Society for Applied Anthropology Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, members of our group organized and

presented 12 sessions on issues related to Occupational Therapy, Occupational Science, Anthropology, and Disability Studies. See program (www.sfaa.net) for titles, presenters and affiliations. Among the non-clinically oriented sessions was a double panel on Indigenous Partnerships in a Global Setting: Public Archaeology, Cultural Resource Management, Sustainable Tourism, and Occupational Science,” organized by archaeologist and Chair of Native American Studies, Joe E. Watkins (U Oklahoma; Japan-based archaeologists Mark Hudson (U West Kyushu) and Hirofumi KATO (U Hokkaido); and anthropologist and occupational scientist Gelya Frank. The session included, among others, a paper on occupation-based tourism in Cape Town, South Africa, by Frank Kronenberg and a discussion by Dikaios Sakellariou. Both are occupational therapy activists and co-editors of the ground-breaking books: Occupational Therapy without Borders (Elsevier, 2006) and

A Political Practice of Occupational Therapy (Elsevier, 2008).

(www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/716364/description#description).

The growing number of sessions at SfAA is fostering meaningful and intellectually-driven conversations among members in the United States and Canada and abroad. During the annual business meeting at SfAA, new officers Amy Paul-Ward (Florida International University) and Jyothi Gupta (College of St. Catherine) were selected to serve as Co-chairs for a two-year term. Special thanks to Founding Co-chairs

Gelya Frank (U Southern California) and Karen Barney (Saint Louis U)

for establishing and guiding the group for its first two years.

Gelya Frank (gfrank@usc.edu) continues as Director of the NAPA-OT Field School and as NAPA-OT SIG Program Chair to assist and mentor organizers of sessions for upcoming conferences at SfAA. She has been invited to give a plenary lecture on Occupational Science at the

upcoming special conference, “Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of Interdisciplinarity” at Yale University, New Haven, CT, September 24-27, 2009 (www.yale.edu/macmillan/smaconference). Other plenary speakers include Paul Farmer, Didier Fassin, Arthur Klenman, Lynn Morgan, Emily Martin, Annemarie Mol, Margaret Lock, Barbara Koenig, Merrill Singer, Rayna Rapp, Richard Parker and Lawrence Cohen.

Margaret Perkinson (Saint Louis U) will serve as the liaison between the NAPA-OT SIG and the NAPA Governing Council. Devva Kasnitz (U California, Berkeley) will oversee the development and maintenance of a moderated listserve to facilitate communication among the membership (NAPAOTOS@YAHOOGROUPS.COM). To join, send an email to devva@earthlink.net.

4

Envisioning and Re-envisioning an Anthropology Career Over Time

Sherylyn H. Briller, Ph.D., Wayne State University

Amy Goldmacher, Ph.D.c., Wayne State University

Developing and furthering one’s career can be exciting, challenging and, at times, intimidating. We would like to introduce our new book entitled Designing an Anthropology Career: Professional Development Exercises,

to the practitioner community as a resource for anthropological career development at any level.

The book is divided into two sections: Part I establishes a framework for continually thinking about how to design a career in anthropology or other related fields. Part II contains a series of professional development

exercises to help anthropologists at various career stages articulate their

personal and professional histories, unique abilities, and career goals. Each customizable exercise is followed by an example to provide models for anthropologists to complete their own exercises. The exercises are the tools to choose the best next steps in their careers and to imagine an evolving anthropology career as a lifetime endeavor.

While this book was originally conceived to be used by students, the

exercises have been field-tested by practitioners and found to have utility for them as well. The book’s approach relies on the concept of the life course and applies it to careers. Using the life course concept makes this book relevant to anthropological practitioners who may be constantly rethinking and re-envisioning their own careers as they respond to the demands of the changing workplace in general and particularly in this economic climate. The life course is a powerful concept for thinking about the culture-specific ways in which the stages, activities, and transitions in individuals’ lives and the social lives of groups occur. Practitioners are well aware that the overall nature of 21st century work life is changing. People are working longer, and in more settings than ever before, and are not necessarily retiring. Trends such as less job security, underemployment, more competition, and more career changes over time have resulted in a need to rethink what work means to people over their life courses (Gamst 1995). A significant perk of a non-linear career path, such as many anthropologists have, is that it may provide greater flexibility to navigate and make changes in direction. This aspect can indeed be critical in having a fulfilling work life over time.

Whether you are a seasoned practitioner or a student graduating with an anthropology degree, there is an art to taking a series of seemingly unrelated jobs and experiences and creating a coherent anthropological career out of an eclectic background. Although we know from firsthand experience that doing this is possible, it will require you to highlight for potential employers how your prior skills and broad background will be a significant advantage in their particular work situation. Successful anthropological practitioners do this already, and we recommend consistently rethinking and re-envisioning an anthropological career over time. The exercises in our book are a way to do this.

We use the metaphor of weaving to illustrate the concept of bringing together the variety of skills and experiences in one’s background to create a coherent career story. Through the exercises in the book, you will weave together the threads of your background and create a beautiful tapestry out of it, however large or small it may be. This tapestry with all its intricate and different threads is your masterpiece, and you should be proud of how you have woven it together over time. It may not have been created in a linear or orderly fashion; it may include sections that you ripped out and rewove into a different pattern. The important thing to recognize is that there is a pattern in the entirety of your discrete experiences, and the tapestry that is created out of the various strands of your experience is how you demonstrate your abilities for the next work opportunity.

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Further, we draw on the networks and communities of anthropologists who have blazed career trails and done what might have seemed unusual or impossible before, entering new realms where this type of hire was never previously considered. These exercises help create strategies for oneself and others to find those who have created a career path similar to what you want to do. Connecting with others and hearing their stories about how they got their jobs and created their careers can be very insightful at any stage of career development (e.g., Guerron-Montero 2008, Wasson

2006.)

We believe this book is a valuable resource for practitioners who work across disciplinary boundaries, who mentor or provide career counseling and development, those who teach in anthropology or liberal arts disciplines at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and of course, students. We invite your comments.

The book can be found at Amazon.com at  http://tinyurl.com/c25eoc, at the publisher’s website at http://tinyurl.com/d4te36, and at other retail outlets.

References

Gamst, F. C. 1995. “Considerations of Work,” in Meanings of Work: Considerations for the Twenty-First Century. Edited by F. C. Gamst, pp. 1-45. Albany: State University of New York press.

Guerron-Montero, C. Editor. 2008. Careers in Applied Anthropology: Advice from Practitioners and Academics. Vol. 29: National

Association for the Practice of Anthropology.

Wasson, C. Editor. 2006. Making History at the Frontier: Women Creating Careers as Practicing Anthropologists. Vol. 26: National

Association for the Practice of Anthropology.

NAPA Needs Your Involvement!

Do you have ideas to build on the success of our mentoring program? Please join our Task Force on Mentoring by contacting NAPA President, Mary Odell Butler at:  maryobutler@verizon.net.

The NAPA section of the AAA needs to expand our membership in order to receive additional invited sessions at the AAA meetings. To help us develop recommendations and actions for the Membership Committee, contact NAPA’s Membership Committee Chair, Micki Iris at:  miris@northwestern.edu.

We need your involvement to grow NAPA and to ensure that we will develop future leaders and visionaries to champion the practice of anthropology.

We also need your contributions to develop this Newsletter. Do you have a story or an idea to share with us that will help your colleagues in their practice? Have you read a book, subscribed to a journal or magazine, or used a product that has enhanced your work? Do you know about a conference or an event that we should publicize? Let us know what you’d like to see here by sending Elizabeth Nanas an email at:  NAPAeNews@gmail.com.

Picture cropped and altered from “We Want You” by Caia Dominicus. Source:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/caido89/281254496/

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News from the Program Chair

Carol Hafford, Ph.D., James Bell Associates

The full program for the 2009 AAA Meeting in Philadelphia is currently under development, but we do have some news to share about the Invited Sessions. NAPA is very pleased to be co-sponsoring two timely and practice-oriented sessions, and will also feature an Invited Roundtable. In the coming months, NAPA will select another Invited

Session based on the volunteered abstracts, as well as recommend additional panels and papers for inclusion. We are looking forward to developing the full program and thank all those who have submitted abstracts for NAPA to review. Here’s a brief look at what’s planned so far:

Teaming with the Society for Medical Anthropology, NAPA will co-sponsor “The Lived Experience of Health Research Ethics: Negotiation of Guidelines into Practice.” This session, organized by Margaret Perkinson of St. Louis University and the NAPA-Occupational Therapy Field School in Guatemala, will explore the process of negotiation of research ethics guidelines into everyday practice. This occurs amidst a mix of players who differ in discipline, language, ethnicity/nationality, power, and/ or priorities. Applied/ medical anthropologists who study a wide variety of ethically-contested health-related topics and vulnerable populations in both U.S. and international settings will discuss their experiences with and resolutions of issues such as informed consent, confidentiality, and protection of research data. The session will provide an opportunity for dialogue to identify problematic issues and articulate a working code of ethics that is amenable to the world of practice.

Along with Central States Anthropological Society, NAPA will co-sponsor “The End/s of an Era in Detroit: Refiguring Anthropological Research and Training in a 21st Century Post Industrial Urban Context. The session addresses the Presidential theme regarding “The End/s of Anthropology,” and speaks to the imperative of reframing anthropological training and research in a world of global flows of peoples, artifacts, and representations. As aptly noted by the session organizer, Sherylyn Briller of Wayne State University, the majority of anthropology graduates work outside of academia, and will likely continue to do so in the future. What does this mean in terms of student preparation and training to be engaged in the institutions and activities of the contemporary world, for the field as a whole, as well as in specific local contexts? The panel will consider current anthropological training in the Detroit region, a post-industrial urban setting, where the effects of the global economic crisis are particularly salient.

NAPA rounds out the program with an Invited Roundtable discussion on “Innovation and the Anthropology of the Future,” organized by Christine Miller of the Savannah College of Art and Design and Julia Gluesing of Wayne State University. This session will continue a dialogue begun at previous meetings regarding innovation and change related to applied anthropology in a variety of organizational contexts. The discussants will explore approaches, both theoretical and methodological, to investigating collective action and the nature of organizing in communities of different kinds (public, private, formal, informal, business, scientific, religious, etc.) that are linked and mediated by technologies.

Upcoming Conference Announcements

Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference

Chicago, IL USA, August 30 – September 2, 2009. For details, see:  http://www.epic2009.com/

International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

University of Athens, Greece, July 8 – 11, 2009. For details, see:  http://i09.cg-conference.com/

Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of Interdisciplinarity

Yale U, New Haven, CT USA, September 24 – 27, 2009. For details, see:  http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/smaconference/

American Anthropological Association

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

•      On Mary’s Mind (Mary Odell Butler)

•      CFP AAA 2009: The End/s of Anthropology (Carol Hafford)

•      AAA 2008 NAPA Meeting Notes (Mary Odell Butler)

•      AAA Task Force Contacts

•      AAA 2008: Professional Ethics (Mary Odell Butler)

•      CFP Anthropology News: Work-Life Balance (Dinah Winnick)

•      SfAA 2009: Global Challenge, Local Action

•      Social Sciences Conference

•      EPIC 2009 Preview

•      CFP NAPA Student Paper Competition

UNAPA’s e-NewsletterU       is edited by Elizabeth Nanas. Ideas & submissions may be addressed to her @ Wayne State University

College of Engineering – IME

4815 Fourth Street, 2033

Detroit, MI 48202

313-205-8595 | Uenanas@wayne.eduU

On Mary’s Mind

This column is my opportunity to talk about what’s happening with NAPA, important actions that affect practitioners within the AAA, and upcoming opportunities for you to become more engaged in the activities that shape all of our careers as practitioners.

As is undoubtedly the case with all new Presidents, I have a vision of what I would like to see happen during my two years in this office. Most especially, I would like to see NAPA improve our service to you whatever you are doing professionally– whether you are practicing outside of the academy, teaching practitioners within the academy, are students curious about opportunities for practice, or any of the many, many ways in which our membership engages with the world. I would like to raise NAPA’s profile within AAA and in the communities of practitioners that make up our constituency by building partnerships with other sections and by becoming as visible as we can in the Anthropology Newsletter, in other publications and at AAA Annual meetings. I would like to see us reach out to new members not only to increase our numbers but to bring in the experience and understanding of an even

wider range of practitioners. I would like to see more and better leadership development for our members.

Ambitious? You bet. Feasible? Perhaps. These things will happen because NAPA members mobilize to do them. We need you to help. Email me, email the committee chairs, cruise the NAPA web page. We’ll find a place for you to do what interests you. And stay tuned for the results.

Until next time,

Mary Odell Butler, NAPA President

AAA 2009: The End/s of Anthropology

Carol Hafford

Invited Sessions NAPA is inviting members to submit proposals for Invited Sessions at the 2009 AAA Meeting in Philadelphia. The theme for this year’s meeting is “The End/s of Anthropology” and the central question to be explored is the relevance of anthropology in today’s world. Practitioners are well- poised to address this question and explore issues of relativism and cultural criticism, identity and power, and engagement of various publics in the dissemination of anthropological knowledge. Please send your proposals to Carol Hafford, NAPA Program Coordinator, at Uhafford@jbassoc.comU      for consideration by NAPA. The submission deadline is March 1st.

Volunteered Papers NAPA invites all members to submit individually volunteered proposals for papers and posters at the 2009 AAA meeting in Philadelphia. All proposals must be submitted online to the AAA by April 1st.

When you submit your abstract, please Ucheck the option that allows for NAPA to review your session(s)U. NAPA has 225 invited minutes—about 2.25 (100 minute sessions).

For additional information, see the AAA Call for Papers at Uhttp://www.aaanet.org/meetingsU.

Important Dates – 2009 AAA Meeting

•      January 1st: AAA CFP published in AN

•      February 1st: Online Submission opens

•      March 1st: Deadline for Public Policy Forums

•      April 1st- 5PM EST : All proposals are due

•      August 10: Program decisions emailed to participants

•      August 15: Advance and workshop registration opens

•      September: Preliminary program, which contains registration hotel information is published in

the AN and posted online

•      October 15: Advance Registration closes, last day to request all refunds

AAA 2008: NAPA Meeting Notes

Mary Odell Butler

The 2008 meeting of the American Anthropological Association was a very productive one for NAPA. New NAPA officers were installed at the NAPA business meeting on November 22. Mary Odell Butler took over as NAPA President with Tim Wallace beginning his two-year term as President-elect. Other incoming officers include John Massad, Treasurer; Sabrina Scott, Member-at-Large; and Khalfani Ture, Student Representative.

The NAPA strategic plan for 2009-2011 was finalized at a planning meeting on November 20, 2008—the culmination of a year-long planning process guided by a group of NAPA members. The strategic plan focuses on three goal areas: to transform the way the discipline looks at itself so that issues of practice are part of the mainstream of anthropological discourse; to advance anthropology in practice to the wider world by highlighting the contributions of anthropology in practice to business, government and society; and, to enhance the careers of practicing anthropologists. Each of these goal areas has an action plan linked to the responsibilities of NAPA committees. After approval by the NAPA Governing Council, the

final strategic plan will be forwarded to NAPA committee chairs for implementation and posted on the

NAPA website.

AAA 2008 Business Meeting: Professional Ethics

Mary Odell Butler

I departed from San Francisco for a three-week sojourn in Australia. I dove the Great Barrier Reef, ate kangaroo and was overwhelmed by the magic of the Red Center. I came back ready to go and was immediately faced with several issues. Last January, the debate within AAA around professional ethics was the big one. At its 2007 meeting in Washington DC, the AAA Executive Board ruled that the language on the Find/Post Jobs web page of the NAPA website is out of line with AAA policies. We revised the language on the web page to be consistent with the language used by AAA on their jobs web page.

The issue of professional ethics affects practitioners profoundly since many of us work in contexts in which dissemination of our results is limited by the needs of our clients or by the very sensitive nature of some of the work that we undertake. A heated debate on this issue can be expected to continue through the next few years. It is critical that as many of us as possible are in the room when votes are being taken on this issue at the AAA annual Business Meetings. At the 2008 AAA Business Meeting, a motion that could adversely impact practitioners was very narrowly defeated. If we wish our positions to be part of deliberations of the wider community of anthropology, we must be there to inform them and to insist

that they do so.

The AAA Executive Board appointed a Task Force with strong practitioner representation to revisit the entire AAA Code of Ethics over the next two years. In the meantime, a ballot was sent to the AAA membership in mid-January calling for a vote to approve or disapprove an interim revision to the AAA Code of Ethics. The revision acknowledges some of the concerns that the NAPA Governing Council communicated to the AAA Executive Board in June 2008 stating that there are circumstances in which it is ethical to restrict disclosure of research results to protect communities and their cultural and intellectual property.

AAA Task Force Contact Information

The AAA seeks member opinions and suggestions during the AAA Code of Ethics review. Please feel welcome to contact any member of the taskforce with questions or concerns about (or suggestions for) this process. The AAA staff liason is Damon Dozier. You may contact him at Uddozier@aaanet.orgU. You may contact the AAA Task Force Members for the AAA Ethics Review at:

Alec Barker                                              Ubarkeraw@missouri.eduU

Charles Briggs                                        Uclbriggs@berkeley.eduU

David Price                                              Udprice@stmartin.eduU Dhooleka Raj                                                                   Udhooleka.raj@googlemail.comU Niel Tashima                                                                   Untashima@ltgassociates.comU

AN Call for Proposals: Work-Life Balance

Dinah Winnick

Maintaining a balance between work and other aspects of life—including family, home, community and outside interests—can be challenging for both academic and practicing anthropologists. Some cite inflexible educational or professional infrastructures or the challenges of doing local anthropology as barriers to maintaining a healthy and comfortable work–life balance.

In September 2008 AAA introduced an ongoing commentary series addressing these challenges, as well as strategies developed to meet them. We welcome proposals for future commentaries on this topic.

To participate in this thematic series, email a 300 word proposal and 50-100 word author bio to Anthropology News editor Dinah Winnick at Udwinnick@aaanet.orgU. Selected writers will be invited to contribute a 1000-1400 word commentary.

Society for Applied Anthropology 2009

Global Challenge, Local Action: Ethical Engagement, Partnerships, and

Practice

Santa Fe, New Mexico

69th Annual Meeting   March 17 – 21, 2009

The NAPA Governing Meeting will take place on Friday, March 20, 10:00am-2:00pm at Kiva (Hotel

Santa Fe).

NAPA’s special interest group on Occupational Therapy will hold a workshop at SfAA on: Developing Cross-Cultural Anthropology, Occupational Therapy, and Disability Studies Field Schools, Friday, March 20, 10:00-11:50am.

All workshop registrations are due by March 10. Please visit Uwww.sfaa.netU       for meeting and workshop registration as well as general meeting information.

International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

University of Athens, Greece

July 8 – 11, 2009

The Conference will address interdisciplinary practices across the social sciences, and between the social sciences and the natural sciences, applied sciences and the professions. Participants are welcome to

submit a presentation proposal in several formats. For those unable to attend the Conference in person, virtual participation is also available. Please visit Uhttp://i09.cg-conference.com/U    for more information.

Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference

Chicago, IL USA

August 30 – September 2, 2009

The Conference theme is Taking Care of Business: Having an Impact and Staying Relevant. Further meeting details will be made available the middle of February at Uwww.epic2009.comU.

National Association for the Practice of Anthropology

NAPA STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2009

PURPOSE: The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology offers the Annual Student Achievement Award to recognize student contributions in the area of practicing and applied anthropology. The Award recognizes students who have excelled in these fields and provides opportunities, particularly for students who have worked on team projects and in applied contexts, to be recognized during the AAA annual meeting and see their work published.

AWARDS:

(1) Three cash prizes—$300 1st Place, $100 1st Runner Up, and $50 Second Runner Up—will be awarded. (2) All three winning papers will go through peer review, and be considered for publication, by NAPA. (3) Students will be awarded a certificate of recognition and will be acknowledged at the NAPA Business

Meeting during the annual AAA meetings.

ELIGIBILITY: Students must be enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate degree program at the time they submit their paper. Submission must be original work of publishable quality. The work may be undertaken alone or in collaboration with others, but for papers with one or more co-authors, an enrolled student must be the paper’s first author.

REQUIREMENTS AND CRITERIA: Papers must be no more than 25 pages in text and endnotes, but excluding bibliography and any supporting materials. Papers should conform to author guidelines of the American Anthropologist. Papers must be a product of work relevant to practicing and applied anthropology, including, but not limited to: examinations of community impact, contributions to identifying and improving local/service needs, or communicating anthropological theory and methods to non-anthropologists in collaborative research settings including non-profit agencies, communities and business and industrial organizations.

PAPERS WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:

§       Clearly state the problem or issue being investigated, while also acknowledging divergent or alternative views of the problem or issue.

§       Clearly state the practical implications of the research for addressing or understanding real-world

problems, resulting in recommendations, appropriate solutions or outcomes.

§       Be mechanically sound, including strong grammatical writing, proper formatting, and appropriate citations and bibliography. Papers should be double-spaced 12 pt. font.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCESS: Deadline for submission is July 1. Papers must be received by this date and should be submitted by email to the NAPA Student Representative, Kalfani Ture, at Uture_k@yahoo.comU      and copy Ustudentrep@practicinganthropology.orgU.