We need your vote! NAPA members nominated for AAA positions
The American Anthropological Association is holding ballots for several positions. The NAPA Governing Council (GC) would like to ask each and every one of you to please take a few minutes to vote. It really does not take more than a few minutes to vote and each vote really makes a difference. According to the AAA only an average of 17% of the AAA membership votes which means it doesn’t take much to elect a AAA president. This year we’re proud to have Shirley Fiske, a well-experienced practitioner, running for that position- wouldn’t it be awesome to have an applied anthropologist as AAA President? We also have many other NAPA members and applied anthropologists that are in the running (we’ve included a few SfAA anthropologists too). The candidates cannot campaign so the NAPA GC put this list together. Please, please vote and please send this post to all of your colleagues that are AAA members. Thank you! Voting closes May 31, 2011 5:00 PM EST – but please don’t wait until the last minute.
NAPA Members Who Are Nominees for AAA Elected Office
For President-Elect
SHIRLEY J FISKE (PhD, Stanford University, 1975) Positions Held: Research Professor, University of Maryland (2011-), Adjunct Professor (2006-2010), senior legislative staff for energy and the environment, U.S. Senate, Office of Senator Akaka (2000-2007), Program Director Marine Extension, Marine Policy, Education, Social Science, National Sea Grant Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (1986-2000), Senior Policy Analyst, NOAA (1984-1986), Assistant Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Southern California (1975-1982), Education Coordinator, Los Angeles Indian Center (1971-1973). Member AAA since 1972, Chair of CoPAPIA (2007-2010), AAA Executive Board, practicing seat (1997-1999), AAA Secretary (1994-1997), NAPA President (1990-1992). Interests and/or Activities: Environmental and natural resource anthropology, human dimensions of climate change, political ecology, policy/applied anthropology. Significant Publications: The Changing Face of Anthropology: Anthropology Masters Reflect on Education, Careers, and Professional Organizations. AAA/CoPAPIA Anthropology MA Career Survey. Arlington, VA: AAA, with Linda A. Bennett, Patricia Ensworth, Terry Redding, and Keri Brondo, 2010. “Global Change Policymaking from Inside the Beltway: Engaging Anthropology,” Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions, Susan A. Crate and Mark Nuttall, eds. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2009. Anthropological Praxis: Translating Knowledge into Action, co-edited with Robert M. Wulff, Boulder, CO: Westview Press 1987.
In these uncertain times we need a strong and unified professional organization that builds on the many strengths and insights from each of our fields of endeavor. We are faced with the challenges of a contracting economy, federal deficits, and state budget shortfalls that threaten institutions of higher learning and research capabilities. More than ever we need to articulate the important and valuable insights from anthropology–as educators, critical analysts, researchers, and public citizens—to help meet challenges domestically and globally.
As an anthropologist, I have over 35 years experience in teaching, research, policy, and public engagement. I bring a unique combination of skills and experience to AAA leadership and can be an effective convener and advocate to enhance our collective voice and public knowledge profile. The discipline has been changing for decades, as many more anthropologists—both within universities and outside—extend critical analyses into contemporary public issues, whether human rights, food scarcity, or the regressive effects of climate change. I have broad-based experience in AAA leadership, having served as committee chair of CoPAPIA, as a member of the Executive Board in two different offices—as Secretary and as the first elected practitioner/applied sear—and as president of NAPA. These experiences have prepared me to work enthusiastically and collaboratively across anthropology to ensure that we continue to have an essential role in scholarship, research, and public knowledge.
For Executive Board
DAVID HIMMELGREEN (PhD, University of Buffalo, 1994) Positions Held: Associate Professor (2005-Pres) University of South Florida (2005-Pres); Assistant Professor (2001-2005) University of South Florida; Visiting Assistant Professor (1998-2001) University of South Florida; Associate Director of Research (1996-1998) Hispanic Health Council; Research Scientist (1994-1996) Hispanic Health Council; Interests and/or Activities: nutrition, HIV/AIDS, food security; Significant Publications: The Global Food Crisis: New Insights into an Age-Old Problem, NAPA Bulletin, 32, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009; Addressing the HIV/AIDS-Food Insecurity Syndemic in Sub-Saharan Africa (with Nancy Romero Daza, PhD, David Turkon, Ph.D., Sharon Watson, MA, Ipolto Okello-Uma, Ph.D., and Daniel Sellen, Ph.D.) , African Journal of AIDS Research, 8 (4): 40-412; The Longer You Stay, The Bigger You Get: Length of Time in the U.S. and Language are Associated with Obesity in Puerto Rican Women (with Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Ph.D., Dina Martinez, MA/MPH, Brian Eells, BA, Yukuei Peng, MS, Angela Bermúdez, MS), American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 125: 90-96, 2004.
As a biological anthropologist conducting basic and applied research, I appreciate the need to break down the divide that often separates the disciplinary sub-fields. To that end, I make a concerted effort to train students to incorporate theory and methods from the whole of anthropology while also learning their specialty. Although challenging, I believe that this approach is key to the discipline’s contribution to finding solutions to pressing global problems. In light of the recent discussion by AAA members regarding our mission statement, more needs to be done to bridge the gap that separates the sub-fields. I have previous administrative experience in the AAA, the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), and my university that make me ideally suited for this position. I served as the President for the Council on Nutritional Anthropology (now SAFN), the program chair for the BAS, and a co-program chair for the 2007 SfAA annual meetings. I served as the graduate director and acting chair (one semester) for my department, and more recently was elected to the university faculty senate. Currently, I hold two editorial positions: associate editor of Ecology of Food and Nutrition and general editor (with Satish Kedia) of the Annals of Anthropological Practice (formerly known the NAPA Bulletin).
For AAA Nominations Committee
MARY BUTLER (PhD, Temple University, 1978) Positions Held: Consultant (2007-present); Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, University of Maryland (2007-present); Senior Scientist (1988-2007) Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation; Director, Arlington Office, (1995-2003) Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation; Assistant Professor of Anthropology, (1976-1984) Virginia Commonwealth University; Interests and Activities: Past-president, National Association for the Practice of Anthropology 2010-2012; AAA Section Assembly Executive Committee. 2009-2012; AAA Nominations Committee, 2003-2005;. Significant Publications: An Anthropologist Looks at Global Localities and the Management of Infectious Disease. In Anthropology in Action, Christina Wasson, Mary Odell Butler, and Jacqueline Copeland-Carson (eds.) In press; Random Walk in Making History at the Frontier, in Women Creating Careers as Practicing Anthropologists, Christina Wasson, editor, NAPA Bulletin 25, 2006; Creating Evaluation Anthropology: Defining an Emerging Sub-Field, Co-editor with Jacqueline Copeland-Carson), NAPA Bulletin 24, 2005;
My perspective on the needs of the AAA Nominations Committee has deepened considerably in the time since I last served on this committee. As I have assumed several leadership positions in AAA, I have come to see that leadership capacity does not simply emerge from the crowd. It has to be cultivated. AAA’s future depends on the skill with which we identify, recruit and mentor leadership in the Association to reflect diverse scholarly interests and varied experiences with anthropology and anthropologists. Experience working with the Association provides a perspective on the development of issues as well as what solutions have worked in the past. However, it is equally important to continually push out beyond what we know to bring in early- and mid-career anthropologists with new ideas. This facilitates constructive change and reinforces the dynamism of AAA in the face of changing conditions that confront us every day, In building slates for AAA offices, we must choose nominees in such a way as to ensure broad representation and a pool of leadership for the future. If elected to the AAA Nominations Committee, I will bring this perspective to its deliberations.
Committee on Gender Equity
ELIZABETH NICOLE NANAS (MEd, Wayne State University, 2003) Positions Held: Graduate Teaching Assistant (2010-Present) Wayne State University Department of Anthropology; Dow Chemical Hong Kong Scholar (2009-2010) Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellow (2006-2009) Wayne State University; Graduate Teaching/Research Assistant (2006-2009) Wayne State University Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Engineering Management Masters Program; Sex Workers Outreach Project-Detroit (2004-Present) Executive Director; Interests and/or Activities: Science and the production of knowledge, presented paper at the 109th Annual Conference of the American Anthropological Association and at the Internationalizing Higher Education Conference, Guangzhou, China; Scholarly production of research about sex work and sex workers, 2010 Desiree Alliance Conference Academic Track Chair (2009-2010); Queer civil and political rights, American Friends Service Committee LGBT-MI Strategic Planning Chair (2004-2006); Significant Publications: Report to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights 2010 (with Best Practices Policy Project, Washington D.C.), Best Practice Policy Project et. al.; Means and Ends of Practicing Anthropology, Anthropology News 50(3):47; Review of Notes From Toyota-Land: An Engineer in Japan, Anthropology of Work 30(1):22-24.
My experiences with multiple marginal positions within the informal economy and my diverse professional/scholarly experiences motivate my scholarship, service work, and vision for anthropology’s future. For the last seventeen years I have been a determined activist seeking civil and political rights for sex workers and queer communities. As a categorical and symbolic system, the “science” of gender, sex, and sexuality communicates critical limitations of instrumental rationality where difference and ideological configurations, deeply embedded within history, politics, economics, and social contexts, have worked to create and maintain a particular order that profoundly impacts the ways that we all create and experience meaning. My fieldwork among Hong Kong-based biomedical scientists motivated me to think more critically about these issues and to begin developing a “science from below” practice of anthropology. As NAPA prepares to launch our new website, I have been honored to further develop my vision of bridging seemingly disparate sections of the AAA by bringing our sections into conversation regarding our identities, especially where there appears to be an ambiguous tension between “traditional” and “practicing” anthropologists. Critically interrogating this tension and our identifications is vital to our discipline overall and specifically to addressing gender equity in anthropology and beyond.
Committee on Gender Equity
KERI VACANTI BRONDO (PhD, Michigan State University, 2006) Positions Held: Assistant Professor, University of Memphis (2007-Present); Committee on Practicing, Applied, and Public Interest Anthropology, American Anthropological Association (2009-Present); Member (2009-Present); Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology, American Anthropological Association (2004-2007; Chair 2006-2007); Assistant Director, Coordinator for Gender, Justice and Environmental Change Program, Michigan State University (2003-2004); Interests and/or Activities: gender, development, and land rights; ecotourism and sustainability; gender and work climate; Significant Publications: Practicing Anthropology in a Time of Crisis: 2009 Year in Review, American Anthropologist, 2010; Work Climate, Gender, and the Status of Practicing Anthropologists (with Linda Bennett, Harmony Farner, Cindy Martin, and Andrew Mrkva), American Anthropological Association, 2009; The Squeaky Wheels Squeaks Again: Reflections on the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology (with Carla Guerron-Montero and Catherine Kingfisher), Voices, 2009.
I am invigorated by the new name and expanded vision for CoGEA, as it better reflects the committee’s call to address the varied forms of gender inequalities. If elected, I would bring my past experience in AAA leadership and history of working across AAA sections to CoGEA. While on COSWA (2005-2008), I was involved in the design, administration, analysis, and reporting of COSWA’s work climate surveys, the first of academics and the second of practicing anthropologists. Further, I initiated a rewriting of the COSWA mission statement, revisions to the COSWA website, and co-organized several sessions focused on the topics of work and family, women’s leadership in our discipline, and female practitioners. I’ve also published on the history of COSWA and women’s leadership within Anthropology. Rotating onto CoGEA would provide the opportunity to work with committee members to implement some of the recommendations that emerged out of the COSWA work climate surveys, as well as to strategize methods to counter more recent and subtle forms of discrimination within the workplace and discipline at large.
Committee on Human Rights
MARGARET A PERKINSON (PhD, University of California-San Francisco, 1989) Positions Held: Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy (2007-present) Saint Louis University; Director, Gerontology Component and founding faculty member (2008-present) NAPA-OT Field School in Antigua, Guatemala; Research Associate, Anthropology Dept. (1998-2007) Washington University in St. Louis; Senior Research Scientist (1990-1998), Philadelphia Geriatric Center, Polisher Research Institute; Visiting Assistant Professor, Sociology & Anthropology (1987-1990) University of Missouri-Kansas City; Interests and/or Activities: Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology; past president, Association for Anthropology and Gerontology; past treasurer and executive board member, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education; Significant Publications: Aging and health care in Guatemala. In J. Lange (Ed.) The nurse’s role in promoting optimal health of older adults: Thriving in the wisdom years. F.A. Davis Company (in press); Therapeutic partnerships: Occupational therapy and home-based care (with Claudia Hilton, PhD, Keri Morgan, ABD, and Monica Perlmutter, OTR/L) In C. Christiansen (Ed.), Ways of living (Fourth edition). Rockville, MD: The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (in press); Negotiating disciplines: Developing a dementia exercise program. Practicing Anthropology (Special issue on Anthropology and Occupational Therapy), 2008.
I am an applied medical anthropologist who has worked with a vulnerable, at-risk population (i.e., older adults) for over 30 years in the U.S. and abroad. The issue of human rights looms large for this group, especially in regard to restricted access to basic health-related resources and limited opportunities to engage in meaningful activities. As faculty member of the Doisy College School of Allied Health at Saint Louis University, I integrate anthropology into the training of future health professionals. That includes underscoring issues of human rights and social and occupational justice as they relate to health care practice and decision-making. My work in Guatemala has brought me face-to-face with its growing numbers of “abandoned” elders. My students and I work in a residential care facility/homeless shelter for older Guatemalans that struggles mightily to provide basic care. The global demographic revolution promises the rapid aging of world populations, ensuring the situation of Guatemalan elders will not be an isolated occurrence. As a member of the AAA Committee for Human Rights, I want to draw attention to the impact of structural, as well as physical, violence, to promote social justice and protect the human rights of segments of societies (e.g., older adults) who may otherwise go unnoticed.
Committee on Public Policy
SUZANNE HEURTIN-ROBERTS (PhD, University of California, San Francisco & Berkeley,1988) Positions Held: Senior Public Health Advisor, HHS/Office of Health Care Quality (2010-2011); Health Scientist, NIH/National Cancer Institute (2010); Senior Advisor to the Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health (2009); HHS/ Office for Minority Health (2007-2009); Director of Community Relations and Outreach; National Cancer Institute, NCI Clinic at Upper Cardozo (2005-2007) Interests and/or Activities: health equity, health in all policies, community action and participatory research Significant Publications: Heurtin-Roberts, S. Self and other in cancer health disparities: negotiating power and boundaries in U.S. society, Chapter 10 in Confronting cancer: metaphors, advocacy, and anthropology, J. McMullin and D. Weiner, eds. School for Advanced Research (2009); MacPhee, M, Heurtin-Roberts S and Foster C, Practicing Discipline and Federal Agency: Traveling the Uncharted Path of Leadership in Government Anthropology, Practicing Anthropology (2005); Heurtin-Roberts, S., Snowden, L., and Miller, L, Expressions of Anxiety in African Americans: Ethnography and the Epidemiological Catchment Area Studies. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry (1997)
No population on the globe is untouched by policy in some way, and myriad anthropologists are already engaged in relevant policy studies and action. Yet the AAA Committee on Public Policy can help us to do so more purposefully and with greater coordination. If asked to serve on the COPP, I would work to build appreciation of anthropology’s value to the policy world, through strategically targeted committee interactions and dialogue with policy workers including those who interpret and implement policy as well as create it. I would encourage the committee to create systematic communication channels with Association sections and interest groups to facilitate cooperation, coordination and collaboration in their policy work. This could result in a de facto network of AAA policy contacts to activate when information or action is necessary. The committee can catalyze the creation of products and tools such as fact sheets or policy briefs helpful to anthropologists in their policy work as well as promote career development through encouragement of workshops, field schools, and internships. If elected I would work energetically to support a pro-active COPP in helping anthropology achieve a more effective and productive engagement with the policy world in both research and practice.
Committee on World Anthropology
SHERIDAN (SHER) PLUNKETT (PhD, University of California at Berkeley, 1972) Positions Held: Water User Associations Specialist, Western Basin Water Resources Management Project, Afghanistan (2010 – present); Professorial Lecturer, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (2007-2010); Foreign Service Officer (USAID) 1979-2003. Interests and/or Activities: sustainable international development, social change, political processes. Significant Publications: USAID/Peru Alternative Development Project Strategy Document, 2001; USAID Overseas Customer Service Delivery Policy Document, 1996; Weaving the Web of Power, Bahri Publications, 1984.
My approach to World Anthropology is: “E Pluribus Unum” – “From the Many, One”. My career in international development, closely engaged with anthropologists and professionals in Asia, Latin America, and Africa as well as the United States, has taught me that globalizing forces create opportunities for expanding knowledge and for utilizing knowledge to assist decision-making. Using new technologies, anthropologists can transcend borders and time zones to communicate, collaborate, and further productive dialogue. They can bring knowledge – better knowledge, better grounded in empirical fact – to power, resulting in more sustainable and more equitable policies. I have benefited from this dialogue in my career, and I will do my best to help the American Anthropological Association to take advantage of such opportunities.
Committee on Public Policy
MARK EDBERG, Ph.D. I am an academic and applied anthropologist with over 20 years’ experience in issues of public health and social well-being, currently Associate Professor in both the School of Public Health and Health Services and Department of Anthropology at George Washington University. My work has focused on marginalized and “high risk” populations, youth violence, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, health disparities, migrant and refugee populations, and other social/health issues, both domestic and global – working with agencies such as UNICEF, OAS, CDC, NIH, SAMHSA, the U.S. Office of Minority Health, and others, conducting research, program development and evaluation, and strategic planning.
I recognize full well the contribution of anthropology in all these areas, and the potential for the importance of the anthropological voice in many issues of current policy importance. Yet our public voice is too often embroiled in intradisciplinary squabbles, ideological minutiae, or focused on discipline-specific concerns which may be important for anthropologists, but not necessarily for the general public. My intention is to push for policy statements and public positions on a wider range of current and emerging issues, emphasizing the utility of anthropological knowledge for decision-making. We should be a “go-to” discipline on many fronts, including: health equity; global development and disaster relief; poverty reduction; education policy; the emerging economy; smart growth policies; population diversity; the resolution of global conflicts; and more.
Committee on World Anthropology
LAURIE KRIEGER (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1984) Positions Held: Senior Advisor, Health and Social Science (1999 – present) The Manoff Group; Independent Consultant (1998-1999); Advisor in Women’s Health for the USAID Office of Women in Development (1996-1998) The Johns Hopkins University Child Survival Fellows Program; Independent Consultant (1993-1996); Program Officer and Associate Program Officer (1988-1993) PATH; Interests and/or Activities: applied theory—especially concepts of culture, culture change and their integration into practice; gender and conceptualizations of bodies and reproduction; narratives and constructions of the field of public health; Significant Publications: “Testing Selected Behaviours to Reduce Indoor Air Pollution Exposure in Young Children” (with Brendon Barnes, PhD., A. Mathee, PhD, L. Shafritz, BA, M. Favin, MPH, MA, and L. Sherburne, MPH), Health Education Research, 2004; “Breastfeeding in Central Asia” in Encyclopedia of Women and Islam, Brill, 2005; Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ripple Effect: Water Storage and Transportation Innovations to Improve Water Access for the Poor (with Jennifer Van Kirk, MBA, Brendon Barnes, PhD, Isaac Nyamongo, PhD, and Christine Poulos, PhD), The Gates Foundation, 2011.
I am an applied anthropologist with over 25 years of experience working outside the academy, applying anthropological theory and methods to public health, globally. I have worked in many public health areas, but my major focus is gender and reproduction. During the past ten years I have also worked in the nexus of health and environment. In practicing anthropology, I believe it is crucial not only to listen to and reflect in activities the multiplicity of voices of local groups and individuals, but to do this in collaboration with local anthropologists. There are many reasons for this. Of course local anthropologists should have a say in programs affecting their country. And since theory and practice inform each other, the knowledge, experience, and viewpoints of anthropologists from varied backgrounds contribute to building a richer corpus of applied theory and practice and help to avoid western hegemonic interpretations. Furthermore, the experience of working for donors provides all anthropologists with an insiders’ view of the machinery of development. I have striven throughout my career to collaborate with anthropologists from other countries. Therefore, I support the AAA encouraging and providing fora for multi-cultural anthropologies and anthropologist teams in applied as well as academic anthropology.
Committee on World Anthropology
GUERRON-MONTERO (PhD, University of Oregon, 2002) Positions Held: Interim Chair Department of Women’s Studies (2010-2011); Associate Professor (2009-present); Assistant Professor (2005-2009) University of Delaware; Assistant Professor (2002-2005) Regis University; Visiting Researcher, Bocas del Toro Station, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama (1999 – 2000); Instructor, (1997-2001) University of Oregon; Interests and/or Activities: tourism/heritage, race/ethnicity, African diaspora, AAA Board Member and Chair (CMIA, COSWA, SLACA, A&E; CRAA); Significant Publications: “All in One Pot: The Place of Rice and Beans in Panama’s Regional and National Cuisine.” In Rice and Beans: A Unique Dish in a Hundred Places, eds. Livia Barbosa and Richard Wilk. Gordonsville, VA: Berg Publishers (forthcoming March 2011); “On Tourism and the Constructions of ‘Paradise Islands’ in Central America and the Caribbean.” Special Issue Island Tourism in the Americas. Bulletin of Latin American Research 30(1):21-34. C. Guerrón Montero, editor, 2011; Careers in Applied Anthropology: Advice from Practitioners and Academics, editor, NAPA Bulletin, Vol. 29, 2008 .
Since my years as a graduate student, I have fostered dialogue (through international publications and meetings) and developed links (through leadership positions) among anthropologists (students, academics, and practitioners) worldwide. I have been fortunate to receive academic training in Latin America and the US, in addition to participating in pre- and post-doctoral long-term scholastic activities in Europe. These experiences have showed me the importance of exposing anthropology colleagues and students based in the US to the literatures, paradigms, and methodologies that guide social scientists throughout the world. As an example, in 2002 I edited an issue of Practicing Anthropology where Latin American anthropologists shared their knowledge teaching, researching, and practicing anthropology, often with very minimal resources and under difficult circumstances. The aforementioned interactions have allowed me to develop strong international networks with colleagues in anthropology and related fields. If elected, I will continue this work by addressing the following goals: 1) the development of an online international network of anthropology academics and practitioners; 3) promoting collaborative work (academic/applied research, project-related, publications, conferences) within the network; and 3) working directly with specific sections to translate and/or publish articles in more than one language in AAA publications as well as in international journals.
SfAA Members Who Are Running for AAA Office
Committee on Minority Issues
NANCY ROMERO-DAZA (PhD, SUNY-Buffalo, 1994) Positions Held: Graduate Director (2009 – Pres) University of South Florida; Associate Professor (2005- Pres) University of South Florida; Assistant Professor (1998-2005) University of South Florida; Researcher and Coordinator HIV/AIDS and Women and Chemical Dependency Units (1994-1998) Hispanic Health Council. Interests and/or Activities: HIV/AIDS among minorities, food security, reproductive health. Significant Publications: Eliminating “hunger” in the U.S.: Changes in policy regarding the measurement of food insecurity (with David Himmelgreen, PhD) Food and Foodways, 2010; Addressing the HIV/AIDS-Food Insecurity Syndemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. (With D. Himmelgreen, PhD, D.Turkon, PhD, S. Watson, MA, I. Okello-Uma, PhD, and D. Sellen, PhD) African Journal of AIDS Research, 2009; (With A. Ruth, MA, M. Denis-Luque, MPH, and J. Luque, PhD Caring for Haitian Orphans with AIDS, an Alternative Model of Care for HIV Positive Children. Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, 2009.
I am a medical anthropologist who was trained in both my country of origin and the United States, and who has worked in both academia and in a large community-based organization (the Hispanic Health Council, in Hartford, CT). As such, I have valuable personal insights into the opportunities and challenges minority anthropologists face in a great variety of roles while working in and outside the university. Specifically, my experiences as a minority student and as a researcher, advocate, program evaluator, and coordinator of health and social services nicely complement my present roles as faculty member at a large university. As a minority anthropologist, I have also assumed leadership roles in various professional groups. For example, in 2007 , I was the Program Co-Chair for the Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology. I am also the Co-Chair for the Consortium of Practicing and Applied Anthropology Programs (COPAA), a professional group that brings together 27 applied anthropology departments throughout the country. Finally, I am currently serving my second year as the Graduate Director in my department and have been involved in a great number of college and university committees, in which I am often one of a few minority members. I believe all these experiences make me an ideal candidate for this position.
Committee on Public Policy
MERRILL SINGER (PhD, University of Utah, 1970) Positions Held: Professor of Anthropology (2008-Pres) University of Connecticut; Senior Research Scientist, Center for Health, Intervention and Prevention (2007-Pres) University of Connecticut; Director of Research (1987-2007) Hispanic Health Council; Research Scientist (1982-1986) Hispanic Health Council; Interests and/or Activities: HIV/AIDS, environmental health, public policy, appointed to Editorial Board of the International Journal of Drug Policy (2004-Pres), invited keynote speaker at Second Annual Workshop in Dynamic Modeling for Health Policy (2010) University of Saskatchewan; Significant Publications: Medical Anthropology and Public Policy: Using Research to Change the World from What it is to What We Believe it Should Be (Marcia Inhorn, PhD and Emily Wentzel, PhD, Eds) in Medical Anthropology at the Intersections, Duke University Press, 2011; Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination (with Arachu Castro, PhD), Altamira Press, 2004; The Understudied Supply Side: Public Policy Implications of the Illicit Drug Trade in Hartford, CT (with Greg Mirhej) Harvard Health Policy Review, 2004.
For the first time in its history, anthropologists are engaged in a prolonged assessment of their roles as public intellectuals including the place of the discipline in assessing, informing, and even crafting public policy. These are difficult waters fraught with challenges but critical to the future relevance of the field in a rapidly changing and shrinking world. Driving this effort is recognition of how rarely policy is influenced by social science (or any) research, frustration that anthropologists usually have not been invited to policy making forums, and awareness of the germaneness of the issues we study to policy questions, including vital issues of political conflict, environmental sustainability, and human suffering. My research on pressing health and environmental issues over the last 30 years has led to opportunities to engage the public policy process, analyze anthropological involvement in this arena, and consider strategies for increasing the inclusion of anthropologists “within the loop” of policy making. As a member of the AAA Committee on Public Policy, I see my role as twofold: within the discipline, increasing the visibility of policy within our debates and discourse (e.g., at our annual meeting) and beyond our borders, promoting anthropology as a research-informed and insightful voice on diverse policy issues.
Committee on Labor Relations
RONALD LOEWE (PhD, University of Chicago, 1995) Postions Held: Board of Directors, SfAA, 2008 to present, Co-Editor Practicing Anthropology, 2008 to present, Del Jones Award Selection Committee, 2006 to present. Interests and/or Activities: Maya Language and College, Medical Anthropology, U.S, Labor History, Folklore. Significant Publications: Maya or Mestizo? Nationalism, Modernity and Its Discontents, University of Toronto Press, 2010, “The Wisdom of Way Kot: Art, Rhetoric and Political Economy,” Critique of Anthropology, 2008. “Building the New Zion: Unfinished Conversations between the Jews of Venta Prieta and their North American Neighbors,” American Anthropologist, 2002.
I am interested in serving the AAA in an area in which I have some experience and expertise. Since beginning at California State University (Long Beach) in 2006 I have been an active member of the California Faculty Association, and, more recently, the College of Liberal Arts’ representative to the CFA. In the past I have served as a volunteer organizer for the United Farm Workers Union (California) and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (Ohio). I also regularly teach US labor history and related topics in my Radical Social Analysis course at CSULB. I would like to use this experience to help ensure that the AAA supports the dignity of workers in its negotiations with hotels and institutions it does business with. Thank you for your support.
Committee on World Anthropology
LOURDES ARIZPE-SCHLOSSER (PhD, London School of Economics, 1975; Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, University of Florida Gainesville, 2010) Positions Held: Coordinator, 2010-, Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage, National University of Mexico; Member, European Union Research Evaluation Committee, 2010-; President, 2002-08, International Social Science Council, 2002-08; Member, 2006-; Committee on Development Policy, Economic and Social Council, United Nations; Member, 2004-, Board of Trustees, Library of Alexandria, Egypt Interests and/or Activities: migration, gender, culture, heritage and international development Significant Publications: “The Value of Ritual: Aesthetics and Commitment” in Beyond Price: In Search of Cultural Value, M.Hutter and D. Throsby, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Cultural Interactivity and Global Processes. Mexico: Senate of the Republic and National University of Mexico, 2006; State of the Art in Anthropology in Latin America. Mexico: National University of Mexico, 1993.
Anthropology was the first global science. It must regain this analytical capacity as a research framework for current debates on identities, equity, transnational flows, creative industries and other such vital processes shaping the world today. By re-creating mindscapes in the era of electronic representations, anthropologists must, at the same time, analyse human processes and be active participants in developing new ways of living together in sustainable contexts. World anthropologies must mean competing diversity of ideas and methods to push boundaries into the future.*
