The SfAA Podcast Archive

Explaining Anthropology to Others: Developing Our Disciplinary Narrative-A Career Readiness Commission Panel

Explaining Anthropology to Others: Developing
Our Disciplinary Narrative-A Career Readiness
Commission Panel
 
CHAIRS: NOLAN, Riall (Purdue U) and STUDEBAKER,
Jennifer (Ewing Marion Kauffman Fdn)
PANELISTS: NOLAN, Riall (Purdue U) and
STUDEBAKER, Jennifer (Ewing Marion Kauffman Fdn)
 
NOLAN, Riall (Purdue U) and STUDEBAKER, Jennifer (Ewing Marion Kauffman
Fdn) Explaining Anthropology to Others: Developing Our Disciplinary
Narrative-A Career Readiness Commission Panel. Recent Commission research
revealed that many practitioners don’t feel they were well prepared in school
to explain anthropology to recruiters, supervisors, or workplace peers.
This panel will present our findings, and then invite participants to join in a
discussion of how to a) explain our discipline to those unfamiliar with it; and
b) provide them with concrete examples of its usefulness in the workplace.
Instructors who teach practice and application will find this session useful,
as will practitioners, and students intending to pursue careers in practice.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

History, Ideology, and Public Space at the War Frontiers

History, Ideology, and Public Space at the War
Frontiers
 
CHAIRS: KLUMBYTE, Neringa and MORRIS, Ashley
(Miami U-OH)
DAY, Scott and UNDERWOOD, Ricky (Miami U-OH)
History and Mockery of Soviet Monuments in a Public
Space
MORRIS, Ashley (Miami U-OH) The Presence of
Ukraine in Everyday Life in the Baltic States and
Germany: A Case Study.
ABBOTT, Malia (Miami U-OH) The War in Ukraine
and the Politics of History in Lithuania
DISCUSSANT: KLUMBYTE, Neringa (Miami U-OH)
 
KLUMBYTE, Neringa and MORRIS, Ashley (Miami U-OH) History, Ideology, and
Public Space at the War Frontiers. The session will present explorations of how
historical narratives and political ideologies are articulated in the public space
in the Baltics after the war erupted in Ukraine in 2022. All papers are based on
this summer study in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia by four Miami University
Students.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

Innovative Approaches in Immigration Research (Migration & Int’l Dialogue TIG)

Innovative Approaches in Immigration Research
(Migration & Int’l Dialogue TIG)
 
CHAIR: HASSOUN, Rosina (SVSU)
HASSOUN, Rosina (SVSU) Applied Anthropology
Aiding Refugees and Asylum Seekers
KNAUER, Lisa Maya (UMass-Dartmouth)
Anthropological Knowledge and Immigrant Justice:
Turning Activist Anthropology into Activist Pedagogy
SOSA, Gloria (CSULA) Decolonizing Research through
the Analysis of Undoculeaders’ Oral Histories
MONTANOLA, Silvana (UMD) Navigating Legal Deservingness within Latinx Immigration Advocacy in
the DMV
 
HASSOUN, Rosina (SVSU) Applied Anthropology Aiding Refugees and Asylum
Seekers. With over 2.2 million refugees in the world today, there are diverse
ways that applied anthropologists can aid refugees and asylum seekers. Applied
anthropologists bring the weight of anthropological inquiry, expert witness,
narrative analysis, network building, and community engagement to the role of
helping refugees and asylum seekers. Medical anthropologists bring the ability to
elucidate trauma narratives of survivors of war. This work builds upon a history
of over 30 years of engagement with refugees including Arabs, Sudanese, and
Somalis in research conducted in Metropolitan Detroit and Lansing, Michigan.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

Part Two: Multifaceted Water Insecurity: Local and Regional Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice

Multifaceted Water Insecurity: Local and Regional
Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice, Part II
An SfAA Critical Conversation
 
CHAIRS: WILFONG, Matthew (ASU) and ROQUE,
Anais (OH State U)
THOMPSON, Deborah (LiKEN) Blessed and Stressed by Water in Our Hollers: Cross-sectoral Collaborations
and Knowledge Sharing in Eastern Kentucky
DISCUSSANTS: CORNETT, Jeremy C. (UKY), Ohio
Water Environment Association,
Drink Local. Drink Tap.
 
WILFONG, Matthew (ASU) and ROQUE, Anais (OH State U) Multifaceted
Water Insecurity: Local and Regional Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice,
Parts I-II. Water’s essentiality for sustaining life allows it to pervade into every
aspect of the everyday, taking various shapes, forms, and identities. As a result,
water challenges, as seen through drought, flooding, and within household
experiences, produce a profound multiplicity of effects on our everyday
lives where water plays a physical, cultural, and symbolic role. In this critical
conversation, we seek to explore the multifaceted nature of water with a focus
on insecurity - inadequate access to safe and reliable water for human health
and ecological well being - including the underlying political, economic, and
material causes and the resulting sociocultural and biophysical impacts. We
aim to investigate the socioeconomic and sociopolitical assemblages that create various forms of water insecurity (affordability, reliability, adequacy,
and/or safety of water) and the resulting effects on environmental and human
health outcomes. To do this, this critical conversation will focus on highlighting
water insecurity within the local tri-state (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) and
Appalachian regions. The first session of this critical conservation, we invite local
community groups, practitioners, and scholars to present and discuss issues
surrounding water insecurity, the effects on public and environmental health,
and how applied anthropological research can help to address and overcome
these challenges. In our second session, we will present and view the film “And
Water For All…” by scholar Ramiro Berardo focused on water affordability
in the state of Ohio with a focus on governmental and non-governmental
actors towards ensuring water security in the present and future. This will
be followed by a discussion about the film and the overarching concerns of
water insecurity within the local region. Throughout this critical conversation,
we seek to illuminate the continued need for applied anthropological work,
research, and support towards investigating and solving issues focused on the
equity and justice of water insecurity at the local, regional, and global scales.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

Part One: Multifaceted Water Insecurity: Local and Regional Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice

Multifaceted Water Insecurity: Local and Regional
Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice, Part I
 
An SfAA Critical Conversation
CHAIRS: WILFONG, Matthew (ASU) and ROQUE,
Anais (OH State U)
BERARDO, Ramiro (Sch of Env & Natural Resources,
OH State U) “And Water For All…”
 
WILFONG, Matthew (ASU) and ROQUE, Anais (OH State U) Multifaceted
Water Insecurity: Local and Regional Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice,
Parts I-II. Water’s essentiality for sustaining life allows it to pervade into every
aspect of the everyday, taking various shapes, forms, and identities. As a result,
water challenges, as seen through drought, flooding, and within household
experiences, produce a profound multiplicity of effects on our everyday
lives where water plays a physical, cultural, and symbolic role. In this critical
conversation, we seek to explore the multifaceted nature of water with a focus
on insecurity - inadequate access to safe and reliable water for human health
and ecological well being - including the underlying political, economic, and
material causes and the resulting sociocultural and biophysical impacts. We
aim to investigate the socioeconomic and sociopolitical assemblages that create various forms of water insecurity (affordability, reliability, adequacy,
and/or safety of water) and the resulting effects on environmental and human
health outcomes. To do this, this critical conversation will focus on highlighting
water insecurity within the local tri-state (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) and
Appalachian regions. The first session of this critical conservation, we invite local
community groups, practitioners, and scholars to present and discuss issues
surrounding water insecurity, the effects on public and environmental health,
and how applied anthropological research can help to address and overcome
these challenges. In our second session, we will present and view the film “And
Water For All…” by scholar Ramiro Berardo focused on water affordability
in the state of Ohio with a focus on governmental and non-governmental
actors towards ensuring water security in the present and future. This will
be followed by a discussion about the film and the overarching concerns of
water insecurity within the local region. Throughout this critical conversation,
we seek to illuminate the continued need for applied anthropological work,
research, and support towards investigating and solving issues focused on the
equity and justice of water insecurity at the local, regional, and global scales.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

Native Americans’ Environmental Justice: Expanded in Scope and Time

Native Americans’ Environmental Justice:
Expanded in Scope and Time
 
CHAIR: STOFFLE, Richard (BARA, U Arizona)
STOFFLE, Richard (BARA, U Arizona) and VAN
VLACK, Kathleen (Living Heritage) Native Americans’
Environmental Justice Expanded in Scope and Time
BOCHNIAK, Victoria (UMass) Settler Colonial
Legacies of the Second Crow Agency (1875-1884)
BRUNO, Jasmine and GALVIN, Kathleen (CO State U)
Using Qualitative Methods to Advance Conservation
Strategies
HAAS, Caitlin, DALEY, Sean M., GOECKNER, Ryan,
and, MAKOSKY DALEY, Christine (Lehigh U) American
Indian and Alaska Native COVID-19 Knowledge,
Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors During the
Pandemic
STONER, Denise (NAU) A Study of Food Programs
and People in Flagstaff, Arizona from an Indigenous
(Navajo/Eastern Shawnee) Perspective
MCCUNE, Meghan (NMU) and OLSON, Ernie (Wells
Coll) Anthropology in the Weeds: Gardening as
Decolonization in Central New York
 
STOFFLE, Richard (BARA, U Arizona) and VAN VLACK, Kathleen (Living Heritage)
Native Americans’ Environmental Justice Expanded in Scope and Time.
Environmental Justice was initially defined by Bunyon Bryant at the Institute
for Social Research at the University of Michigan. His research, centered
largely in Detroit, identified special and unequal impacts absorbed by African
Ancestry people due to development projects like urban renewal and highways.
He significantly encouraged the addition of another Environmental Impact
Assessment variable which has lasted until now as a key factor in project
decisions. It is also key in the management of interconnected social and natural
environments. This paper is based on research about the inter/relationship of
Native Americans and natural resource managers. Native people struggle to
ensure their EJ issues are considered in EIS and management because these are
different than those which originally were used to define EJ.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

Rethinking Risk and Preparedness (Risk & Disaster TIG)

Rethinking Risk and Preparedness (Risk & Disaster
TIG)
 
CHAIR: CANNON, Terry (IDS UK)
BALAGNA, Jay (Pardee RAND Grad Sch) Stuck in
the Smokey Bear Era: Examining the Ways Cultural
Processes Contribute to Disaster Policy and Wildland Fire
DYER, Christopher (UNM) Building Disaster Resilience:
Application of the CART Model in Rural North Carolina
DOERING, Zach (Butler U) Building Community
Resiliency against Disasters
CANNON, Terry (IDS UK) Is Disaster Risk Creation
More Significant Than Risk Reduction?
JINKA, Malavika and BARO, Mamadou (U Arizona)
Rethinking Resilience in Senegalese Communities:
Insights from the COVID-19 Crisis
 
CANNON, Terry (IDS UK) Is Disaster Risk Creation More Significant Than Risk
Reduction? Most research and practice in disaster risk reduction (DRR) is based
on the assumption that it reduces vulnerability or mitigate hazards. Research
is supposedly ‘taken up’ by governments and relevant institutions and used to
inform DRR policy. Donors, NGOs and other actors supposedly engage in activities
that reduce disaster risk. This session upsets these comforting assumptions. It
argues that government and the private sector are much more likely to create
disasters than to reduce them. Understanding that Disaster Risk Creation (DRC)
is more significant than the efforts of academics and organizations to reduce
disasters is essential.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

Not Doing Anthropology Like an Anthropologist Would: Professionally Trained Anthropologists Reskilling Themselves

Not Doing Anthropology Like an Anthropologist
Would: Professionally Trained Anthropologists
Reskilling Themselves
 
CHAIR: BENDIXSEN, Casper (Marshfield Clinic Rsch Inst)
FLYNN, Michael A. (NIOSH) Creating Space for a
Social Perspective in a Technical Field: Integrating
Anthropology into Occupational Safety and Health
RISSING, Andrea (ASU) Hybridizing Anthropology:
Early Career Reflections on Evolving towards
Interdisciplinarity
RODRIGUEZ-MEJIA, Fredy (Purdue U & NW State
CC) Learning to Work in Multidisciplinary Teams:
Anthropologists, Engineers, and Short-Term
Ethnographic Research
 
BENDIXSEN, Casper (Marshfield Clinic Rsch Inst) Not Doing Anthropology Like
an Anthropologist Would: Professionally Trained Anthropologists Reskilling
Themselves. This invited panel invites colleagues with anthropological
pedigree to reflect on how they’ve established themselves in other fields of
research, service, or education. Of particular interest is how anthropological
training created the ability, perhaps even desire, to reskill and become some
new form of professional. What are motivations and techniques to reskill?
What skills and ways of thinking remain? What has been augmented or lost?
It’s valuable for students to witness how careers form outside of the traditional
academic framework. There is value in codifying the process, making “studying
anthropology to not be become an anthropologist” track accessible and
acceptable.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.

Rethinking Student Training and Preparation for Diverse Career Pathways (Higher Ed TIG)

Rethinking Student Training and Preparation for
Diverse Career Pathways (Higher Ed TIG)
 
CHAIRS: MURPHY, Daniel (U Cincinnati) and BRUNO,
Jasmine (CO State U)
ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS: KAHN, Linda (U
Buffalo), ROMERO-DAZA, Nancy (USF), CADZOW,
Renee (D’Youville U), MATTER, Scott (U Tech-
Sydney), MAXWELL, Keely (EPA), MOECKLI, Jane (VA)
 
MURPHY, Daniel (U Cincinnati) and BRUNO, Jasmine (CO State U) Rethinking Student Training and Preparation for Diverse Career Pathways. Applied anthropologists use anthropological knowledge and skills to address real-world challenges; yet, preparing students for employment outside of academia continues to challenge college faculty. Likewise, students struggle to translate and package their skills and training for careers where they might best apply them. In this roundtable, we bring together representatives from a diverse array of agencies, institutions, and private industry to address the variety of ways academic institutions might improve student preparation and bridge the gap between academic training and employment. We will also discuss how applied anthropology students can effectively frame their expertise as they move into non-academic careers.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.
 
 
 

Risky Business: Applied Anthropologists in Danger(ous) Research Fields

Risky Business: Applied Anthropologists in
Danger(ous) Research Fields
 
CHAIR: BENDIXSEN, Casper (Marshfield Clinic Rsch
Inst)
MONAGHAN, Paul (SE Coastal Ctr for Ag Hlth & Safety) Weighing the Risk of Heat Related Illness and
Piece-rate Work in Agriculture
KLATASKE, Ryan (U Nebraska Med Ctr) Beef
Production and Processing: Risk, Work, and Rural Life
in the Great Plains
SORENSEN, Julie (NE Ctr for Occupational Hlth &
Safety: Ag, Forestry & Fishing) Finding the Value:
Reshaping the Concept of Safety to Connect with
Risk-Takers
 
BENDIXSEN, Casper (Marshfield Clinic Rsch Inst) Risky Business: Applied
Anthropologists in Danger(ous) Research Fields. This invited panel will ask
those colleagues how they work to better understand the human relation
to danger and risk-taking as well as applied anthropologists’ roles and
responsibilities in identifying, analyzing, and characterizing these conditions,
e.g. mitigate human risk, but it may also be in the vein of how to best prescribe
risk, e.g. clinical trial research, pedagogy, or financial investment. Papers may
also highlight the difficulties of working within in multidisciplinary fields where
there is less consensus about what substantiates unacceptable danger or risk
in light of what may result to improve the human condition.
 
Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.