The SfAA Podcast Archive

We All Eat Rice...? Poi, Potatoes, and Mac and Cheese!: Deconstructing Ethnicity for Cultural Specificity

We All Eat Rice...? Poi, Potatoes, and Mac and Cheese!: Deconstructing Ethnicity for Cultural Specificity
CHAIR: TASHIMA, Nathaniel (LTG Assoc)
PANELISTS: CRAIN, Cathleen, TASHIMA, Nathaniel, ISHIHARA-BRITO, Reiko, and DAO, Lillie (LTG Assoc) Complexities of Specificity and Inclusiveness in Focusing on Health and Human Services for Asian American and Pacific Islanders ISHIHARA-BRITO, Reiko, CRAIN, Cathleen, TASHIMA, Nathaniel, and DAO, Lillie (LTG Assoc) The Childhood Obesity Epidemic in the US - Says Who?: Asian American and Pacific Islander Perceptions of and Attitudes toward Body Image and Relevant Factors DAO, Lillie, TASHIMA, Nathaniel, CRAIN, Cathleen, and ISHIHARA-BRITO, Reiko (LTG Assoc) Over Two Million of the United States’ “Model Minority” Living in Poverty: Health Implications and Dispelling Myths
DISCUSSANT: CRAIN, Cathleen (LTG Assoc) TASHIMA, Nathaniel (LTG Assoc) We All Eat Rice...? Poi, Potatoes, and Mac and Cheese!: Deconstructing Ethnicity for Cultural Specificity. 
Health disparities in the Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) populations are increasingly garnering attention, particularly a high prevalence of obesity-related chronic illnesses among some AAPI groups. In this panel, we present some of the environmental, ecological, cultural, social and historical dimensions of AAPI health and childhood obesity to contextualize the disparate situations. With the goal of improving culturally competent health and human services for AAPI peoples, we will highlight the complexities in assessing and understanding the causes and practices that lead to children and adolescents becoming overweight and obese.
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Technology, Design, and New Media in Ethnographic Engagement

Technology, Design, and New Media in Ethnographic Engagement 
 
CHAIR: CHIN, Elizabeth (Art Ctr Coll of Design), 
PANELISTS: DURINGTON, Matthew and COLLINS, Sam (Towson U) Creating an Applied Networked Anthropology; 
MARZEC, Morgan, MCCRAE, Cayla, and ZENG, Tina L. (Art Ctr Coll of Design) Caminemos Juntos: Designers’ Ethnographic Journey with Homeless Youth 
KITNER, Kathi R. and DE WET, Thea (Intel Labs) Smart Phones, Dumb Anthropology: Re-thinking Ethnography and Mobility in a South African Urban Landscape 
BARBOSA, Erika (U Manchester) Concrete Ecology: Sensing Change along the Los Angeles River KALVEN, Betsy (ACCD) Street Corner Ecology 
 
DISCUSSANT: WALI, Alaka (Field Museum) and CHIN, Elizabeth (Art Ctr Coll of Design) 
 
ABSTRACT: Concrete Ecology: Sensing Change along the Los Angeles River. Media provides a new dimension to traditional ethnographic research by allowing different forms of knowledge to arise and circulate in aesthetic forms; these can extend beyond the limitations of text in depicting the corporeal experience of vision and hearing, practices of wayfinding, mobility and tactile interaction. This project deals with the social and material changes taking place along the riverfront of Los Angeles, California. As new patterns of social immersion arise, I look to the history of social connections forged with the River, questioning how the changing functions of place will effect traditional perceptions and reactions to the River environment. 
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Strategies for Organizational Research

Strategies for Organizational Research 
 
CHAIR: JORDAN, Ann (UNT) 
DISCUSSANTS: WRIGHT, Rachel (Independent) Paid in Different Ways: New Solutions to Nonprofit Employee Compensation; 
BONNEKESSEN, Barbara (NMT) The Applied Anthropologist at Home: Campus Culture and the Anthropologist as Catalyst; 
O’STEEN, Brianna (USF) Applying Anthropological Methodology in the Nonprofit Sector in the Neoliberal Age: History, Theory, and a Case Study; 
M SCHUMAN, Andrea F. (Ctr for Sci & Soc Studies) Living Well: A Case Study in the Social and Solidarity Economy; 
JORDAN, Ann (UNT) Playing with Complexity: Applying the Theory to Organizations; 
ERVIN, Alexander (U Saskatchewan) “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind”: Concepts from Complexity Theory that Might Benefit Anthropology; 
M MASON, Amanda (NWF), RIEL, Rosemary (UMD), TSO, Judy (AHA Solutions), MOYER, Teresa (NPS), and SULLIVAN, Kristin (UMD) Approaching Professional, Personal and Political from an Anthropological Foundation and Network.
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Rethinking Poverty in Re/Development Thinking: Anthropological Perspectives

Rethinking Poverty in Re/Development Thinking: Anthropological Perspectives, Part I 
 
CHAIR: ILAHIANE, Hsain (U Kentucky) 
DISCUSSANTS: PARK, Thomas K. (U Arizona) Capability Theory and Refugees in the Sahel and North Africa; 
LYON, Sarah (U Kentucky) Fair Trade and the Marketization of Poverty; 
UDVARDY, Monica (UKY) Stealing the Imaginary Means of Production: Poverty and the Trafficking in Ancestral Memorial Statues in Kenya; 
COMPION, Sara (U Kentucky) Poverty Volunteering in South Africa.
 
ABSTRACT: 
ILAHIANE, Hsain (U Kentucky) Rethinking Poverty in Re/Development Thinking: Anthropological Perspectives, Parts I-II. Poverty is a social construct specifying prescribed modes in which scholars and practitioners frame the concept of poverty, the ways of measuring it, and the modalities of alleviating it.  This panel will critique the economic and capabilistic approaches to poverty by providing anthropological perspectives that focus on providing a historical and social context for understanding poverty as a social and institutional relationship.  Ethnographically grounded perspectives from (re) development contexts in the north and in the globalizing south will critique the reductionist approaches of economism and capability to poverty and will provide an enhanced understanding of the categories of poverty and the poor.
 
Rethinking Poverty in Re/Development Thinking: Anthropological Perspectives, Part II 
CHAIR: ILAHIANE, Hsain (U Kentucky) 
ILAHIANE, Hsain (U Kentucky) Le Maroc est Très Noir: Al-noir and the Perpetuity of Poverty in Morocco 
MCDONALD, Juliana (U Kentucky) It’s Not about the Money: The Real Emic and the Sticky Wicket of Poverty in Davis Bottom, KY 
HÅKANSSON, N. Thomas (Swedish U Ag Sci, U Kentucky) Poverty, Development, and the Misunderstanding of Landesque Capital in Northeastern Tanzania, 
 
BARO, Mamadou (U Arizona) Understanding Resilience in the Context of Poverty and Development Schemes in Niger.
 
Both Sessions took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Promoting Transdisciplinarity: Linking Anthropology and Engineering on Community

Promoting Transdisciplinarity: Linking Anthropology and Engineering on Community 
 
CHAIR: NOLAN, Riall (Purdue U) 
Session Participants: NOLAN, Riall (Purdue U); Working across Disciplines as an Integral Part of Anthropological Practice; 
DARE, Anne (Purdue U); Facilitating Collaboration between Anthropology and Engineering Students; 
GATTUSO, Anna (U Memphis); Complementary Styles: Engineering and Anthropology at the University of Memphis;
BRIODY, Elizabeth (Cultural Keys LLC)
 
ABSTRACT:
NOLAN, Riall (Purdue U) Promoting Transdisciplinarity: Linking Anthropology and Engineering on Community.  Most practitioners work across disciplines, but few students are trained to do this. This panel examines how two universities are bringing anthropology and engineering students together on community development projects, and what they learn by working together. Nolan will discuss transdisciplinary work in the context of anthropological practice. Dare and Gattuso will present specific examples from Purdue and Memphis. Briody, as a discussant, will highlight comparisons and contrasts between the two university programs, and will relate lessons learned to contemporary issues of practitioner training. There will be ample time for audience discussion and debate.
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Interventions: Evaluating NGOs and NPOs

Interventions: Evaluating NGOs and NPOs 
 
CHAIR: BLATTEL, Carrie (IUPUI)
Participants: M GRAY, Colleen (NIU) The Relationship between Sarawak Women for Women Society and the State BLATTEL, Carrie (IUPUI) Evaluating the Effective Distribution of Services to Latinos: Non-profit Fair at the Liga Latina FITZPATRICK, John (UNL) Lincoln Literacy: A Case Study in Community-Based Non-Profit English Literacy Programs SARDIER, Marie (Action Contre La Faim) From Rural to Urban: New Challenges for Humanitarian Actors M SIEBER, Timothy (UMass) Putting Anthropological Skills to Use in Engagement with Grassroots Community Organizations
Abstract: 
 The past decade has witnessed an increased volume of humanitarian program implementation in urban environments. The question is no longer whether we should intervene in urban contexts, but how we can do it better. Because of population density and chronic poverty, a heightened vulnerability to disasters exists in urban settings, especially regarding health and livelihoods. This is highlighted in this presentation, which analyses the challenges that one humanitarian NGO, ACF, has faced in urban areas. It points to the relevance of cash-based interventions in urban contexts, where flexibility and market linkages are key to improving food security and nutritional status.
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

International Perspectives on Business and Market Research

International Perspectives on Business and Market Research 
 
CHAIR: STEWART, Alex (Marquette U) 
Participants: ITO, Yasunobu (JAIST) “Ethnography” in the Japanese Corporate Activities: A Metaanthropological Observation on the Relationship between Anthropology and the Outside STEWART, Alex (Marquette U) Why Do Anthropologists Have So Little Impact on Management Research? GIBSON, Carrie (U Memphis, USC) Out To Lunch: Why Businesses Need Anthropologists M GORBEA, Laura (Altamente) Running to a Standstill: Developing a High Technology Sector in Puerto Rico ZLOLNISKI, Christian (UTA) Beach Pebble Stone Workers in Mexico’s Baja California: The Formation of a Transnational Market M ROBERTS, Bruce (MSUM) Plastic Waste Management in Africa
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Destination Unknown: How We Found Professions That Want Anthropologists Without Those Professions Actually Knowing It

Destination Unknown: How We Found Professions That Want Anthropologists Without Those Professions Actually Knowing It
CHAIR: BEVER, Sandra Weinstein (Walden U) 
 
Participants: BENNER, Timothy (Samsung) All I Really Need to Know about Anthropology I Learned Outside of Grad School, Or How I Learned What Employers Really Want HUDSON, Penny (U Montana) Ethnographic Entanglements: Opportunities Found in an Era of Economic Change and Uncertainty M MASON, David (World Bank, UCLA) “Make [Only] Little Plans”: Anthropology and Incrementalism in Urban Planning M WILLIAMS, Nathan L. (UNHCR) Heard but Not Seen: Anthropology and Anthropologists in Humanitarian Assistance BEVER, Sandra Weinstein (Walden U) Administrative Destination: Bringing Anthropology into Academic Assessment
Abstract: Graduates with an anthropology degree are often faced with the question of how such a degree will help them reach their desired destination. The purpose of this session is to explore the ways to seek or create employment opportunities as anthropologists. We are a panel of working anthropologists whose trajectories, or “destinations,” have landed each of us outside of a traditional academic location. Despite our varied professional settings, we all utilize our anthropological background and training on a daily basis. Further, we argue that our anthropological “stamp” often sets us apart in our chosen professions. 
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Business Anthropology Roundtable: New Voices, New Destinations, New Futures

Business Anthropology Roundtable: New Voices, New Destinations, New Futures
Chair: Santee, Amy (Empirical Rsch & Design)
Roundtable Participants:
AIKEN, Jo (UNT), DORNADIC, Alicia (Independent), KERSEY, Jen Cardew (SapientNitro), SCHILL, Elizabeth (Partnership for Public Service), and RIOS, Danyel (UNT)
 
Abstract:
Business Anthropology Roundtable: New Voices, New Destinations, New Futures. More and more anthropologists are finding employment in the business world. But what is it actually like to work there? This session will feature an open discussion between attendees and five anthropologists who are in the early stages of their professional careers. They have worked as freelancers, researchers, consultants, and interns for Fortune 50 companies, consulting firms, design agencies, and other businesses. Audience questions are welcome, and topics may include the academy-to-business transition, practitioner issues, job roles, the anthropologist identity, and what life is like as a young professional-anthropologist in business. 
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.

Coming of Age in the Corporate Context: Exploring the Non-Linear Transition from Student to Practitioner and Back Again

Coming of Age in the Corporate Context: Exploring the Non-Linear Transition from Student to Practitioner and Back Again 
 
CHAIR: RAMER, S. Angela (UNT) 
 
PAHL, Shane (UNT) So You’re Interested in Business Anthropology, Now What? 
 
SANTEE, Amy (Empirical Rsch & Design) What Are You Doing Here?: Making the Academy-toBusiness Transition as a Practicing Anthropologist 
 
TAYLOR, E. Gigi (TX State U) On Becoming an Anthropologist: The Transition from a Practicing Qualitative Researcher (“the Other”) to an Academically Trained Anthropologist (“Us”) 
 
RAMER, S. Angela (UNT) Design Research for Designer Clients: A Study of an Architecture Firm’s Own Workspace
 
Coming of Age in the Corporate Context: Exploring the Non-Linear Transition from Student to Practitioner and Back Again. The process of taking anthropology from the safety of the classroom into the chaos of the corporate office can be awkward, intimidating, and yet highly rewarding. It involves observing new rituals, learning new languages, and embracing cultural norms in “exotic” industry environments. This session presents a cumulative breadth of experiences from undergraduate studies through graduate theses and first jobs, to a return to academia after a career in industry.  These lessons learned provide valuable insights for those considering a career path in business and design anthropology.
 
Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.