The SfAA Podcast Archive

2013 SfAA Awards Ceremony

Margaret Mead Award Winner: Erin P. Finley (for her book, Fields of Combat: Understanding PTSD Among Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan)Bronislaw Malinowski Award Winner: Anthony Oliver-SmithIntroduced by Paul DoughtyDisaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: The View from Applied AnthropologyIn working with and researching in communities that have suffered the impacts of disasters or displacement over the last 40 years, I am convinced of the need to link theory topractice in applied anthropology. The trying circumstances faced by people in disasters and displacement, as well as the enormous variation that these millions of people in theirdiverse contexts represent, test the resilience of real communities, the fundamental constructions we have developed about community, and the theories and methods employedto assist them in recovery. In my work, I have found that it is both appropriate and necessary that theoretical and policy oriented projects be closely linked. If policies and projectsrelated to disasters and displacement are not based on a solid understanding of human behavior in general and cultural behavior specifically, their success in terms of how theyrespond to human needs is jeopardized. By the same token, policy and practice can form the testing ground for theory. In other words, if policy or practice fail to producebeneficial outcomes, it is not the fault of the people, but in effect, signals us that we need to improve our theory and methods in addressing the losses and needs of affectedpeople. In broader terms, then, my goals have always been to bring theory and practice together to better inform applied anthropological practice in disasters and displacement.The 20th century saw enormous numbers of people and their communities damaged, destroyed, or uprooted by conflict, environmental upheaval, natural and technologicaldisasters, and infrastructural development projects. Forces ranging from intensified disasters, ethnic nationalism, global climate change, and globalized forms of developmentpromise more of the same for the century we are just beginning. This paper traces the development of applied anthropological theory and method in meeting the challengesposed by such forces in the 21 st century.

Challenging Issues in Community Building

CHAIR: DRISCOLL, David L. (UAA)
Session Participants:LAMM, Rosemarie Santora (Rath Senior ConNEXTions & Ed Cr) Master Class: Senior Scholars Life Review; Community Culture BrokerageOTSUKI, Kei (UNU-ISP) Individual Reflexivity, Household Coping, and Community Resilience in Northern GhanaBLATTEL, Carrie (IUPUI) Delivering Community Resources to Latino Immigrants
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.

Troubled Waters: 21st Century Challenges in the American West

CHAIR: GIBSON, Jane W. (U Kansas)
ABSTRACT: The U.S. West is characterized by uneven distribution of water and access to it. The region is home to millions of people, major industries, farming, and ranching, allfaced with growing demand, persistent droughts, and climate change. Water planning was once viewed as the exclusive purview of engineers and hydrologists who managed this"economic resource" with physical control and manipulation. This panel demonstrates that social science can contribute to water management. Presenters consider theexperiences, perspectives, and meanings assigned to water by users and managers in the 21 st century U.S. West where access to water presents new and serious challenges.
DISCUSSANT: WUTICH, Amber (ASU)
Session Participants:SHERIDAN. Thomas E (U Arizona)GROENFELDT, David (Water-Culture Inst)SIMMS, Jason L. and YELVINGTON, Kevin A. (USF)GRAY, B.J. (U Kansas)
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013

The Political Ecology of Fire: Natural Process or Natural Disaster?

CHAIR: CHARNLEY, Susan (USDAFS)
ABSTRACT: Wildland fire, a natural process integral to maintaining the health of fire-adapted ecosystems, is often perceived as anatural disaster, especially in the United States.This session examines thesocial, political, economic, and/or cultural variables that contribute to the experience of wildland fire as either a natural process or a natural disaster,andthat prevent it from being managed more as a natural process. It also examines the social and environmental consequences of current fire management policies andpractices. We ask how applied social science can help restore the role of fireas a natural process to prevent disaster.
Session Participants:WILLIAMS, Gerald W. (Retired, Chief Historian)SPOON, Jeremy and LEFLER, Brian (Portland State U)POE, Melissa R. (IFCAE)WILLIAMS, Daniel R. (USDAFS)COUGHLAN, Michael R. (U Georgia)
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.

Manifest Localism: How Power, Livelihood, and Resistance Shape the American West

CHAIRS: OSCARSON, Alex and ZACKARY, Burditt (UC-Denver)
ABSTRACT: This panel will explore contemporary power relations in the American West as it is played out in the allocation of resources. Included in this are physical landscapes,labor, livelihood and discourse as they relate to the shifting dynamics of the West. Recent explorations in resistance to asymmetrical power call for a neworientation focusing onhistory, signification and intergroup dynamics. As resources in the West are converted into energy, recreation, as well as political objects it is of high importance to represent thecontested nature of landscapes and the politics of culture.
DISCUSSANT: HINES, Dwight J. (Point Park U)
Session Participants:KIRNER, Kimberly (CSUN)FELDMAN, Lindsey (U Arizona)SIMMS, Crystal and RIEL-SALVATORE, Julien (UC-Denver)
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.

The Gap Between Knowledge, Policy, and Practice Concerning Disaster (Part 2)

CHAIR: HOFFMAN. Susanna (Hoffman Consultina)
DISCUSSANT: JEGGLE. Terrv (U Pitt)
Session Participants:BROWNE, Katherine E. (CSU)SCHULLER. Mark (NIU. U d'Etat d'Haiti)CASAGRANDE. David (Lehiah U). MCILVAINE-NEWSAD, Heather (WIU). and PINTER. Nicholas (SIU)BECKER. Per (Lund U)
 
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.

The Gap Between Knowledge, Policy, and Practice Concerning Disaster (Part1)

CHAIR: HOFFMAN, Susanna (Hoffman Consulting)
ABSTRACT: A problem confronting every discipline with application to real human problems is the disjunction between knowledge and the policies and practices of agencies.This is particularly true pertaining to the widespread impacts of natural and technological disasters. Much knowledge has been achieved on both disasters and the resettlement.Yet advancing the understandings to the programs of policy-makers has provendifficult with detrimental results. As disasters and resettlement have grown tothe point that allhumanitarian aid is becoming disaster aid, this panel asks why an uneven application of knowledge to disaster mitigation persists and what strategies can overcome the abyss.
DISCUSSANT: OLIVER-SMITH, Anthony (UF)
Session Participants:BENDER, Stephen (OAS, retired)KOONS, Adam (IRD)TIERNEY, Kathleen (U Colorado)COMFORT. Louise K. (U Pitt)
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.

Energy and the American West

CHAIRS: ROLSTON, Jessica Smith and SCHNEIDER, Jennifer (CO Sch of Mines)
ABSTRACT: With its abundance of conventional fuels and renewable resources, the American West plays a crucial role in national debates about energy. The papers in this panelexamine public engagement with energy development in the region by taking up industries poised to expand (solar, hydraulic fracturing), contract (coal), and reemerge (uraniummining and milling). In particular, papers focus on how public engagement processes can shape public policy debates around energy. A synthesizing paper examines how thepast is made meaningful in contemporary market shifts and explores the concept of "voice" for understanding the cases and the contestation surrounding them
Session Participants:KNAAK, Allison (CO Sch of Mines)TIDWELL. Abraham (CO Sch of Mines)KIRKLAND. Tracv M. (UC-Boulder)
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.

eFieldnotes: Makings of Anthropology in a Digital World

CHAIRS: SANJEK, Roger (Emeritus) and TRATNER, Susan (SUNY ESC)
ABSTRACT: Computers, digital archives, the Internet, and mobile devices are changing anthropology in significant ways, including choice of fieldwork sites, issues addressed, andmethods emploved. Theconsequences for research and thinking are still emerging, and they already affectinteractions with informants, definitions of data, and anthropology'sdisciplinaryfuture. How do these new topics and methods of research result in, evennecessitate, new ways of defining, recording, storing, utilizing, and feeling about bothtraditional and new forms of ethnographic fieldnotes. This panel will begin toaddress these issues from various perspectives.
Session Participants:BURRELL, Jenna (UCB)SLAMA, Martin (Inst for Soc Anth, Austrian Academy of Sci)CLIGGETT, Lisa (UKY)
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Societv for Applied Anthropologv in March 2013.

Climate Change and Disaster

CHAIR: FISKE, Shirley (UMD)
ABSTRACT: This panel explores the nexus and disjunction of two powerful concepts in contemporary globaldiscourse-climate change and disaster. Climate change can be bothsuddenonset and extreme events and can also be creeping and gradual..so in what ways does it intersect with disaster? The panel raises questions about howdisasters andclimate change are being defined, who does the defining, and what the definitions mean to communities and families. The papers examineaspects of community and familydisaster and climate change from the bottom up-from communities seeking relocation, undertaking ecological restorations, and anticipating aquatic disasters, to familiesadapting to drought and extreme events.
DISCUSSANT: BLOUNT, Beniamin (SocioEcological Informatics)
Session Participants:SADLER, Deborah and NELSON, Donald R. (U Georgia)HOPKINS, Arlene (Skye Labs, Arlene Hopkins & Assoc) and MAACK, Stephen C. (Reap Change Consultants)PETERSON. Kristina J. (UNO-CHART)MARINO, Elizabeth (OR State U)KANE, Stephanie C. (Indiana U)
Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.