The SfAA Podcast Archive

The Politics of Place and the Ethics of Engagement (Part 1)

CHAIRS: LOW, Setha and KESSLER, Bree (CUNY Grad Ctr)
ABSTRACT: This session addresses three interlocking themes: 1) the role and significance of place in the construction and maintenance of community and social identity in thecity; 2) how this community-based appropriation of urban space creates its own unique form of politics; and 3) the conflicts and contradictions that emerge when working as anactivist or practicing anthropologist in these situations require a rethinking of the ethics of engagement. The presentations will be introduced with presentation on theanthropologist as social critics, while the discussion will emphasize how these different projects affect change and involve the "anthropologist" in the politics of place as well asthe ethics of public engagement.
Session Participants:KESSLER, Bree (CUNY Grad Ctr)SCHENSUL, Jean (Inst for Community Rsch)AUDANT, Babette (CUNY Grad Ctr)MCKINNEY, Bill (CUNY Grad Ctr)

Scholars, Security, and Citizenship Part 2 (SAR Plenary)

CHAIR: MCNAMARA, Laura (Sandia Nat'l Labs)
ABSTRACT: Military organizations have discovered that cultural knowledge is useful knowledge. The resulting interest in anthropology is worrisome to many anthropologists. Inthe United States, debates rage around initiatives such as HTS and Minerva, but anthropologists outside the US also grapple with the ethical, methodological, and politicalimplications of emergent intersections among scholars and soldiers. This panel brings a range of international, intellectual and institutional perspectives, past and present, tobear on the engagement of anthropology with the military. In doing so, we explore what it means to fulfill one's scholarly and civil commitments in a time of war.
Session Participants:MCNAMARA, Laura (Sandia Labs)FERGUSON, R. Brian (U Rutgers-Newark)RUBINSTEIN, Robert A. (Syracuse U)IRWIN, Anne (U Calgary)HOFFMAN, Danny (UW-Seattle)
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Scholars, Security, and Citizenship Part 1 (SAR Plenary)

CHAIR: MCNAMARA, Laura (Sandia Nat'l Labs)
ABSTRACT: Military organizations have discovered that cultural knowledge is useful knowledge. The resulting interest in anthropology is worrisome to many anthropologists. Inthe United States, debates rage around initiatives such as HTS and Minerva, but anthropologists outside the US also grapple with the ethical, methodological, and politicalimplications of emergent intersections among scholars and soldiers. This panel brings a range of international, intellectual and institutional perspectives, past and present, tobear on the engagement of anthropology with the military. In doing so, we explore what it means to fulfill one's scholarly and civil commitments in a time of war.
Session Participants:TOMFORDE, Maren (German Armed Forces & Command Coll-Hamburg)BEN-ARI, Eyal (Hebrew U)FUJIMURA, Clementine (US Naval Academy)PRICE, David (St. Martin's U)FRY, Douglas P. (Abo Akad U, U Arizona)
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Collaboration, Community, and Ethics

CHAIR: FRENCH, Diana E. (UBC-Okanagan)
FRENCH, Diane E. (UBC-Okanagan) Staying Out of the Rain: An Umbrella for Community Based Research EthicsMURCHISON, Julian (Millsaps Coll) ' The Anthropologist's NGO'?: Examining the Practice and Theory of Collaborative WorkBENNETT, Elaine (U Connecticut) Reciprocity in Research: Fulfilling Community Expectations by Returning Knowledge
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Without Footnotes: Writing Creative Ethnography

CHAIR: EMMETT, Ayala (U Rochester)DISCUSSANT: SIMONELLI, Jeanne (Wake Forest U)
ABSTRACT: Anthropologists come home from the field with amazing stories brimming with passion, excitement, pathos, humor, and drama. Academic publication requirements,however, often flatten out the stories, strip the ethnography of the excitement, and fail to convey the rich texture of everyday life. The papers in this session invite you to share inan infusion of anthropology with life, half as exciting as fieldwork. Alongside academic ethnography and its requirements there are other ways to write about justice, ethics andthe practice of anthropology in genres that are informed by our fieldwork and anchored in ethnographic concerns. The papers in this session, which include SHA Fiction Awardwinners, open up an exhilarating and stirring humanistic anthropology to a wider audience
Session Participants:EMMETT, Ayala (Rochester)ANGROSINO, Michael V. (U S Florida)TRACHTENBERG, Barbara (Boston University)CHIERICI, Rose-Marie (SUNY-Geneseo)CHIN, Nancy (U Rochester)
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Creating Sustainability in Culture: Real-Time Applied Anthropology

CHAIR: BABER, Willie L. (U Florida)DISCUSSANT: DOWNING, Theodore (U Arizona)
ABSTRACT: One measure of effectiveness in applied anthropology can be found in the "stories" of those who have used anthropological knowledge to assist people in "creatingculture" through the discovery of new ways to better sustain ourselves. Unsustainable behaviors reduce the effectiveness of a culture as a continually adaptive process.Sustainability requires a vision and practice not to consume beyond the renewal capacity of the landscapes upon which they are dependent. If culture is dynamic and purposeful,then sustainability requires continuous "culture change" into the future. Another level of sustainable behaviors is illustrated by the perceived need to intervene, or not, in the"culture" of subordinated peoples. wbaber@anthro.ufl.edu
Session Participants:BABER, Willie L.NIGH, Ronald (CIESAS)IDRIS, Mussa (U Florida)MOLES, Jerry
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Public Anthropology, Applied Anthropology, and Ethnically Engaged Ethnographic Writing

CHAIR: STRAIGHT, Bilinda (W Mich U)
ABSTRACT: Anthropological historians may variously trace applied anthropology to a fraught status in nineteenth century colonialism, to a more explicit, "politically correct"status, or to points in between. Since the 1990s, the neologism of "public anthropology" coined by Renato Rosaldo and Rob Borofsky has occupied an ambiguous space obliquelyor alongside applied anthropology. While applied anthropology has long focused on action that may or may not include forms of ethnographic writing, public anthropologyexplicitly demands anthropological action through writing. This session will consider the intersection between applied anthropology and public anthropology that intentionallyengaged forms of ethnographic writing can create.DISCUSSANT: KRATZ, Corinne (Emory U)
Session Participants:JOHNSON, Amanda Walker (U Mass-Amherst)METZO, Katherine (UNC-Charlotte)LANGFORD, Jean M. (U Minn)GOUGH, Meagan (U Sask)MCKENNA, Brian (U Mich-Dearborn)
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Different Fields, Common Challenge: Lessons for and from Military Anthropology

CHAIRS: FOSHER, Kerry (MCIA, Syracuse U) and SELMESKI, Brian (Air U)ABSTRACT: Anthropologists' work on, for and with the military has received much attention recently. The resulting debates have helped identify various important questionsregarding opportunities, dangers and ethical challenges in such engagements. However, many of these apply not only to work with the military, but also to anthropologistsengaged in development, health care, business and other professions. Applying, practicing and advocating place anthropologists in complex relationships with employers, clientsand research subjects. This roundtable brings together experienced practicing anthropologists to reflect on how the current focus on anthropological engagement with themilitary can inform a robust disciplinary discussion of common issues. kbfosher@gmail.comList of Panelists:BABA, Marietta (Mich State U)NOLAN, Riall W. (Purdue U)RUBINSTEIN, Robert A. (Syracuse U)TURNLEY, Jessica Glicken (Galisteo Consulting Group Inc)
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Studies of HIV and STIs in the Western Hemisphere (Part 2)

CHAIR: KOESTER, Kimberly (Cr for AIDS Prev Studies, UC-San Francisco)
LUNDGREN, Rebecka (U Maryland)DOLWICK GRIEB, Suzanne (U Florida)YODER, P. Stanley (Macro Int'l) and LUGALLA, Joe (U New Hampshire)
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.

Studies of HIV and STIs in the Western Hemisphere (Part 1)

CHAIR: KOESTER, Kimberly (Ctr for AIDS Prev Studies, UC-San Francisco)
ABSTRACT: Patient Narratives on What Constitutes Meaningful HIV Prevention Counseling. Talking about sexual practices, preferences and problems during a routineclinical encounter is not common. In fact, many patients and healthcare providers report feeling uncomfortable managing even a cursory discussion of sex. Moreover, for peopleliving with HIV, frank discussions about sexual expression with a healthcare provider are complicated by legal issues, concerns about feeling judged, and the underlying belief thatsuch discussions are incongruent within the medical setting. Through ethnographic interviews with HIV specialty care providers and their patients we explored the "black box" ofmeaningful prevention discussions.GOMEZ, Angela (St. George's U)AMAYA-BURNS, Alba (U Florida)SIBLEY, Candace (U S Florida)
 
Session took place in Santa Fe, NM at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2009.