The Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) announces an annual student research competition in the applied social and behavioral sciences. The winner of the competition will receive a cash prize of $2000 and travel funds to attend the annual meetings of the SfAA.
The award honors the late Peter Kong-ming New, a distinguished medical sociologist-anthropologist and former president of the SfAA. The award will be given to the best paper which reports on an applied research project in the social/behavioral sciences. The research question should be in the domain of health care or human services (broadly construed). Please see the guidelines by clicking on the link below for additional information. The paper must be submitted to the SfAA Business Office no later than December 31 by emailing to: info@sfaa.net.
A forthcoming issue of the journal Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society focuses on “Women, Gender, and Prison: National and Global Perspectives,” and includes ethnographic perspectives. Read more about it at the global.gender.current blog.
The BSA (British Sociological Association) is delighted to announce it has teamed up with BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed to create a new annual award for ethnography. The inaugural Thinking Allowed Award for Ethnography will aim to recognize the study that has had the biggest influence in ethnography, having made a significant contribution to our knowledge and understanding of a relevant area of research.
Trophies. Flickr/Snap®The Award is open to all U.K. residents currently employed as a teacher/researcher or studying as a postgraduate in a U.K. institution of higher education, so if you are completing/or will have completed ethnographic research this year we are keen to hear from you!
Judging the Award will be Professor Dick Hobbs, Professor Henrietta Moore, Dr. Louise Westmarland, and BSA member Professor Bev Skeggs, with BBC Radio 4’s Professor Laurie Taylor acting as Chair. They will be looking for work that demonstrates sound methodology and clarity, as well as flair and originality, before selecting six finalists to compete for the prize.
From this shortlist, the Panel will choose an overall winner to be announced at the BSA Annual Conference in April 2014, where the winner will be presented with a check for £1,000.
The latest issue of Anthropology in Action includes the uses of tourism development projects in solving the problems of inter-communal violence, the politics of representation as well as understandings of audiences and media-based constructions of “‘the toured;” and the ways in which the state and capital intersect in the development of tourism policy. This journal is not open access.
In an op-ed in The New York Times, Kamari Maxine Clarke, professor of cultural anthropology at Yale University, argues that violence in Africa is rooted in greed, related to contested and highly desired natural resources, and corporate greed should be considered a war crime:
Gold dollar symbol/Wikipedia
“Violence in Africa begins with greed — the discovery and extraction of natural resources like oil diamonds and gas — and continues to be fed by struggles for control of energy, minerals, food and other commodities. The court needs the power to punish those who profit from those struggles. So do other judicial forums.
At a summit meeting here last week, leaders of the African Union proposed expanding the criminal jurisdiction of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to include corporate criminal liability for the illicit exploitation of natural resources, trafficking in hazardous wastes and other offenses.”
• Legal decision in Guatemala that genocide is genocide
According to an article in The New York Times, a Guatemalan judge ordered Efraín Rios Montt, the former dictator, and his intelligence chief to stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with the massacres of highland Maya villagers three decades ago.
President Otto Pérez Molina, a former general, says he does not believe that the killings during the war amounted to genocide. A UN truth commission determined that the military had carried out “acts of genocide,” including in the Maya-Ixil villages during the war, in which 200,000 people died. As a legislator until last January, Mr. Rios Montt was protected from prosecution. Prosecutors filed charges when his term expired, but his lawyers’ appeals delayed the case.
Guatemala/CIA World Factbook
Scholars of Guatemala said that a number of factors combined to get the case to court, including the tenacity of the attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz, and successful efforts to appoint more independent judges.
Victoria Sanford, an anthropology professor at the City University of New York who has written about Guatemala’s civil war, is quoted as saying: ”For Rios Montt to be tried breaks the wall of impunity … It says genocide is genocide and it is punishable by law.”
As context, the article points out: The National Football League brought in more than $9 billion in revenue in 2012, and tickets to its showcase event, this weekend’s Super Bowl, range from $850 to $1,250, and even more trough the online resale market. Meanwhile, corporations advertising on Sunday’s game paid a record $3.8 million (U.S.) for a 30-second slot. The NFL is the undisputed king of cash among North American pro sports.
Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs, 2006/Wikipedia
But as the money piles up, so do lawsuits and workers compensation claims filed against the league and its teams by former players, who say they suffered irreversible brain injuries while playing in the NFL, and that the league and its teams never informed them about the lasting effects of football’s repeated head trauma.
Duke University cultural anthropology professor Orin Starn wonders if the legal action will lead to similar efforts to raise awareness among football players and fans: “Football is in the same situation; they’ve got a product that’s hazardous to your health,” says Starn, who specializes in the anthropology of sport. “It should come with a warning label stamped on the helmet. America is in massive denial about the blood cost of football.”
The University of South Florida News carried an article about ongoing research into the consequences of new Latino immigrants, African Americans and working class Whites coming face to face at work in the U.S. South and how to better bridge differences. The project is led by cultural anthropologist Angela Stuesse, an assistant professor at the University of South Florida. Here are some excerpts, with some paraphrasing, from the article:
Angela Stuesse accompanied leaders from a Guatemalan Mam immigrant community on a political education tour in Mississippi. Photo by Angela Stuesse
Recent immigrants and people descended from earlier immigrants – whether voluntary or forced – often eye each other warily, sometimes finding themselves at odds. Making a connection can be as simple as knowing how to start a conversation – one that can become the basis for working together – rather than a fight. But as Stuesse has found, such conversations often don’t just happen. And if they do, they can be touchy. “Across cultures, knowing what not to say can be as important as knowing what to say and how to say it,” points out, and “Immigrants, too, may hold racial and other biases toward those they come into contact with. There’s a need to help groups understand each other. Ideally, they can work together and develop mutual respect.”
Stuesse’s research has produced her forthcoming book, Globalization ‘Southern Style, which describes the transformation of small-town Mississippi when Latino immigrants begin working and organizing alongside African Americans in the area’s chicken processing plants.
While working in Mississippi, Stuesse was a founding collaborator of the poultry worker center, MPOWER, where she drew upon her research to help facilitate structured dialogue and spaces for political education and cultural sharing among immigrant and U.S.-born poultry worker leaders.
She has also developed Intergroup Resources, a comprehensive new online resource center that is becoming a national network. The user-friendly Intergroup Resources website built and designed by Stuesse’s research team offers curricula, dialogue guides, educational materials and descriptions of the efforts of various groups.
Historic Preservation Program / Bureau of Arts and Culture / Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs / Government of the Republic of Palau. This position is under the supervision of the Palau Historic Preservation Officer (HPO) and provides guidance and advice to the HPO relating to Oral History and Ethnography. The primary responsibilities include assisting and supervising (when required) the Oral History/Ethnography Section of the Bureau of Arts and Culture/Palau Historic Preservation Office to record and index the oral histories and traditional laws of Palau for the purposes of preservation and education, and to assist in meeting the responsibilities mandated by the Title 19 of the Palau National Code (PNC), and Section 106 of the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act (16 USC 470). The Palau Cultural Anthropologist will also be responsible for other program-related tasks that may be required by the Palau Historic Preservation Office.
This is a national level contract position funded by a Historic Preservation Fund Grant administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service (NPS). Compliance with all applicable U.S. federal laws and regulations is required in the course of duty.
**APPLICANT MUST BE A U.S. CITIZEN OR CITIZEN OF AN ASSOCIATED PACIFIC ISLAND NATION (Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Republic of the Marshall Islands). Continue reading “Position: cultural anthropologist/ethnographer”→
1. Now in its ninth year, the SCRM (Short Courses on Research Methods) program is for cultural anthropologists who already have the Ph.D. Two five-day courses are offered during summer 2013 at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina.
Methods of Ethnoecology (Instructors: J. Richard Stepp and Justin Nolan) July 29-August 2, 2013
APPLY TO THE SHORT COURSES ON RESEARCH METHODS HERE. DEADLINE FEB. 15, 2013.
2. Now in its 18th year, the SIRD (Summer Institute on Research Design) is an intensive, three-week course for graduate students in cultural anthropology who are preparing their doctoral research proposals. The 2013 course runs from July 14-August 3, 2013 at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. Instructors: Jeffrey Johnson, Susan Weller, Amber Wutich, and H. Russell Bernard.
APPLY TO THE SUMMER INSTITUTE ON RESEARCH DESIGN HERE. DEADLINE March 1, 2013.
3. Now in its second year, the EFS (Ethnographic Field School) in Tallahassee, Florida is a five-week field school in ethnographic methods and community-based participatory research. The program is open to graduate students in cultural anthropology. The 2013 field school runs from July 7-August 10, 2013 and is coordinated by Clarence (Lance) Gravlee. Guest faculty include Sarah Szurek, Tony Whitehead, and Stephen Schensul.
APPLY TO THE TALLAHASSEE FIELD SCHOOL HERE. DEADLINE FEB. 15, 2013.
4. Now in its fifth year, the SIMA (Smithsonian Institution Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology) is open to graduate students in cultural anthropology and related, interdisciplinary programs (Indigenous Studies, Folklore, etc.) who are interested in using museum collections as a data source and who are preparing for research careers. The course runs from June 24-July 19, 2013. Instructors: Candace Greene, Nancy Parezo, Mary Jo Arnoldi, Joshua Bell, and Gwyneira Isaac, plus visiting lecturers.
APPLY TO THE SUMMER INSTITUTE IN MUSEUM ANTHOPOLOGY HERE. DEADLINE March 1, 2013.
5. Now in its ninth year, the WRMA (Workshops in Research Methods in Anthropology) program offers one-day workshops in conjunction with national meetings of anthropologists. Click HERE for information about the next workshops at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association in San Franciso, California,November 14-18, 2013 and the Society for Applied Anthropology in Denver, Colorado, March 19-23, 2013.
6. Now in its second year, the DCRM (Distance Courses in Research Methods in Anthropology)is open to upper division undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals. Four courses are offered in summer 2013: Text Analysis, Geospatial Analysis, Network Analysis, and Video Analysis. The development of these fee-based courses is supported by the National Science Foundation. Enfollment is limited to 18 participants.
Melissa Fisher draws on fieldwork, archival research, and extensive interviews with a very successful cohort of first-generation Wall Street women. She charts the evolution of the women’s careers, the growth of their political and economic clout, changes in the cultural climate on Wall Street, and their experiences of the 2008 financial collapse.
When: Thursday, October 18, 5:00pm-6:30pm Where: Lindner Family Commons, 6th Floor
1957 E Street NW
The Elliott School of International Affairs
Washington, DC 20052
“It’ll never catch on over here – the British don’t like all this ‘have a nice day’ and that kind of stuff, especially when everyone knows that the workers are on the minimum wage and don’t really mean it,” said a wealthy friend of mine who works in ICT in London and a frequent visitor to coffee shops.
He was referring to a policy introduced on March 14 to make Starbucks appear friendlier. Baristas are now instructed to ask a customer for their forename (first name) so that it can be written on the side of the paper cup and called out when the drink is ready for collection. This is all part of the Seattle-based coffee company’s attempt to revitalize its relationship with European consumers as part of a “transformation agenda” that has proved successful in North America.
Is the U.K. ready for this packaged friendliness that is a routine part of customer service in Starbucks outlets in the U.S. and Canada?
In a globalized world, concepts and practices that work in one location can be successfully introduced to another if there appears to be a “goodness of fit.” But my friend’s comment appears to match my observation that many middle-class people in the U.K. are wary of emotional exuberance or expressions of intimacy directed at strangers. The feeling is that authenticity in greetings is paramount and really only suitable only for those related by kinship or through long-standing friendship – anything else is regarded with suspicion. Continue reading “Starbucks in a globalized world: An ethnographic snapshot in London”→
anthropologyworks 