The Washington Association of Practicing Anthropologists (WAPA) invites you to attend:

Anthropological Approaches to Climate Change
Date: Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Meeting, 7:00 pm, Sumner School, Rotating Gallery G-4; Pre-meeting get-together, 5:30 pm Beacon Bar and Grill

The topic of Shirley Fiske’s talk will be “Why Climate Matters: Perspectives from Anthropology.” She will discuss the importance of keeping climate change on the political agenda as we approach the elections in November, why anthropologists and the public should care, and what anthropology can contribute to the climate dialogue. She will weave in the work of the AAA’s Global Climate change Task Force.

Dr. Fiske chairs the AAA’s Global Climate Change Task Force. She is an environmental and policy anthropologist and a leading light of WAPA. Shirley is a past-president of both of WAPA and NAPA, and one of the two founders of WAPA’s Praxis Award. She is currently a Research Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Maryland. To hear more about her important work on climate change, join us on October 2.
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Saturday, September 22, 2:00 — 4:00 PM
At the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art on the Mall

Learn about the mystery and science of the stars revealed through African artists from ancient Egypt to the present day. We are pleased to offer a unique double program in collaboration with staff at the National Museum of African Art through their ongoing exhibit “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts.”  Cultural anthropologist and author Dr. Deirdre LaPin will screen her acclaimed film “Sons of the Moon,” which describes how the Ngas of central Nigeria view the moon as the regulating power of all life. Their simple observatories align natural elements that enable men and women to “meet” the new harvest moon once a year. Their structures may be the last traditional observatories that, like ancient Stonehenge, are still regularly used for ritual purposes.

Following the film and discussion, Museum staff will guide us through the exhibit “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts.” Created by Dr. Christine Mullen Kreamer, the Museum’s chief curator and deputy director, this is the first major exhibition exploring the historical legacy of African cultural astronomy and its intersection with traditional and contemporary African arts.  The exhibition of some 100 remarkable objects considers how the sun, moon and stars and celestial phenomena serve as sources of inspiration in the creation of African arts from ancient times to the present.

The film screening and discussion will begin promptly at 2:00 in the Auditorium on the Museum’s sublevel 2, followed by the guided tour of the exhibit on the same level. For more on the celebrated “African Cosmos” show and the film, visit the website.  You may also read the review of the Exhibition from The New York Times by Holland Cotter published 31 August 2012.

DIRECTIONS:  The Museum of African Art is located on the National Mall at 950 Independence Avenue, SW. Nearest Metrorail station is Smithsonian on the Blue and Orange lines.  Take the Mall exit and go west along Jefferson Drive toward  the kiosk and turn right through the Enid Haupt Garden toward the Museum located behind the Castle. Limited parking is also available on Independence Avenue and Jefferson Drive.

Vulnerable Workers, Forced Labour, Migration and Ethical Trading
A conference at the University of Leeds, U.K., December 14, 2012

This 1-day conference will bring together academics, campaigners, and policy makers to explore both the drivers and the broad experiences of vulnerable, forced and exploitative labour, to place the UK experience within a global context, and put questions of globalisation, migration and ethical trading centre-stage. We are particularly interested to support campaigning groups, including trades unions, those supporting refugees, and organisations concerned with the wider implications of forced labour, including ethical trading and the regulation of supply chains; and to consider how research evidence can strengthen the work of those active in these areas.

Keynote speakers:

• Alice Bloch, Professor of Sociology, City University London
• Aidan McQuade, Anti Slavery International
• Nicola Phillips, Professor of Political Economy, University of Sheffield
• Guy Standing, Professor of Economic Security, University of Bath

We invite papers and other types of contributions (e.g. poetry, photography, film, art) which reflect on these and related questions:

Vulnerable migrant workers

• What is the interplay between asylum and broader migration policy and vulnerable /forced labour?
• How are different groups of non-migrants and migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, vulnerable to exploitation?

Labour markets and trade

• How the does the organisation of production and trade in the contemporary global economy generate vulnerability and forced labour in different contexts?
• What are the links between the politico-economic framework of neoliberal labour markets and exploitative work?

Forced labour

• What value do definitions, international treaties and covenants on forced labour and domestic UK legislative apparatus designed to reduce/eliminate forced labour have in everyday life?
• How do people become trapped in vulnerable and forced labour?

Organising and mobilising

• What opportunities exist for individuals or groups to resist in order to mobilise and eventually exit from vulnerable / forced labouring?
• What interventions might have the potential to reduce unfree/forced labour; e.g. immigration policy solutions; employer sanctions; improving precarious workers’ access to information and organising/mobilising opportunities; strategies for campaigning organisations?

The conference will be of interest to: academics working in this interdisciplinary field; people with personal experience of unfree/forced labour; policy makers; trades unionists; people working, campaigning, volunteering in these areas; and political activists. The conference will include a mixture of speakers, discussion, and presentations by academics and campaigning groups.

Please send your ideas for papers or presentations (abstracts of max 250 words) by 28th September 2012 to Dr Hannah Lewis, h.j.lewis@leeds.ac.uk.

To register for the conference (£20 higher education, business, statutory, £10 charity and voluntary; unwaged free) click here.

Organised by Dr Stuart Hodkinson, Dr Hannah Lewis, Dr Louise Waite, University of Leeds; Prof. Pete Dwyer, University of Salford; and Prof. Gary Craig, Wilberforce Institute, Hull.

The conference is organised on behalf of the ESRC-funded project: Precarious lives: asylum seekers and refugees’ experiences of forced labour (RES-062-23-2895), with additional financial support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

The Royal Anthropology Institute’s conference Anthropology in the World will be held June 8-10 at the British Museum, Clore Centre and and will contain many papers of interest to applied/engaged anthropologists. Online registration is via the RAI’s website.

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
When: Thur, Apr 19 and Sat, Apr 21 | 6:30pm
Where: Landmark E Street Cinema
Washington, DC

Part political thriller, part memoir, Granito depicts a riveting, haunting tale of genocide with a cast of characters that includes a courageous forensic anthropologist exhuming remains of the disappeared and an archival researcher uncovering damning documents in government archives.

Fredy Peccerelli will be at the Thursday screening. He is a noted forensic anthropologist who has worked to promote human rights among the Maya of Guatemala.

Presented by DC Film Festival