When: Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. Where: Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC
Rajiv Shah/USAID
The 2014 Annual Conference is just 4 weeks away and space is filling up fast. As you may know, Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (pictured), will deliver the keynote address.
We will also have eight breakout sessions and two high-level plenary discussions throughout the day. Topics will include Technology and Innovation; Maximizing Value, Impact, and Relevance in the New International Development Architecture; Ensuring Healthy Lives; Land and Resource Rights; Access to Water; Next Generation Resilience; Education Challenges; and many more. To view details and descriptions, please click here.
Please stay tuned for more information on session speakers and the rest of the program by visiting our website. If your organization is interested in sponsoring the Annual Conference, please email annualconference@sidw.org or call (202) 331-1317.
What are you waiting for? Space is limited, so register today!
The article quotes Nancy Khalil, a doctoral candidate in social anthropology at Harvard: Years ago, she remembered “trying to explain who we really are, in these really anxious, tense meetings” with Jewish leaders, who were then trying to reconcile their desire for better interfaith relations with their communities’ concerns about a mosque founder’s anti-Semitic statements and alleged extremist ties.
“It was an unbelievable moment for me, and it was really indicative of the type of relationships that we now have across institutions and across communities,” Khalil said. “Because it wasn’t just the leaders being welcoming … It was everybody in that temple being welcoming. And that Muslims were comfortable staying there and mingling afterwards, that was telling.”
• U.S. evangelical churches reach out to save minds as well as souls
In an op-ed in The New Times, Tanya Luhrmann, Watkins University professor of cultural anthropology at Stanford University, writes about some movement in U.S. evangelical churches moving into the area of mental illness.
Rick Warren at TED, 2006/Wikipedia
She notes the pastor Rick Warren, whose son committed suicide one year ago after struggling with depression. Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church, one of the nation’s largest evangelical churches, teamed up with his local Roman Catholic Diocese and the National Alliance on Mental Illness for an event that announced a new initiative to involve the church in the care of serious mental illness.
According to Luhrmann, the churches are not trying to supplant traditional mental health care but instead complement it: “When someone asks, Should I take medication or pray?” one speaker remarked, “I say, ‘yes.’”
Members of the churches think there are not enough services available. Further, many people do not turn to the services that exist because of the social stigma. [Blogger’s note: In other words: all hands on deck to help fight mental health problems. And heads up to the health care system to do more and do better work and try to address the stigma problem.]
The Department of Anthropology, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex is recruiting a permanent Lectureship/Senior Lectureship in Anthropology and International Development.”We are seeking to appoint an outstanding individual who will enrich our exciting research agenda in Anthropology and International Development and contribute to the delivery of our teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Candidates should hold a PhD, have a good publication record and provide evidence of a strong research agenda linked to past and future grant applications. Applicants will be dynamic researchers using a broadly anthropological approach to consider contemporary development challenges. Their work should complement and strengthen current research and teaching in Anthropology and International Development including, but not limited to, corporate social responsibility, human rights, gender and sexualities, social movements and activism, and the use of digital media and the arts in development. First-hand experience of international development work and familiarity with development tools and practices would be an asset.”
The closing date for applications is Wednesday, May 14th, 2014.
KPBS radio (San Diego) interviewed medical anthropologist and health activist Paul Farmer about how to improve health care around the world.
Farmer talked about how to ensure equal access to health care through smart aid and the need to avoid what he calls “stupid deaths.” He comments on the “equity approach” in responding to a question about the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide.
He also addresses tough questions about HIV/AIDs and how to help the poorest people.
• Jim Kim: On leadership and cholera
The Washington Post carried a brief interview (embedded below) with Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank and a medical anthropologist and physician.
Kim discusses leadership and the need to develop a thick skin, in some areas, and openness in others.
During the April 12 meetings of the World Bank, Kim called for a renewed sense of urgency and more coordination from the international community to help Haiti eliminate cholera, which has killed thousands of Haitians since its outbreak in October 2010.
National Public Radio (U.S.) reported on the role of cultural anthropology in efforts to prevent the spread of Ebola in Guinea.
Specialists at a Guékedou, southern Guinea isolation ward. Seyllou/AFP/Getty
Doctors, nurses and epidemiologists from international organizations are flying in to help, along with cultural anthropologists. Understanding local beliefs can help get communities to trust international health care workers, says Barry Hewlett, a medical anthropologist at Washington State University. Hewlett was invited to join the Doctors Without Borders Ebola team during an outbreak in Uganda in 2000. There are anthropologists on the current team in Guinea as well.
Before the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders started bringing in anthropologists, medical staff had a difficult time convincing families to bring their sick loved ones to clinics and isolation wards. In Uganda, Hewlett remembers, people were afraid of the international health care workers: “The local people thought that the Europeans in control of the isolation units were in a body parts business … Their loved ones would go into the isolation units, and they would never see them come out.”
Health care workers did not always promptly notify relatives of a death because of the need to dispose of the body quickly, Hewlett wrote in a report on his experiences in Uganda: “The anger and bad feelings about not being informed were directed toward health care workers in the isolation unit … This fear could have been averted by allowing family members to see the body in the bag and allowing family members to escort the body to the burial ground.” In addition, Hewlett points out that the large tarps surrounding isolation units were removed so family members could see and talk with a sick relative.
Efforts to contain such outbreaks must be “culturally sensitive and appropriate,” Hewlett says. “Otherwise people are running away from actual care that is intended to help them.” Medical anthropologists can help doctors and other medical experts understand how a local population perceives disease, death, and loss. Continue reading “Anthro in the news 4/7/14”→
The author of this paper, Greyson Conant Brooks, holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Colby College and an M.A. in Anthropology with a concentration in International Development from the George Washington University. He wishes to acknowledge and thank the following for financial, logistical, analytical, and personal support: the activists and advocates at SMUG, The Lewis N. Cotlow Fund at GW, Stephen Lubkemann, Barbara Miller, Attiya Ahmad, Ujala Dhaka-Kintgen, Erica Wortham, Melissa Minor Peters, Tina Levine, Steven Barry, Leslee Brooks, Stanley Brooks, and Michael Barry. Continue reading “CIGA Working Paper by GW graduate, Greyson Conant Brooks”→
The Huffington Post carried an article marking World TB Day and this year’s focus on finding and treating the 3 million people with active TB who are missed by public health systems.
Paul Farmer in Haiti with Alcante/Moupali Das
It presents responses from Paul Farmer — medical anthropology professor, doctor, and health policy advocate — to several questions including why he started working on TB, the specific challenges in working on TB, and more.
• Paul Farmer’s latest book
The National Catholic Reporter included a review of Farmer’s latest book, In the Company of the Poor, a collection of writings and an interview transcript with Farmer and Dominican Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Notre Dame professor who is considered to be the founder of liberation theology.
“In a particularly poignant section, Farmer recalls gathering in Peru for a conference ambitiously titled ‘The New World Order and the Health of the Poor.’ He [Farmer] and his colleagues learned directly from the experiences of the poor, a key hermeneutical approach for liberation theology, and they came up with a model of accompaniment, or pragmatic solidarity. Farmer’s works are cerebral but captivating and pay tribute to the ‘disciplined humility’ and hopeful praxis of Gutiérrez’s intellectual and pastoral accomplishments.”
• “Tender mercies” say much about a society
Sarah Wagner, cultural anthropology professor at the George Washington University, published an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun about U.S. scientific practices in accounting for war dead in the past century, especially MIAs (those missing in action).
She argues that many complexities involved need to be taken into account in order to serve the relatives: “We as a public need to understand more fully the scientific work and its costs and judge for ourselves if those tender mercies reflect the values of this nation. The missing, unknown and yet unidentified deserve that much.” Continue reading “Anthro in the news 3/31/14”→
African Diaspora and Development When: Saturday, April 12th, 2:30 – 6 pm Where: Embassy of Cote d’Ivoire (2424 Massachusetts Avenue, NW), Washington DC
Maison D’Oeuvres Pour Le Developpment Economique et Du Leadership Pour la Cote D’Ivoire and the Consortium of African Diaspora in the United States (CADUS) invites you and your colleagues to attend a forum on “African Diaspora and Development Partnerships.” Ambassador Amina Salum Ali, the African Union’s Permanent Representative to Washington, will be the keynote speaker for this event.
An article in Firstpost reviewed several puzzles involved in the missing Malaysia Airline Flight 370, and discussed how various theories implicate Malaysian politics.
It suggests that unchallenged power has bred political apathy and inefficiency. In terms of the stumbles over the missing plane search, the article quotes Clive Kessler, emeritus professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of New South Wales, who says that the government “lacks the ability to handle many technical matters with assurance and to communicate its purposes globally with clarity and agility.”
• From Haiti: After all, what has been done for us?
It explores the problem of outsiders trying to aid Haiti without truly knowing Haiti. Montreal filmmaker Joseph Hillel’s film opens with a “full-frontal assault” on the role of international aid in helping Haiti. The article mentions anthropologist Ira Lowenthal, who says that the United Nations and other institutions are, “not focused on bettering Haiti.”
Echoing, even more forcefully, Lowenthal’s view is the comment from a man in one of the many neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince hit hard by the 2010 earthquake: “…what has been done for us? Absolutely nothing.” Continue reading “Anthro in the news 3/24/14”→
The Anthropology in Action journal welcomes research-based papers, commentaries and debate, and literature review articles as well as reviews of events, books, films and blogs.
The journal is keen to increase the diversity of writing included in the journal, so in addition to reports of research that is relevant to engagement of anthropology with public policy and practice, the editor seeks more pieces that discuss career options for anthropologists and writing about experiences of those who are working outside academic anthropology.
When submitting an article, please supply an abstract (100–150 words), up to eight key words, and a brief biographical note. Full instructions can be found at: www.journals.berghahnbooks.com/aia/
Dr. Christine McCourt, Editor, Anthropology in Action
Professor of Maternal & Child Health, School of Health Sciences
City University London
anthropologyworks 