Anthropology News October 2000 S E C T I O N N E W S

National Association for the Practice of Anthropology CARMEN GARCIA RUIZ, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Coming to a Session Near You!

By Pnige E Bever/y, NAPA Program Chair NAPA will sponsor or cosponsor two invited ses- sions at the ZOO0 Annual Meeting of the AAA in San Francisco. The sessions will represent diverse themes and highlight work in the public sector with a primary focus on the role of anthropology and the media. In addition, NAPA is cosponsor- ing a session with the AAA Public Policy Com- mittee and the Anthropology and Environment (ASTE) section that will focus on the public engagement of anthropology with cultural and biological diversity.

invited Sessions ”Anthropology’s Public Face: Encounters with the Media,” organized by Merry Bruns of the Center for Anthropology and Science Commu- nications and Mark Allen Peterson of the Ameri- can University in Cairo, will draw from the expe- riences of professional anthropologists working with and through the mass media. This double session will offer critical commentary on the place of anthropology in the public sector while addressing the links and methodological differ- ences between mass media and anthropology.

NAPA, along with the Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropol- ogy (SUNTA), was invited to organize the session, “Facing a H i-Tech Consuming World, ” organized by Patti Sunderland and Rita DeMy of BSR Group. This session will focus on the impact of technology and globalization on consumer expe- riences and broadly addresses (and questions) anthropology’s role in mediating its understand- ing. The session is comprised of papers that high- light the consumer world and global advertising presented by non-anthropology business profes- sionals and anthropologists practicing in con- sumer research.

The AAA Public Policy Committee will sponsor “Conscious Oversight? The Public Face of En- vironmental Anthropology,” organized by Pamela Puntenney of Environmental and Human Systems Management and Ben Blount (U Georgia at Athens). This session will focus on the key role of anthropological participation in poli- cy discussions and debates.

Volunteered Sessions NAPA members submitted a wide array of papers for the upcoming annual meeting. We are happy to see several exciting volunteered sessions also on the AAA program: “Giving Somethng Back? How Our Subjects Evaluate Our Anthropological Knowledge,” organized by Trevor Stack (U Pennsylvania); “Tourism, Community, Identity and Change: Perspectives from Latin America

and Europe,” organized by T i Wallace (NC State v) and Palma Ingles (v of FIorida); “Facing the Public: Intervention Through Education and Advocacy,” organized by Claudia M Cuevas (U Southern California); and “Cultural Competence: Oxymoron or Opportunity, ” organized by Martha L Hare of Battelle Memorial Institute. See you in San Francisco!

National Association of Student Anthropologis~ TYRONE w SIREN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

The Public Face of (Student) Anthropology Student anthropologists are sometimes “put in their place” when the seemingly benign label of “student” is used to describe the quality of their work or the type of activities they engage in (“stu- dent research” or “student conference.”) Anthro- pologists of all experience levels are sometimes @ty of using the word “student” as a qualify- ing-if not pejorative-adjective rather than an integral part of the noun phrase. NASA, estab- lished by students for students, offers opportuni- ties for us to become empowered members of the anthropological community by creating a space where the future of anthropology can be debated. This forum is essential since the students of today will most likely change the course of the disci- pline in the future. The conversations and proj- ects student anthropologists engage in are, there- fore, of the greatest importance and deserve to be taken seriously by all members of the anthropo- logical community.

At the 2000 AAA meetings, I invite all of NASA‘s increasingly diversified membership (as well as those future and nonmembers) to take advantage of the student space created for them and participate in the NASA invited session. The invited session is entitled “Students Awake! Public (Anthropology) or Perish” and will feature NASA members from nine universities. Our cc- discussants will be Rob Borofsky and Laura Nader. The participants on the panel will encourage as much interaction with the audience as possible, blurring the line between “readers” and “listen- ers.” AU the partiapants hope to subvert-make public-the more general power structures with- in the field of anthropology which seem to demand that someone must lead while others follow, and that some individuals have knowl- edge more valuable than others. In the session, we will challenge the definition of what student anthropologists should be and how they should present themselves to each other, to “degree-ed” anthropologists and the public. By changing the nature of professional relationships and interac- tions, we hope to create a new public face for anthropology that will erase any vestige of an aloof academic who is more “a theory generator” than a person engaged in the surrounding com- munity. If this means subverting the dominant structures of “academic professionalism” it is a task we as students will happily and vigorously

take upon ourselves. We will defend anthropolo- gy as a rigorous academic profession, but we will also argue that its members have the potential to transform anthropology into a more humane activity composed of individuals who care about each other, who carefully consider the impact of their research on the public and who will con- stantly struggle to unmask inequality among and discrimination against all people.

Although the NASA invited session at the AAA meeting is important for student anthropologists, it comes only once a year. Over the course of a year, students often find their lives taking differ- ent turns, beginning their fieldwork or receiving their degrees. Therefore, one of the major chal- lenges confronting NASA, which affects no other section of the AAA, is that its members cannot (even if we would like to!) remain students forev- er. In order to cope with its transitory member- ship, NASA has created new positions in which officers are mentored and encouraged to act more dynamically. For example, the newly created position of “kesident-Elect,” which will be filled by Eric J Haanstad, is a two-year appointment during which Eric will spend one year under the mentorship of current president Jonathan Reed before taking over in the second year. Also, Adam Fish, a NASA member at the U of Idaho, has taken the initiative to create a new position in NASA called the “Volunteer Coordinator.” Adam hopes that the “Volunteer Coordinator” will serve as a more direct link between NASA, stu- dent anthropologists and the public. He encour- ages students to volunteer and participate in or organize NASA activities. He also wants to encourage NASA members to write for their school and local newspapers about issues con- cerning their community.

Adam’s enthusiasm comes across vividly in a recent statement he emailed me: “Being students, we sense a possibility that the world will be changed by creativity and passion. Scholastic anthropology, like an international newspaper, is where interpretations of actions, in the form of theories, eventually coalesce. You can change the field of anthropology and incite public contem- plation by applying anthropological theories to issues that affect the public.” Please contact Adam at emancipation4u@hotmail.com if you would like to volunteer for a NASA activity, have an idea for a new activity or would like advice about how to volunteer. The members of NASA hope that the President-Elect position will allow for a more stable transition from one group of students to the next while the Volunteer Coordinator will have the freedom to act dynam- ically wikhin NASA.

NASA also hopes that its most publicly accessi- ble face-its homepage (www.aaanet.org/nasa/ index.htm)-will continue to serve as a link between both anthropologists and non-anthro- pologists. Desk& Martinez has taken on the Herculean task of revamping the NASA site, She has also composed a student survey that will help the officers of NASA better understand who its members are. Please take a few minutes to check out the new site and answer the survey questions.

60

S E C T I O N N E W S October 2000 Anthropology News

By using the NASA website, I also hope to con- tribute to a more integrated community that will not be constrained by print. For example, I hope to publish articles and opinion pieces from stu- dent anthropologists on the NASA homepage directly, as I receive them, rather than set a “pub- lication deadline.” I believe this will be more compatible with the student lifestyle and will offer a higher degree of accessibility for anthro- pologists with varying degrees of experience, diverse backgrounds and unique opinions. If you have recently written a paper or presented one at a conference and would like to share it with the NASA community, please contact me about post- ing it on our website.

Finally, the NASA Awards Committee has been hard at work organizing this year’s “Carrie Hunter Tate Award 2000.” (For a full description of the history of the award, see our website.) This award is bestowed upon student anthropologists for their enthusiastic service to the profession. The NASA Awards Selection Committee will increase the number of Tate Awards to four this year. ltvo will go to graduate students and two to undergraduate students. The winners of the Tate Award each receive $200 and must be present at the NASA Business Meeting this November, at the AAA’s Annual Meeting. For information about how to apply for the “Carrie Hunter Tate Award,” contact Carla Guerron-Montero (yachac@hotmail. com).

The Awards Committee is also working on a new award which will recognize the achieve- ments of students who come from traditionally underrepresented social and economic back- grounds in order to help foster a diverse academ- ic community. Again, check the website for details or email Carla for more infomation.

All of the above activities, I believe, mark the beginning of a new era in anthropology-an era that will see student anthropology become syn- onymous with the Public Face of Anthropology.

For everyone traveling to San Francisco who would like to know the final details on NASA activities, who might need a place to stay, or who might just want to meet with fellow NASA mem- bers, feel free to contact me, Tyrone Siren (twsiren@students.wisc.edu) or Jonathan Reed (jar@iarkwing.uoregon.edu).

Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges LLOYD MILLER, CONTR~BUT~NG EDITOR

Current Issuer: 5 Fields Update As you know, the “Current Issues in Anthro- pology: Five-Fields Update” is an annual sympcr sium sponsored by SACC, to which distinguished anthropologists are invited to present their views on what’s new and vital in each of anthropolo- gy‘s five sub-disciplines. Our presenters at the AAA meeting in November are: Applied, h d a A Bennet (v Memphis): ”Developing a Consortium

Masai Warriors. Kenva

of Applied and Practicing Anthropology (CAPA) Programs”; Archaeology, Susan Gillespie (U Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): “Teaching Archae- ology”; Biological, Henry McHenry (UC Davis): “Biological Anthropology in the 21st Century”; Cultural, Nancy Scheper-Hughes (UC Berkeley): “Coming to Our Senses: Cultural Anthropology at the Millenium”; Linguistics, Alessandro Duranti (UCLA): “Linguistic Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics: an Exercise in Nomenclature.”

As with last year‘s symposium, each participant will make a 15-minute presentation, followed by a Q&A session and general discussion. Presen- tations will be published subsequently in Teuch- ing Anthropology: SACC Notes.

Teaching Identity SACC’s other invited session is entitled, “Teach- ing Identity: Personal, Cultural, Political.” Or- ganized and chaired by Tony Balzano, the session focuses on problems and strategies of teaching the concept of identity, mostly at the introducto- ry level. Presenters will discuss teaching to homo- geneous communities, in multicultural environ- ments, and to communities where homophobic and racist worldviews prevail. As Tony states in his introductory remarks, “In the process, we learn or are reminded of effective ways to intro- duce students to such concepts as ethnicity, het- erosexism, racism, classism, ableism, social diver- sity, multiculturalism, nationalism, agency and, of course, identity.”

h a Jane Wundrum will chair the session. Presenters and titles of papers are as follows:

I Ceremonial dancer, First Nations Cultural Center, Tillicum Village, WA Lloyd Miller, “Teaching Photo by Diane Barbolla About Ethnic Identity

61