Anthropology and the Environment

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The Anthropology & Environment Section of AAA calls for abstract submissions for the Annual Rappaport Student Panel and Prize. A Rappaport Prize Panel Discussion will be held at the 2010 AAA meeting in Philadelphia. Up to five graduate students will be selected to present a paper in a discussion session, and one of those selected will be awarded the Rappaport Student Prize, which includes a $250 cash award. All five panelists (including the Prize winner) will receive partial support for travel to the AAA meetings. All of the selected panelists will be encouraged and guided by the A&E Board to pursue publication in relevant journals.

Interested graduate students should submit a 500 word, single-authored abstract to Lisa Gezon (lgezon@westga.edu) as a Microsoft Word attachment.

• A student may submit an abstract for the Rappaport Prize regardless of whether they are also submitting an abstract to present a paper at the AAA.

• The students selected to participate in the Rappaport Prize Panel Discussion will be listed in the program as discussants (we will be able to include your names in the program even though the deadline for submission will be passed by the time decisions are made). THEREFORE, to apply for the Rappaport Prize, you should not be already participating as a discussant on any other panel.

The deadline is April 15, 2010. A committee will select up to five students to be invited to present a paper as part of the 2009 Rappaport Prize Panel Discussion. Students will be notified by the committee regarding decisions for the Student Panel sometime in the month of May.  

Those selected to present in the Discussion Panel will have until October 1, 2010 to write their full, article-length (up to 8000 words) papers. Consideration for the Rappaport Prize will be based on these papers. The papers should be written with the expectation that they will ultimately be submitted for publication. 

A&E members and audience will participate in a discussion after the paper presentations. The Rappaport Prize winner, selected from among the panelists, will be announced at the A&E Business Meeting.

The Rappaport Prize and Panel is part of an effort to improve the mentoring process for graduate students as they pursue A&E related careers. Participating provides an opportunity for students to receive constructive feedback on their work by junior and senior scholars in the A&E community.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Selection for participation in the Rappaport AAA session will be based on the abstract submitted. The abstract (a maximum of 500 words) should present a brief summary of the entire paper. This should include, very briefly, a statement of the problem being investigated, methods undertaken, the results of the study, the theoretical context in which it is being evaluated, and the significance of the research. Abstracts that include the above information will receive full consideration. Final selection will be based on the panel´s expert judgment, including the originality of the research and the author’s analysis, as well as the contribution to the field of environmental anthropology.

The selection of the recipient of the Rappaport Prize will be based on evaluation of the full paper (a maximum of 8000 words, including notes and bibliography) submitted to the judges prior to the AAA and on the quality of the presentation at the AAA. Judges will evaluate originality, contribution to the field, writing style appropriate to a journal manuscript for submission, presentation style appropriate for a professional meeting, and their own expert judgment in making their determination of the winner.  

After the AAA session, all panel members will be offered mentoring assistance in revising their papers for publication.

**NOTE: A&E award committees follow NSF guidelines regarding potential conflict of interest between applicants and reviewers.**

RAPPAPORT PRIZE AWARDS

2009

10th Award given to NIKHIL ANAND for his paper, On Good Water, Social Systems and Their Leaky State.

Finalists: Jessica Barnes, Lesley L. Daspit, Maria Alejandra Perez, and James Stinson

2008

9th Award given to EIAL DUJOVNY for his paper, The Deepest Cut: Political Ecology and Marginalization in the Dredging of a New Sea Mouth at Chillika Lake, India.

Finalists: Gunra Aistars, Cindy Eisenhour, Yu Wang, Troy Wilson

2007

9th Award given to SARAH HUNT for her paper, Ecosystem Science and Engineering and the Anthropology of Trouble.

2006

8th Award given to THOMAS PEARSON for his paper, Biosafety, Anti-biotechnology Movements, and the Management of Life in Central America.

2005

7th Award given to MICHAEL HATHAWAY (Michigan) for his paper, Conservation as Development: Transnational Projects in SW China.

2004

6th Award given to JILL CONSTANTINO (Michigan) for her paper, The 'Wild West' of the Pacific: Peopling and Depeopling the Galapagos Islands.

2003

5th Award given to ALISON BIDWELL PEARCE (Stanford) for her paper, The Good, the Bad, and the Human: Confronting Our True Selves in Conservation.

2002

No award given in 2002.

2001

4th Award given to ANNE RADEMACHER (Yale) for her paper, Past, Present, and Future Ecologies: Constructing Degradation and Restoration on the Bagmati and Bishnumati Rivers in Katmandu.

2000

3rd Award given to ROBERT PORRO.

1999

2nd Award given to LORETTA ANN CORMIER for her paper, Monkey as Food, Monkey as Child: Symbolic Cannibalism of the Guaja of Maranhao, Brazil, and MARSHA BROFKA for her paper, A Place for Class In Environmental Discourse.

1998

1st Award given to MELISSA CHECKER (NYU) for her paper, It's In the Air: Organizing for Environmental Equity in a Multi-Ethnic Coalition.