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Anthropology and the Environment
March 1998
Ed Liebow, Contributing Editor
Many thanks to Charlie Stevens and others for providing a firm grounding in institutional memory. The coming year is likely to feature a lively discussion about the Association as a whole, the organizational career choices it faces, and where sections like ours fit into the puzzle. As scholars and practitioners, our work is highly relevant to this discussion, since it is regularly focused on sustainable organizations, the significance of borders, and divergent perspectives of change, hazard and risk.
The A&E Section has emerged from its formative year with an active leadership voice, a visible presence on the Annual Meeting Program, plenty of chances for student involvement, and a distribution of grassroots support among academic departments and non-traditional employment settings alike. While more up-to-the-minute opportunities -- jobs, grants, publications, conferences, course outlines -- are posted and searchable at the web site (http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe/anthenv, generous applause for webmaster Alx Dark), here is a roundup of some key indicators of the Section's vitality.
Leadership
New officers were elected at the Annual Meeting. Section Leadership now includes:
President: Carole Crumley, U North Carolina-Chapel Hill (919/962-5527; crumley@unc.edu)
President-Elect: (Vacant)
Secretary-Treasurer: Tom McGovern, CUNY, (212/772-5654 thomas.mcgovern@hunter.cuny.edu)
Board Members: Barbara Johnston, Ctr for Political Ecology (408/271-9552; bjohnston@igc.apc.org)
Anne Ferguson, Michigan State U (until 11/98) (517/355-4693; fergus12@pilot.msu.edu)
Dan Bates, CUNY (until 11/98) (212/772-5646; daniel.bates@ hunter.cuny.edu)
Alx Dark, New York U (anthenv@altavista.net)
Annual Program Editor: Bob Rhoades, U Georgia (706/542-1042; rrhoades@uga.cc.uga.edu)
Nominations Committee: Emilio Moran (Chair), Indiana (812/855-6181; moran@indiana.edu)
Ben Orlove, UC-Davis (916/752-6756, bsorlove@ucdavis.edu
Elizabeth Graham, York U (416/737-7783; egraham@yorku.ca)
1998 Annual Meeting Program: Last Call
1998 marks the bicentennial anniversary of the publication of Malthus' original treatise on the relation between population and the environment. The A&E section is looking forward to a range of excellent sessions dedicated to population and the anthropological imagination. Given the critical issues of population responses to environmental stress, climate change, changing political ecologies and unmet policy needs, the 1998 theme is tailor-made for the A&E membership. There is still an opportunity to help organize the A&E invited session. In addition, the Section will sponsor up to six sessions, and we can enhance our presence on the program by teaming up with other sections, such as Culture and Agriculture and Medical Anthropology. The deadline for all submissions is April 1. Please contact Program Editor Robert Rhoades, Anthro, U Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 (rrhoades@uga.cc.uga.edu; 706/542-1042) if you are interested in proposing an organized session. Colleagues have already registered their interest in putting together sessions on the population-poverty nexus, biodiversity, coastal ecosystem management, and local response to climate change. If you are thinking of submitting an independent paper on these and other topics, it would greatly streamline the process by communicating with others early in organizing a session around a theme.
ENVIRONMENTAL POSTER PRESENTATIONS INVITED
Also, consider whether the work you are currently doing might be effectively presented as a poster. Environmental research is a prime candidate for poster presentation; it may be effectively conveyed in 8x10 photos, maps, charts, and other visuals. The program committee clusters related posters ('environment' as a keyword would help them), creating a walk-through setting for two hours of informal conversation and networking among colleagues with similar interests. Posters are not just for graduate students, but for anyone who chafes at the limits of the 15-minute monologue.
Publishing Opportunities
SPECIAL ISSUE OF CULTURE & AGRICULTURE
In the spirit of collaboration, the editors of the journal Culture & Agriculture are offering the Anthropology & Environment Section a chance to guest-edit a special issue. The theme of the issue is wide open at present, and publication is planned for the Fall, 1999 issue. If you are interested in being considered as a guest editor (or editing team), please contact Ed Liebow, Env Hlth & Soc Policy Ctr [206/675-1002; liebow@seanet.com]. The aim is to have a special issue selected and well into preparation by June 1. Culture & Agriculture can accommodate up to 9 research articles in a single issue, and you will need to submit a brief treatment outlining the theme of the special issue, its likely contributors, and how your proposed topics will appeal to a combined readership drawn from the two sections.
Culture & Agriculture is peer-reviewed, and it has a growing readership among anthropologists, archaeologists, and researchers and practitioners in other related fields (eg sociology, agricultural economics, policy sciences, and diverse branches of farming and natural resource management). Its current editors are Jim McDonald (210/458-4673; jmcdonald@utsa.edu) and Laura Levi (210/458-5709; llevi@utsa.edu), both at U Texas-San Antonio. The journal is published three times a year, and includes position papers, discussions of theoretical developments and methods of inquiry, and results of empirical research from any tradition of scholarship. Central to the journal's mission is work exploring the connections between environment, ecology, agriculture and aquacultural practices, fisheries, natural resources, food processing, and nutrition, as they relate to cultural dimensions of gender, class, property relations, and labor processes. Culture & Agriculture also welcomes contributions on matters related to sustainability and biodiversity. Dialogue between scholars, activists, and others interested in these matters is encouraged. The journal also publishes brief contributions and research reports (up to 10 manuscript pages), articles (up to 20 pages), book reviews, and review essays.
Students' Corner
RAPPAPORT PRIZE FOR STUDENT PAPER
To honor the memory of Roy A. Rappaport, the Section has started a student paper competition. Papers must be delivered by May 1, 1998 to Carole Crumley [Anthro, U North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3115]. Please follow guidelines for authors from Human Ecology, except you should submit the original and FIVE copies. The winner of the $500 prize will be presented at the A&E Business meeting in Philadelphia this December.
Focus On Departments
HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AT RUTGERS
Beginning this Fall, Rutgers U Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences will offer an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program on the human dimensions of environmental change. Faculty from a number of graduate programs are collaborating to provide students with opportunities to pursue a concentration in the economic, historical, planning and cultural dimensions of environmental change while carrying out a regular program of studies in one of the existing graduate programs. Bonnie McCay (mccay@aesop.rutgers) will coordinate the core seminar in the program's first year, and program enrollment will also afford access to the extensive array of Rutgers resources in environmental policy, land use, marine conservation, geographic information systems, and the policy and decision sciences.
Focus On Policy And Practice
CALL FOR BIOCULTURAL CONSERVATION AWARD NOMINATIONS
To increase the visibility of the contributions of ethnobiology, and to foster and give due recognition to those who further the field, the Healing Forest Conservancy presents an annual award to a scientist, practitioner, or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to ethnobotany or to indigenous peoples' issues related to ethnobotany. The award honors the name of Richard Evans Schultes, widely recognized as one of the most distinguished figures in the field and features a $5,000 cash prize donated by Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and the Leland Fikes Foundation, Inc.
The International Nominating Committee for the award is chaired by Michael J Balick, Director of The New York Botanical Garden's Institute of Economic Botany. The 5 previous winners of the Schultes award are the late Calvin R Sperling, Hernando Garcia Barriga, Janis B Alcorn, the Keokoldi Tribal Association of Costa Rica and Nancy J Turner.
The Schultes Award is sponsored by the Healing Forest Conservancy, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the conservation of tropical forests, particularly medicinal plants and their sustainable use for human health. The Conservancy's focus is to deliver compensation programs that strengthen the integrity of traditional societies that have participated in Shaman's drug discovery process.
The Schultes Award seeks a balance in geographic location, gender and field of study for the recipients. Nominations of indigenous people active in this area are especially welcome. Submit nominations for the 1998 award, along with a statement of the candidate's qualifications or the society's achievements, by May 1, 1998, to the address below. Additional information can be obtained from: Katy Moran, Exec Dir, Healing Forest Conservancy, 3521 S Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007 (202/333-3438; moranhfc@aol.com).