Anthropology and the Environment Section

Anthropology and the Environment

Conferences:

Upcoming Conference(s)

SAVING THE WIDE OPEN SPACES: How to Conserve Biodiversity and Sustainable Ranching, Forestry, and Farming in the American West. A symposium to be held in Tucson, Arizona, on May 13-15, 2005, cosponsored by The Southwest Center of the University of Arizona, the Anthropology & Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association, the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, New Mexico State University, the National Park Service, the National Forest Service, and the Quivira Coalition.

Please download the conference prospectus for more information..

2005 AAA Annual Meeting - November 30 - December 4, 2005 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC

Please visit http://www.aaanet.org/mtgs/mtgs.htm for more details

Recent Conference(s)

102nd AAA Annual Meeting in Chicago: "2003 AAA Annual Meeting Theme---Peace: Affinities, Divisions, Transformations" Hosted in Chicago at the Hilton & Towers from November 19-23, 2003.

Announcement: A&E Business Meetings at AAA Conference in Chicago
"EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING" for the Anthropology and Environment Section scheduled for 11/19/2003 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in Conference Room 4I followed by an AWARDS PRESENTATION AND BUSINESS MEETING" for the Anthropology and Environment Section is scheduled for 11/21/2003 from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Conference Room 4A.

Environmental Justice Workshop: Organized by president-elect Kelly Alley and Melissa Checker, “Crossing the Divide: Anthropologists and Effective Environmental Justice Policy Intervention” brought together grassroots activists, anthropologists, lawyers, and officials from the Environmental Protection Agency to explore collaborative possibilities and forge alliances. The workshop was inspirational as well as instructive–a splendid example of the energy and commitment that makes A&E such an exciting section.

“Crossing the Divide” was just one of many activities sponsored by A&E in Chicago. The section also sponsored a session entitled, "Conservation as Science, Discourse and Practices of Control: Conflict with Indigenous Peoples" and the co-organizers are Harvey Feit (McMaster) and Steve Langdon (Alaska Anchorage).

Past Workshop(s)

Environmental Justice: "Crossing the Next Divide"

At the AAA’s 102 Annual Meeting last November, A&E sponsored an Environmental Justice Workshop. Organized by president-elect Kelly Alley and Melissa Checker, “Crossing the Divide: Anthropologists and Effective Environmental Justice Policy Intervention” brought together professionals and activists to explore collaborative possibilities and forge alliances with anthropologists. Policy makers, a grassroots activist, an environmental lawyer, and several policy-oriented academics helped anthropologists broaden their understanding of the policy-making activities, laws and litigation that exist within the field of environmental justice, and to find the best entry points for effective intervention.

The workshop's first presenter, Adam Babich, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Tulane University, emphasized that litigation is only one tool among many that grassroots groups use to oppose industrial practices or prevent the siting of landfills and industries in their neighborhoods. He and others stressed that litigation should come after communities have been empowered to document their own conditions and decide remedies. Sylvia Hood Washington elaborated this position further when talking about her environmental oral history project, funded by the national Catholic organization, Knights of Peter Claver. Before completing her Ph.D. in history,Washington worked as an environmental engineer for NASA. In her current project, Washington is working to facilitate environmental literacy by teaching science in a way that is not intimidating and informing community members of their right to legal redress.

Mardi Klevs, the Greater Chicago Urban Initiative Manager for the U.S. EPA, argued thatanthropologists can help translate scientific language and regulations to affected communities and also push for greater attention to social and health variables not currently recognized in EPA risk assessments. Anthropologists can also promote the importance of qualitative studies among EPA officials who can use them when designing their survey instruments.

Kate Gillogly, anthropologist with an SFAA-EPA fellowship, worked with affected communities in Chicago and conducted a qualitative study for Klevs' department. She found substantial differences in the environmental perceptions of members of different community networks. However, all groups had similar concerns about regulating industry, sustaining the economy, and creating development to bring young people back into the community. All communities also had "brokers" who carried information back and forth between communities and government agencies.

Cheryl Johnson of Chicago's People for Community Recovery talked about her role as a broker for communities residing in public housing in south Chicago. Community members started documenting landfills, industrial plants and chemical plants in the area, and when they found regulatory lapses they reported them to the EPA. Residents also convinced the Chicago Housing Authority to remove lead and asbestos from their homes as they documented the health effects of lead poisoning and designed health interventions.

Concluding the session, Bunyan Bryant, director of the EJ initiative at the University of Michigan, argued that we are in a crisis of epistemology. Scientific research and litigation have not worked to benefit local groups, who should be empowered with their own resources before they hire lawyers to represent them in court. He added that anthropologists can contribute to EJ by "studying up" -- that is, by conducting ethnographic research on governmental agencies and polluting corporations.

In the follow-up discussion, several panelists debated the notion of the anthropologist as translator to the community. Bryant argued that too much emphasis is placed on research done by outsiders, including anthropologists. For instance, white anthropologists translating to black communities about science and regulations is not the answer; rather, affected community members must speak for themselves. Johnson agreed that members of her community already have the scientific knowledge they need. Anthropologists can make a more important contribution by translating the realities of poor and minority communities to EPA and other government agencies through scientific research and critiques of regulatory policy and the law. In this way, anthropologists can assist communities in applying the leverage needed to rectify local environmental problems.

Overall, the workshop was inspirational as well as instructive–a splendid example of the energy and commitment that makes A&E such an exciting section.

Conference & Call for Papers Archive:

On Edge: Anthropology in Troubling Times,(2003):

Anthropology & Environment Call for Papers.

Anthropology & Environment Call for Papers "On Edge: Anthropology in Troubling Times," May 8-11, 2003, Halifax, Nova Scotia http://www.society-anthro-northamerica.org

Upcoming SfAA Meetings in Atlanta

Circle on your calendar and “star” the dates of the upcoming 62nd SfAA meetings in Atlanta 6-9 March. A wealth of sessions and presentations have been planned, beginning at noon on Wednesday (6th) and going through mid-afternoon on Saturday (9th). Topics on health and disease are especially well represented, but there is a wide range of sessions on other topics of interest to applied anthropologists. Several other professional associations are meeting jointly with SfAA, thereby enriching the array of topics and presentations.These include the Society for Medical Anthropology, the Council on Nursing and Anthropology, the Culture and Agriculture Society, the Political Ecology Society, and the High Plains Society. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society for Community Research and Action will also have a central presence. A special Plenary address is planned for Thursday evening. Dr. Howard Frumkin, Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University will speak on Urban Sprawl and Public Health. Please come and partake of the intellectual richness of the meetings, the social delights, and the amenities of the city of Atlanta. I look forward to seeing you in Atlanta.

Benjamin G. Blount, Program Chair

Call for Papers for the Anthropology Policy Conference: Environment, Resources, and Sustainability:
Policy Issues for the 21st Century

Sponsored by:
Culture & Agriculture Section of AAA
Anthropology and Environment Section of AAA
American Anthropological Association Public Policy Committee
Hosted by the University of Georgia Department of Anthropology
Location: Athens, Georgia
Date: September 7 & 8, 2002

In recent years anthropologists have called for increased involvement of our discipline in policy matters. The purpose of this conference is to identify and prioritize salient policy issues about which anthropology has something to offer in the realm of environment, resources, and sustainability. An important component of this effort will be to articulate a process through which prioritized policy issues can be promoted via the newly formed AAA Policy Committee, as well as the C&A, A&E and other interested Sections.

The conference will be held over two days. The first day will be a plenary session with an overview paper presented in selected topical area. The second day is devoted primarily to breakout groups within which papers will be used to respond to the charge to translate our anthropological expertise into prioritized topics for policy promotion. Policy entails a broad range of possible activities, only one of which includes actual legislation. It also includes agency or administrative action, enforcement, directing research funding, identification and coalescing of partnerships with other scientific groups, advocacy, and legal action, to name but a few.

Papers are invited in the following topical areas: Environmental Justice, GMOs, Intellectual Property Rights, Industrial Agriculture and the Environment, Access to Fisheries Resources, Conservation and Community, Natural Resource Management, Consumption and Globalization, Corporatization and Consolidation of Food Systems, and Energy. These topics may or may not correspond precisely to the topical policy foci areas emerging from the conference and papers outside these areas will also be considered. Papers in each topical area should include: 1) identification of problems/issues; 2) anthropological contributions to an understanding of the problems/issues; 3) review of salient policy issues and/or efforts in the topic; and 4) a suggested course of priority policy action, including players, agencies, organizations to be involved and how anthropology interconnects. Eight to ten papers will be selected for presentation the first day, while the other accepted papers will be used to frame discussion for working groups on the second day.
The conference is limited to 100 participants. Proposals for papers should be 250 words or less and sent by e-mail (regular mail accepted if necessary) by October 1st 2001 to Kendall Thu at Kthu@niu.edu. Kendall can also be contacted by phone at 815 753-0479. Questions can also be directed to Pete Brosius at 706 542-1463 or pbrosius@arches.uga.edu. Acceptance notification will be provided by Nov. 1st along with registration information. The conference registration deadline is December 1st.

Call for Papers, Panels and Roundtables:
45th Annual Meeting of the African
Studies Association (5-8 December 2002 in Washington, D.C.)

Scholars and practitioners with African research interests are invited tosubmit proposals for papers, panels and roundtables for the 45th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association (5-8 December 2002 in Washington, D.C.). The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2002. Guidelines regarding submissions and conference registration may be found at: http://www.africanstudies.org/. Proposals should be submitted directly to the African Studies Association (African Studies Association, Rutgers University, 132 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1400 USA. Tel: 732-932-8173, Fax: 732-932-3394, Email: callasa@rci.rutgers.edu).

As section head for the environmental sub-theme at next fall's meeting, I am particularly keen to encourage submissions regarding human-environment interactions from a broad range of disciplines. A description of the environmental sub-theme is as follows: "The evolving character of the African environment, real and imagined, has long been a subject of debate among scholars and practitioners. At the dawn of the new century, we find a segment of the research community concerned that the continent is ever-engaged in a downward spiral of environmental destruction, poverty and population expansion. Other scholars suggest that we have inappropriately blamed local people for environmental problems that are better understood within the broader context of globalization, national versus and local interests, and excessive consumption in Northern countries. How to best manage the environment for the benefit of local people is, and will continue to be, a contentious nut to crack. Elucidating this conundrum is likely to require, among other things, closer collaboration between biophysical and social scientists (an underdeveloped facet of a yet, truly interdisciplinary African Studies). The increasingly global nature of environmental discourse will also impact, and be influenced by, African practice and scholarship. One example of this is the Rio+10 conference (to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2002) that will again focus global attention on the theory and practice of sustainable development, an approach closely associated with contemporary environmental policy and programs in Africa.

This sub-theme welcomes proposals for papers, panels and roundtables addressing a wide array of environmental topics (e.g., water resources, biodiversity, wildlife and forest conservation, ecotourism, sustainable agriculture, urban environments and land degradation) and employing a range of analytical approaches (e.g., political ecology, cultural ecology, political economy, environmental history, cartographic and biophysical analysis, etc.). Given the overall conference theme of "Africa in the Information and Technology Age," submissions regarding social, technical and managerial aspects of the use, or abuse, of technologies (e.g., geographic information systems, remote sensing) in the environmental realm are especially encouraged."

I hope you will consider this excellent opportunity to interact with other Africanist scholars in an interdisciplinary atmosphere. While all proposals should be submitted directly to the African Studies Association, I am willing to entertain questions regarding the environmental sub-theme.

William Moseley, Dept of Geography, Northern Illinois University, Email: moseley@geog.niu.edu