Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists About Members

New publication, "Applying Anthropology in the Global Community," contains contributions from WAPA members Mari Clarke. Mary Odell Butler and Shirley Fiske

Ruth Sando — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:16:50 GMT

Left Coast Press has notified WAPA that its new publication, "Applying Anthropology in the Global Community," has just been published. It contains chapters by several of our members and one, Mary Odell Butler is also one of the editors.
If you are trying to keep up with the growing literature about applied anthropology, this book offers a range of experience-based information. To provide an idea of the contents, here are the chapters:

Introduction
Christina Wasson, Mary Odell Butler, Jacqueline Copeland-Carson

1 Global Localities and the Management of Infectious Disease
Mary Odell Butler

2 Engendering Transport: Mapping Women and Men on the Move
Mari Clarke

3 Housing Interests: Developing Community in a Globalizing City
Jacqueline Copeland-Carson

4 Policy, Applied Feminist Anthropological Practice, and the Traffic in Women
Susan Dewey

5 Global Climate Change from the Bottom Up
Shirley J. Fiske

6 International Migration and Aging
Madelyn Iris

7 Defining Family: Practice and Policy in Child Welfare
Susan Racine Passmore

8 Internationalism and Systems Thinking in Community and Public Health
Eve C. Pinsker

9 Localizing the Global in Technology Design
Susan Squires and Christina Wasson

Conclusion: Toward a Practice-based Ethnography in the Global Village
Jean J. Schensul and Mary Odell Butler

The book is available in both hardback and paperback, and can be purchased through the publisher's website: http://www.lcoastpress.com/book.php?id=372

WAPA member Frances Norwood to receive 2011 Margaret Mead Award

WAPA Communications — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:26:32 GMT

Congratulations to WAPA member, Dr. Frances Norwood, who was recently selected to receive the 2011 Margaret Mead Award for her book, The Maintenance of Life: Preventing Social Death through Euthanasia Talk and End-of-Life Care – Lessons from The Netherlands,” (2009). The Margaret Mead Award is presented to a younger scholar for a particular accomplishment such as a book, film, monograph, or service, that interprets anthropological data and principles in ways that make them meaningful and accessible to a broadly concerned public, skills for which Margaret Mead was admired widely. Past recipients of the Margaret Mead Award include Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Alex Stepick, Paul Farmer, Susan Scrimshaw, Philippe Bourgois, and Leo Chavez.

The Maintenance of Life is about what has developed in one present-day society to address social death and modern dying. It is based on a 15-month ethnographic study of home death in The Netherlands with general practitioners, end-of-life patients and their family members. The book develops from two important study findings: (1) Euthanasia in practice is predominantly a discussion, which only rarely culminates in a euthanasia death; and (2) Euthanasia talk in many ways serves a palliative function, staving off social death by providing participants with a venue for processing meaning, giving voice to suffering, and reaffirming social bonds and self-identity at the end of Dutch life. Ironically, those who engage in euthanasia talk often choose not to die by euthanasia and instead live longer lives as active participants engaged in Dutch social networks even at the end of life.

Dr. Norwood weaves her story beautifully, with ethnographic excerpts opening each chapter telling the stories that make up end-of-life from the perspective of patients, families, and their physicians. Using theory from Michel Foucault and Clive Seale, Dr. Norwood illuminates concepts of discourse and social death through ethnography, yet weaves an ethnographic story that is accessible to scholars, policy makers, and families alike. Her book takes a critical look at Dutch euthanasia policy and broader end-of-life practices from a cultural perspective in comparison with US end-of-life practices and policies. It is a book that offers those on any side of the end-of-life debate and those from around the world valuable lessons for maintaining life at the end of life.

The book was recently translated into French and is now also available as Mourir un Acte de Vie (2010).

Launch of book by WAPA member Gretchen Schafft

WAPA Communications — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:56:47 GMT

Commemorating Hell: The Public Memory of Mittelbau-Dora will be the topic of discussion at the Silver Spring Civic Center at One Veterans’ Plaza (corner of Elsworth and Fenton Streets in Silver Spring) on April 17 at 2 PM. Written by Gretchen Schafft and Gerhard Zeidler, it is the story of the Nazi concentration camp, Mittelbau-Dora in Nordhausen, Germany where V-1 and V-2 rockets were assembled under the direction of Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, who later were pioneers in the U.S. space program. The camp held 60,000 prisoners, of whom 20,000 did not survive. It was later commemorated by the communist government of East Germany and after 1989 by unified Germany. How these displays of deeply disturbing history affected the towns’ people and how they reconciled with their many memories of WW II lays the groundwork for a socio-cultural analysis of public remembrance under extreme circumstances.

You are cordially invited to this free talk and to supper following at the Schaffts’ house, 1222 Noyes Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910 (phone 301-588-6013). Please RSVP to gschafft@verizon.net only if you are coming for the supper. We will be delighted to have you!

Applied Anthropologists Nominated for AAA Offices - Support Your Colleagues

Ruth Sando — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:20:54 GMT

Several applied anthropologists are currently running for AAA offices. In support, WAPA is providing their bios and pictures. To access them, click on the post headline above. If you are a member of AAA, please review their materials and vote for this talented slate.

VOTING IS OPEN UNTIL MAY 31ST.

Shirley Fiske
Nominated for President

fiskeBIO 2011.docx

Mark Edberg
Nominated for Committee on Public Policy

MARK EDBERG Short Bio 2011.doc

Mary Butler
Nominated for Nominations Committee

Nomination materials MOB 2011.doc

Laurie Krieger
Nominated for Committee on World Anthropology

Laurie Krieger.doc

Suzanne Heurtin-Roberts

Nominated for the Committee on Public Policy

shr-aaabio2011.doc

Sher Plunkett
Nominated for the Committee on World Anthropology

Plunkett biosketch.docx

JAMA review of book by member Frances Norwood

WAPA Communications — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:27:28 GMT

Cross-Disciplinary Kudos!

WAPA member Fannie Norwood spoke a while back to a WAPA audience about her research on euthanasia in The Netherlands. Her book, The Maintenance of Life: Preventing Social Death through Euthanasia Talk and End-of-Life Care - Lessons from the Netherlands, was published in 2009 and has just been reviewed by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The Maintenance of Life will not (and is not meant to) change readers' opinion (con or pro) about euthanasia. Instead, it is 'for anyone interested in learning more about death in another culture in order to gain some insight into death where you live' (p xxiii). As such, it presents much food for thought."

Pat Fosarelli, MD, DMin, Reviewer
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
2010:304(13):1500.

New book co-authored by member Gretchen Schafft

WAPA Communications — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:26:03 GMT

Coming in February 2011 from University of Illinois Press:

Commemorating Hell:
The Public Memory of Mittelbau-Dora

GRETCHEN SCHAFFT is Applied Anthropologist in Residence at American University and the author of From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich.

GERHARD ZEIDLER is a former archivist at the concentration camp memorial for Mittelbau–Dora.

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