Session Abstracts

A-B-C | D-E-F | G-H-I | J-K-L | M-N-O | P-Q-R  | S-T-U-V | W-X-Y-Z

PETILLO, April (KSU) and MORA, Amalia C. (ASU) Terraforming Research Spaces: Building University-Grounded Gender-Based Violence Initiatives. The past several years have provided much fodder for gender-based violence public scholarship. Sexual predators operating from upper political/economic echelons and the challenges to effective, innovative interventions that we’ve seen are not new, but the public demand for answers seems different. Can we terraform universities—with budget, student-consumer and local political concerns—into friendly gendered-violence research spaces that meet the current public demand? What do university-based research consortia/institutes offer that is different? This moderated conversation considers the role of the university-grounded research initiative and its potential impact for creating more diverse study of gender, violence and culture within applied anthropology. apetillo@ksu.edu, amaliacmora@email.arizona.edu (F-09) 

PETILLO, April (KSU) Embodied & Entangled: Methodology at the Intersectional Crossroads of Interpersonal, Gendered Violences. Despite decades of research, the prevalence of sexual violence remains high. How might we reconceptualize employment of feminist methodology to better disentangle interpersonal, gendered violences? We are developing an edited collection reconceptualizing our use of feminist methodology in this political moment.  Blending theory, evidence-based observations and empirical study, we’ll consider the work of reflective methodology that recognizes (institutional) intersectionality in our research, how this approach might inform a new and/or adaptive form of feminist methodological praxis, the impact(s) for knowledge producers and recipients who might be personally impacted by the insight gained and related emergent practices. apetillo@ksu.edu (W-129) 

PFISTER, Anne E. (UNF) and EVERSON, Courtney (CO State U) Contested Cultural Citizenship and Family Inclusion: Insights from the Field. Fluid concepts of family organization, and movement of families within dynamic socio-political structures, are important in envisioning services aimed at children and families (Bomar, 2004; Cowan et al., 2014; Vindrola-Padros et al., 2015). This session brings together applied researchers interested in how families and children negotiate nuanced layers of diversity and contested cultural citizenship that shape their experiences of learning, belongingness, and identity formation. Our discussion focuses on the richness of interdisciplinary frameworks for exploring cross-generational, multi-sited research and facilitating applied impacts aimed at improving a variety of supports for families and children. (F-102) 

PHANEUF, Victoria (BOEM) and MCMAHAN, Ben (U Arizona) Petroleum, Fish, and Community: Papers from the Central and Eastern Gulf of Mexico Coast. Coastal communities in the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico have longstanding connections to fishing and offshore oil and gas. Our panel investigates the nuance and diversity of relationships between communities and extractive industries, focusing on: definitions and responses to social vulnerability; mobility, migration, and their drivers; disaster recovery and landscape change in social and environmental context; and the decision making, planning and governance that affect community sustainability. We interrogate connections between bureaucracies, governmental and non-governmental services, economic volatility, and trends in extractive industries to demonstrate the complex interplay between these forces, including impacts on residents and communities. victoria.phaneuf@boem.gov (TH-07)​​​​​​​ 

PLESHET, Noah (U Arizona) Landscapes of Transformation, Cultures of Belonging: Political Ecologies of Infrastructure, Extraction, and Climate Change. Drawing on political ecological frameworks and categories, this panel examines the articulated cultural and ecological implications of anthropogenic environmental effects, from questions of global climate and ecosystems, to infrastructure developments, to resource extraction. Environmental anthropologies of transformation have recently advanced a range of visions of the socioecological futures, of human and nonhuman worlds (Escobar 2018; Tsing 2017). Given these visions, how have local communities struggled to reconstitute hope, livelihood, cultural connection, and belonging in landscapes disturbed or disrupted? What then is the role of environmental anthropology and political ecology in understanding and living with transformation, from local to global scales? (TH-103)​​​​​​​ 

RE CRUZ, Alicia (UNT) The Border Experience as Anthropological Praxis in Transformative Pedagogy. In this roundtable participants will reflect on the “praxis” of an experiential learning class. The course included a week-long Border Awareness Experience (BAE) at Annunciation House, located a few blocks from the US/ Mexico border. Annunciation is a temporary home and sanctuary for refugees and migrant poor. The second part of the course was on campus and it included interactions with scholars, activists and NGOs representatives in the area of immigration policy, asylum, and advocacy. The discussion among participants in this round table will focus on a sentipensante pedagogy and anthropological praxis when the rights of migrants are violated and their lives are rendered disposable. Alicia.ReCruz@unt.edu (T-97)​​​​​​​ 

REID, Jessica (UTSA) and BUNKLEY, Emma (U Arizona) Care, Bodies, and Practices. The definition of care/caregiving across the literature has constantly been in flux, ranging from everyday practices to engagements with larger cultural systems, such as biomedicine (Buch 2015). With different approaches, conceptions, and interpretations, care is foundational to health and disease/illness/sickness navigation and recovery (Mol et al. 2010). This panel invites an exploration of varying attitudes, cultural interpretations, approaches to, and theories of care. Whose bodies are [worth] cared for? What practices of care are deemed appropriate for certain illnesses/diseases? What ways should Medical Anthropology be re/interpreting notions of care? jessmariereid@gmail.com (F-08)​​​​​​​ 

RODRIGUEZ, Cheryl (USF) Theorizing the Complexities of Black Communities: Race, Culture and Citizenship. Anthropological studies of Black people’s relationships to place and space include explorations of community histories, the impact of race on shifts and transitions in communities, attention to such issues as gentrification and displacement; and examinations of the ways that people navigate the constraints of racialized communities. This panel considers Black anthropologists’ long-term relationships with Black community research and our understandings of culture and citizenship as contested concepts in Black life. We also attend to critical questions about how we make anthropology meaningful and relevant to the people who share their own theoretical perspectives about the places and spaces they call neighborhood and home. crodriguez@usf.edu (TH-122)​​​​​​​ 

ROZEN, David (Independent) Disease and Its Discontents: Medical Anthropology on the Front Lines. The emergence of poor health issues among a variety of groups or societies in various parts of the world is the subject of this session. The central theme is the intersection of parochial approaches to health promotion and the biomedical systems that oppose those approaches. From Hassidic Jewish to Amish children, and from Nigerian to West African adults, the panel will discuss conflicts between local ideas of appropriate health practices and professional autonomy in presenting solutions to health crises. The examples given in this session illustrate different unique cultures, inhabiting ecological, ethnic, economic, and political systems, some in crisis. djrozen2@gmail.com (F-38)​​​​​​​ 

RUTH, Alissa and STURTZSREETHARAN, Cindi (ASU) Engaging Everyday Citizens in the Research Process. Scientists have long grappled with how to communicate scientific findings as well as engage the public in research. Anthropologists, with community-oriented research interests and various ethnographic methods, are positioned uniquely to address these issues by including everyday citizens in the research process. This session will address how anthropologists are creating opportunities for individuals and communities/community-based organizations to be part of the academic community and the research process – including, but not limited to, conceptualization, data collection and analysis – in order to demonstrate what types of projects are possible and provide best practices to incorporate successfully the lay community. alissa.ruth@asu.edu (W-95)