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

SAAD, Summar (Wayne State U) SAS Student Panel. In this panel, graduate students explore how anthropological theory and methods can illuminate diverse contemporary issues. Following the conference theme, panelists consider the contributions of anthropology to address a range of cultural challenges including the impact of natural disasters, end-of-life issues, women in politics, and innovative design methods. Hernandez examines the impact of Hurricane Harvey’s destruction on survivors’ experiences, while Saad considers the implications of brain death’s lack of conceptual coherence in clinical practice. Carson explores discourse at the intersection of political orientation and women’s leadership training organizations, and Thomas applies cognitive anthropology concepts to decision-making and metric development in human-centered design practices. ay7791@wayne.edu (TH-94) 

SAKELLARIOU, Dikaios (Cardiff U) and WARREN, Narelle (Monash U) Intersectional Approaches to Disability: Convergences and Breaches, Part I. Research agendas, care practices, and national policies often foreground disability as an exclusive identity, positioning it as a category apart. This panel seeks to question the assumption of disability as a category apart, by specifically attending to the ways it intersects with gender, race, poverty, sexual and gender identities, illness, and age, among several other dimensions. Papers in this panel seek to ask: how does structural disadvantage emerge at the intersections of disability with other social constructs and environments, and what are the convergences and the breaches between the various ways to conceptualise and engage with disability and other identity-based politics? sakellarioud@cardiff.ac.uk (F-12) 

SCHELHAS, John (USFS) and HITCHNER, Sarah (UGA) Strong Legacies, Murky Titles: Anthropological and Legal Approaches to Understanding Heirs’ Property, Forestry, and Agriculture in the U.S. South. Heirs’ property—inherited land passed on intestate, without clear title, typically to family members—is a complex property issue that continues to have profound implications for many families and communities in the southeastern United States. While the land has great cultural, symbolic, and sentimental importance to families, the murky ownership status has impeded agriculture, forestry, and wealth development. This session brings together experts in social science and law to explore the scope and nature of the heirs’ property problem, the ongoing challenges faced by heirs’ property owners, and community-based and legal contributions to addressing the issue. john.schelhas@usda.gov (F-13) 

SCHULLER, Mark (NIU) Citizenship in Times of Crisis: Rural Communities’ Perceptions of the State in Post-Disaster Haiti. Formal citizenship has many meanings, including exclusion. Its meanings hinge on understandings of the state, particularly precarious for rural Haitian communities following a large-scale catastrophe, Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The disaster was the stage for the election of Haiti’s current president, who is facing increasing challenges to his legitimacy. The country has been gripped by large-scale protests, which occasionally engulfed the provinces, since 2018. Even before the current cascade of disasters, rural communities were rendered andeyò, literally “outside.” Based on mixed-method, multi-year collaborative research, this panel aims to disentangle multiple meanings of citizenship and exclusion, centering perspectives of local communities. mschuller@niu.edu (F-121) 

SCOTT, Mary Alice (NMSU) and PAGE-REEVES, Janet (UNM) Working towards Health Equity: A Roundtable Discussion with Health and Healthcare-Focused Applied and Practicing Anthropologists. Applied and practicing anthropologists in New Mexico and West Texas have established innovative partnerships with multiple stakeholders concerned about healthcare and health equity in the region. This session focuses on how anthropologists who work in these arenas apply their holistic perspectives to address health disparities in the state and emphasizes practices that may translate to other contexts. Specific topics that will be addressed in this session include collaboration with underrepresented communities, development of clinical tools that assist health care professionals in addressing social needs, and integrating anthropological perspectives into graduate medical education. mscott2@nmsu.edu (T-91) 

SEARA, Tarsila (U New Haven) and POLLNAC, Richard (URI) Evaluating Responses to Natural Disasters in the Caribbean: Methods and Results. Ocean warming associated with climate change has increased the intensity of tropical storms worldwide, impacting human social and cultural adaptations to their destructive impacts. It is important to understand these impacts in terms of human adaptations which influence their relative vulnerability and resilience to natural disasters. This session examines aspects of methods used to assess and communicate these impacts in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the USVI, and the Bahamas, as well as their utility in achieving adequate assessments. Recommendations are made concerning the utility of different methodologies. tarseara@gmail.com (TH-11) 

SHARP, Lesley (Barnard Coll, Columbia U), GREEN, Linda B. (U Arizona), and CHEN, Nancy N. (UCSC) Politically-Engaged (Public) Medical Anthropology: From Theory to Praxis. How do politically-engaged medical anthropologists transform theory into praxis? What are the consequences of reaching broader publics? This roundtable assembles two generations of scholars; the first half consists of project overviews and cross-generational dialogue; the second involves audience engagement. Topics include: sacred sites, caretaking, and environmental toxicity in Mexican megaprojects (Contreras); new formations of eating resilient brain foods in China (Chen); embodied dimensions of imposed immobility for female refugees at Mexico’s southern border (Wurtz); ethics as praxis among Guatemalan Mayan women with U.S. asylum status (Green); teaching anthropology to incarcerated men (Stuewe); and unanticipated interventions in prison hospice work (Sharp). (F-69) 

SHATTUCK, Daniel (PIRE) and STURM, Robert (NM Community AIDS Partnership) Innovating Anthropology though Community-Based Implementation Research to Improve the Health and Wellbeing of Sexual and Gender Minority People in New Mexico. Sexual and gender minority (SGM) people face health inequities spanning from increased risk of depression and suicide to poor physical health outcomes. This panel explores innovations in ways that anthropologists and community health professionals can collaboratively approach researching and intervening to ameliorate these health inequities in the rural, ethnically-diverse state of New Mexico. Of special interest is our focus on applying implementation science methods to shift the organizational, system, and broader sociocultural environments that contribute to health disparities, so SGM people can live, work, and access support and/or services that are helpful, safe, and inclusive of their identities and needs. dshattuck@pire.org (T-121) 

SHRESTHA, Milan (ASU) and NAZAREA, Virginia (UGA) Bridging Displacement through Sanctuaries on Land and Water: A Session in Honor of Robert E. Rhoades, Parts I-II. From the adaptive capacity of indigenous cultures and global diasporas, to the diversity of mountain agriculture, to the resilience of farming and gardening in the South, Robert Rhoades’ work has touched on multiple means for transgressive work and sanctuary-making. In this session, we address the question: How do people sanctuary in motion, and under vulnerable conditions of modernity? The participants will examine sanctuaries as personal and private or social and collective responses to global displacement, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Applied Anthropology has been Bob’s passion and life’s work. The 2020 theme captures the subtext of his contribution. milan.shrestha@asu.edu (W-06, W-36) 

SILVER, Lauren (Rutgers U-Camden) Radical Methodologies: Feminist Ethnography for Healing and Transformation. As a collective of feminist ethnographers, we express diverse identities, place-based commitments, and citizenship orientations including different intersections across disability, racialization, and queerness. In this panel, we explore methodological innovations around: 1). attending to affect, memory, and the body 2). engaging in intersectional reflexivity 3). and grappling with the tension between political advocacy and theory. Radical methodology allows us to engage critically and intimately with disability & special education in the U.S., postcolonial schooling with indigenous girls in India, and young Black families and reproductive (in)justice in a U.S. child welfare system. ljsilver@camden.rutgers.edu (S-72) 

SOARES, Pedro P.M.A. (UFPA, Brazil) and BARRIOS, Roberto E. (SIUC) Politics and Nature: Issues on Risk and Disaster in the Global South, Parts I-II. In the Global South, disasters are associated with colonization, dependent economies, and uneven growth. Therefore, Global South exists as a set of relations of power rather than a fixed place in the globe. This panel fosters discussions on the articulation of production of inequalities, politics of nature, and the struggles between policy (ir)rationalities and local epistemologies regarding risk and disaster creation. Its foci include specific events and cyclic disasters; consequences of colonization; analysis biased by class, race, gender, and generation; effects of development and urbanization; memory, ideology, symbolism, and the political implications of anthropological work on Risk and Disaster developed at NGOs, State, and Universities. pedropaulo.soares@yahoo.com.br (F-11, F-41)​​​​​​​ 

STIGLICH, Janice (Rutgers U-Camden) Children’s Participation as a Vehicle to Redefine Cultural Citizenship. Children and youth in Southern contexts reshape ‘normative’ structures dictating cultural value through participation. In this panel, we center children’s relational and collective modes of participation, rather than conceptualizing their actions alongside Northern metrics which scrutinize their individual agency. School children in Tamil Nadu, India negotiate their social-circles by consuming certain smartphone apps, despite adult moral concerns of isolation. Organized working girls in Peru effort to strengthen their rights consciousness; making space for nonmovement children. Colombian youth perform citizenship as a part of their commitment to the post-conflict context. In these papers, children’s participation can be a lens through which to discuss citizenship. (F-63)​​​​​​​ 

STOFFLE, Richard W. (U Arizona) We Never Forgot: Internally Relocated People Re/connect with Homelands, Parts I-II. Traditional people have been internally relocated within their own nation states causing cultural damage and challenges to their persistence. Relocation often occurs because they occupied homelands containing natural resources desired by others. National parks and protected areas often remove traditional people who are perceived as threats to nature. Cultural impacts occur whether or not the relocations are near or far away. This session is about applied anthropologists studying relocation impacts and suggesting ways to facilitate homeland re/connections. Given mutual changes in the homeland and the relocated peoples both traditional connections and new modes of interaction are documented, thus use of the concept re/connections. rstoffle@email.arizona.edu (F-95, F-125)​​​​​​​ 

STOREY, Angela (U Louisville) and SHEEHAN, Megan (CSBSJU) At the Frayed Edges of Policy: Practices and Engagements as People and Policies Meet. This panel interrogates sites in which individuals, organizations, and communities engage with the nebulous margins of state and local policies. Papers ethnographically explore spaces in which interactions seem guided or shaped by laws, regulations, or policy-based rhetoric and norms, but in which a clear line between policy-making and human impact is harder to trace. As the frontiers of policy continuously expand (Shore & Wright 2005), the implications of policy and its enforcement often become the backdrop of everyday life. This panel asks: how and where do the frayed edges of policy come to be visible, actionable, and contested? (S-05)​​​​​​​ 

STUMPF-CAROME, Jeanne Marie (Kent State U Geauga) Cultural Citizenship: Crossings, Crosscurrents, and Countercurrents of Human Movement. Cultural citizenship in contexts of migration, tourism, territorial expansion, religious practices and land use is considered in this session. These fluid situations are explored in present-day settings and wide-ranging locations and field settings—Ecuador, France, Germany, Peru, Sabah, Malaysia, and South Dakota. These patterns and articulations of the flow of human movement are examined in terms of the ensuing conundrums of human, indigenous, cultural, civil and customary rights, beliefs, and identity formation. Traditional and bygone “tropes” of blood, land tenure, rule-of-law, bible, and citizenship are explored within new-found, transitional, and interstitial paths in global networks whose margins expand and contract. jstumpfc@kent.edu (F-122)​​​​​​​ 

SULLIVAN, Kate (CSULA) and BUROW, Paul (Yale U) Natural Resources in the Age of Citizenship. This panel examines citizenship through the lens of natural resource control, access, management, and use. Natural resources in Settler society modernity serve as a significant hinge between claims to sovereignty and bodies politic, for First Peoples and for Settler states at the federal, state, and municipal levels. The very conceptual framework used to cordon and contain resources as “natural,” and thus outside, and yet always corralled by socio-political institutions, suggests that this hinge is contingent and must be maintained through on-going practices. Our panel explores vibrant, contesting voices and their practices as they make and remake this hinge. sullivankate@aim.com (F-96)​​​​​​​ 

SULLIVAN, Laura and ROGHAIR, Elizabeth (SARSF), BAKER, Nancy (NDI New Mexico) Building a Culture of Philanthropy. To be successful, organizations and institutions of higher education must rely on a loyal group of supporters who believe in the mission and are willing to invest in the impact on its constituents. A healthy culture of philanthropy involves a diverse group of stakeholders and a commitment to a shared mission. Through this commitment, change can happen from the inside out and philanthropy can drive social change. In diverse societies and organizations, shared responsibility can have dramatic impact. Join this discussion to examine ways you can play a role and contribute to a culture of philanthropy in your institution. sullivan@sarsf.org (F-74)​​​​​​​ 

SURREY, David (Saint Peter’s U) Resisting 2019 Immigration Terrors: A Culture of Survival. In a time of political, spiritual and material crisis, it is often youth who lead movements for change, whether it be in high schools, on college campuses, or within intergenerational partnerships in communities. This panel will focus on youth organizing in higher education focused on three overlapping domains: climate change, xenophobia and immigration. The panelist are activists, who are full-time students and often hold close to full-time jobs. Their roots are Brown, Black, Muslim, Asian and European forced into a thriving cross-cultural community united by what was supposed to be the American Dream of Justice for All. dsurrey@saintpeters.edu (W-123)​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 

SYVERTSEN, Jennifer and MCMULLIN, Juliet (UCR) Pretty Words: Critical Perspectives on Community-Engaged Research. Although funding agencies are increasingly requiring researchers to involve communities and make their work more broadly accessible, many academics are not sufficiently trained in how to do this. This roundtable will open up a critical dialogue about what we call “pretty words,” or concepts like “community-engaged research” and “diversity” that get grants, but risk becoming hollow and even alienating without genuine, sustained collaboration with communities. Drawing on our work as part of a newly-created Center for Health Disparities Research, our goal is to discuss ways to collectively shift from research “on” communities to “with” communities to make a greater impact on the world. jsyverts@ucr.edu (F-68)​​​​​​​ 

SZKUPINSKI QUIROGA, Seline and O’CONNOR, Brendan (ASU) Cultural Citizenship and Academic Identity in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). This panel will engage students, staff, and researchers from the College Assistance Migrant Programs (CAMP) at Arizona State University and New Mexico State University in exploring enactments of cultural citizenship among Mexican-origin migrant students in CAMP. CAMP is a federally funded program that supports students from migrant and seasonal farmworker backgrounds during their first year of college. Participants will discuss CAMP students’ and staff’s efforts to foster a sense of belonging and develop academic identities in higher education, contrasting experiences at predominantly White, though ethnically diverse (ASU) and Hispanic-serving (NMSU) institutions and sharing implications for migrant-focused research, teaching, and advocacy. selinesq@asu.edu (F-15)​​​​​​​ 

TAMIR, Orit and JENKINS, Kathy (NMHU) Unions in Academia: Cultural Citizenship or Response to Volatility in Academe. American colleges and universities increasingly pose threat to tenure and operate like corporations: they lower the number of tenure/track faculty positions and increase the numbers of contingent and per course faculty who work for low pay and minimal/no benefits. In response, many faculty members have organized and voted to join labor unions in order to address tenure, working conditions, benefits, and so on. How can a labor union help resolve the problems facing faculty, staff, and students in the 21st Century American academe? otamir@nmhu.edu (F-105)​​​​​​​ 

TAYLOR, Sarah R. (CSUDH) Heritage and Change in Highland Guatemala: Reports from the 2019 CSUDH Ethnographic Field School. The indigenous communities of Guatemala’s Western Highlands have experienced long and unique histories but their culture and heritage still flourish despite global change. These histories contextualize the ways that these communities identify with their cultural traditions and identities. Papers in this session explore critical issues affecting contemporary Guatemalan society. Topics addressed include gendered division of labor, economics of weaving, traditional ecological knowledge, and the course of childhood in communities around the Lake Atitlán region. The papers in this session are based on ethnographic field research conducted during the 2019 season of the CSU Dominguez Hills Ethnographic Field School field school. sartaylor@csudh.edu (TH-09)​​​​​​​ 

TRAPP, Micah and BRONDO, Keri (U Memphis) Practicing Anthropology in Politically Polarized Times: Insights from COPAA Members. This roundtable discussion features discussion on the role and nature of practicing and applied anthropology in an environment of increasing political polarization. Invited roundtable participants will broadly consider how contentious political discourse on notions of belonging and citizenship has impacted domestic and applied research and practice. Participants will discuss how the scaling back of rights, protections, and services for non-dominant groups has impacted anthropological practice and offer initial insights on challenges and opportunities encountered in the classroom, working with community organizations, government agencies, and the public. Open discussion on the changing role and future of anthropological practice will follow. mmtrapp@memphis.edu (TH-37)​​​​​​​ 

ULLMAN, Char (UTEP) Resisting Hegemonic Practices and Finding Ways to Create Belonging: Cultural Citizenship in Borderlands Classrooms and Schools. Minoritized students must engage in cultural and linguistic practices that that allow them to claim spaces for belonging in U.S. schools while simultaneously resisting the practices that seek to exclude them. This contradiction is at the heart of Rosaldo’s concept of cultural citizenship (1994), and these papers consider how cultural citizenship is enacted in elementary, high school, and university classrooms among Latinx, Black, transfronterizo, differently-abled, and queer students. We understand cultural citizenship to include language choice and language use, and educational access, all of which contribute deeply to developing a sense of belonging and to the ability to resist hegemony. cullman@utep.edu (W-44)​​​​​​​ 

USCHER, Nancy J. (UNLV) Achieving Institutional Wisdom through Cultural Transformation: An Exploration of Strategies for Success. The broad range of perspectives presented on this panel will illuminate pathways by which an institution can struggle against barriers that prevent institutional growth and evolution. While there is often fear of change within institutional culture, the introduction of strategies to help negotiate the complexities of higher education issues can also instill a sense of hopefulness and optimism among faculty and staff who are exposed to new and open mindsets. This fresh outlook encourages positive momentum, which can lead to creative frameworks for finding solutions to challenges. These experiences, in turn, provide the seeds for cultural transformation and institutional wisdom. (F-134)​​​​​​​ 

VESPERI, Maria (New Coll FL) and SOKOLOVSKY, Jay (USF St. Petersburg) Negotiating Citizenship and Diversity over the Life Course: Research and Careers Informed by Anthropological Approaches. Aging populations will contribute to 21st century turbulence in increasingly challenging ways that call for advocacy, policy shifts, and attention to redressing deep structural inequalities amid increasing diversity. This interactive event is led by anthropologists with experience in medical environments, participatory action research, publishing, Native American Health, disability studies, and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching about aging. Graduate students and colleagues who want to explore careers, research, and publishing opportunities in aging and the life course are invited to share informal but focused discussion on how anthropological perspectives can contribute to aging-related fields. Light buffet breakfast, suggested donation $10. mvesperi@earthlink.net (S-20)​​​​​​​ 

VILLARREAL, Aimee (Our Lady of the Lake U) Reverse Anthropologies: Making Space for Hometown Ethnography and Archaeology. This roundtable calls for a decolonial practice of hometown ethnography and archaeology grounded in reverse anthropologies or what we term anthropolocura – a curative and restorative practice of coalitional knowledge production that interrogates the home/field divide and elevates applied research and activism within our tribes and homeplaces. Homework refuses the coloniality of the faraway field while confronting the multiple tensions, asymmetries of power, and ideologies that adhere to home and homelands. Native scholars invite dialog and critical introspection on what it means to do hometown or homegrown ethnography or archeology within a discipline that valorizes research abroad and forces us away. amvillarreal@ollusa.edu (W-45)