To support the development of a doctoral program in anthropology at Universite d'Etat d' Haiti, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - Institutional Development Grant
Preliminary abstract: Through primary partnerships with the University of Kansas (KU) and Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), the State University of Haiti (UEH) will implement an ethos of productivity to establish a fully functioning doctoral program that will facilitate student and faculty training as well as research. This will be accomplished by a) increasing the number of Ph.D. holding professors among the anthropology faculty at UEH, b) providing continuing education for existing faculty members through short-courses in all four sub-disciplines and time abroad at partner institutions, c) consulting on organization of the graduate curriculum, d) preparing students and faculty for engagement in global academic dialogues through workshops and seminars given by international partners, e) facilitating and publicizing research that is relevant to government and non-governmental entities and the general Haitian population, and f) contributing to the development of Kreyòl as a scholarly language of communication in Haiti. With IDG funding, we envision building a doctoral program in anthropology in which UEH professors and partners provide Haitian students with internationally recognized doctoral training which can be beneficial for finding employment with academic, governmental, or non-governmental entities, and facilitate networks of research and support through foreign faculty. Bolstering the institution's existing strength in cultural anthropology with expertise in the other sub-disciplines, the initiative seeks to build capacity of students and faculty that leads to the production of anthropological research in Haiti by Haitian scholars and students.
Rankin, Carolyn, Lawrence, KS - To aid preparation of the personal research materials of Robert Rankin for archival deposit with the National Anthropological Archives, Suitland, MD - Historical Archives Program
Price, Dr. David H., St. Martin's U., Lacey, WA - To aid preparation of the personal research materials of Dr. Marvin Harris for archival deposit with the National Anthropological Archives, Suitland, MD - Historical Archives Program
Danda, Dr. Ajith, Indian Anthropological Society, Kolkata, India - To aid Golden Jubilee conference of IAS on 'Locating Alternative Voices of Anthropology,' 2011, Kolkata, in collaboration with Dr. Rajat Kanti Das
Preliminary abstract: The International Symposium proposed to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Anthropological Society will have the following dual objectives :1) To eveluate the contributions of anthropologists : Euro-American, Afro-Asian, and Latin American in the light of dualism : Western vs. non-Western, that pervades the field of anthropology. 2) To evaluate the contributions of intellectuals, social thinkers, and literary figures toward anthropology in the Indian contexts. The Western view of anthropology, as a political and colonial discourse, has been countered by anthropologists from Asia, Africa, and Latin America in a way that may be understood as being based upon a rhetoric of equality reflected in the establishment of self-identity. It has discovered a voice to defend the rights of indigenes, tribes, and ethnic groups who were so long considered as products of a process of exclusion (Lindquist : 1966, Hulme : 1986,Todavor : 1987, Said : 1978, Mason : 1990, Thomas 1991, Danda : 1995, de-Certeau :1997). Though the American and European imagery of 'otherness' has been questened time and again, the Western discourses and practices are still regarded as guidelines for others to follow. Isn't it possible to look at anything but a product of the Western discourses and practices? This is the major issue to be debated in the proposed symposium.
Rafferty, Dr. Janet, Mississippi State U., Mississippi State, Mississippi - To aid workshop on 'SAARAS: Systematic Assessment And Reform of Archaeological Systematics,' 2012, Mississippi State U., Starkville, in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Nolan
'Systematic Assessment and Reform of Archaeological Systematics (SAARAS)'
April 16-18, 2012, Mississippi State University, Starkeville, Mississippi
Organizers: Dr. Janet Rafferty (Mississippi State U.) & Dr. Kevin Nolan (Ball State U.)
It is increasingly evident that most current archaeological systems of classification, initially developed in the mid-twentieth century, are inadequate to address important questions in modern archaeology. In the last fifty years there have been many changes in the ways in which the archaeological record is approached and the kinds of questions being addressed. Since the 1960s there has been a proliferation of theoretical approaches, however there has been little change in the units used in analyses. This problem was recognized by Binford in his critique of the normative approach to culture in the 1960s but, by and large, subsequent systematics retained the old normative units. As a result many of the systems in wide use comprise bundles of formal attributes with discrete space-time distributions. While it has been recognized regularly, and for some time-that such units create artificial patterns in the history interpreted out of the record-there has not been a sustained, systematic assessment and reform of archaeological classification. In most regions, the old classes continue to do the work of the 'new' archaeology. If all systems of classification are designed for a particular purpose, then the discipline needs to reassess its systematics. Toward this end, the SAARAS conference sought to: 1) examine the extent of the problem represented by uncritical use of inherited typological units of space-time and bundled formal content; 2) discuss alternative approaches to analytical classification that consider the various dimensions of the archaeological record as independent and free to vary; 3) examine case studies of successful applications of new classificatory systems; and 4) discuss prospects and strategies for moving the discipline towards a more dynamic use of systematics in the exploration of dynamic systems.