CAS anthropology emeriti to co-chair 2016 SfAA Program

Kerry Feldman and Steve Langdon, UAA emeritus professors in anthropology, will serve as co-Chairs of the Program Committee for the international conference of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), March 29-April 2, 2016, in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. They are joined as co- chairs in this effort by Theresa "Terre" Satterfield, director of the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Participants from more than 30 nations are expected to attend this annual conference, which occurs outside the U.S. every four years, with 1,500-2,000 participants expected. Medea Csoba DeHass of the UAA departments of Anthropology and Alaska Native Studies and Ryan Harrod of the UAA Department of Anthropology will serve on the Program Planning Committee along with a score of social scientists from the U.S., Canada and Australia.

The SfAA began in 1941 in order to promote the investigation of the principles of human behavior and the application of the knowledge gained to contemporary issues and problems facing people locally and worldwide. Along with anthropologists, professionals in a wide range of settings are involved in SfAA, including business, law, health and medicine, government and academia, to name a few. The unifying factor among them is a commitment to making an impact on the quality of life in the world. UAA received approval from the UA Board of Regents for the establishment of its very successful M.A. program in applied anthropology in 1999.

The first day of the conference will be devoted to Vancouver Day, focused on issues relevant to the region, with a welcoming ceremony planned in cooperation with the First Nations people on whose traditional land the conference hotel, the Westin Bayshore, is located. Professor Langdon and Canadian colleagues are planning a plenary session that day to honor the work of Justice Thomas Berger, who now lives, retired, in Vancouver, tentatively titled, "Applying Anthropology at the Intersection of Indigenous Knowledge, Aboriginal Rights and the Law." The program theme this year is INTERSECTIONS.

Anyone desiring more information, wishing to participate or attend can access SfAA at sfaa.net, or email Langdon (sjlangdon@uaa.alaska.edu) or Feldman (kdfeld1@gmail.com) about their interest.

 

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