[URBANTH-L]Response to Joe Ellman

[Angela Jancius]

From: Sam Beck <sbeck at med.cornell.edu>

Joe makes an important point (see below).  He needs to be brought into the
loop of people who are involved in the kind of work he is proposing.  While
limited in the last few years, it has been going on since the 1960s, if
anyone can remember that far back.  We now have folks involved in all sorts
of anthropology.  Let me list the ways and let a thousand flowers bloom!

public anthropology
action anthropology
participatory action research anthropology
community service learning anthropology
service anthropology
critical anthropology
activist anthropology
advocacy anthropology
policy anthropology

If you are interested in these areas, I am in the process of pulling
together some information that will be on a Web site, part of the Society
for the Anthropology of North America Web page for you to use.  If you want
to be listed on this page, send me your information.  if you want to
contribute to this effort let me know and send along texts, bibliographies,
etc.

Sam Beck
Director
Urban Semester Program
Cornell University
sb43 at cornell.edu


>Thanks for keeping the list updated to conferences in our subfield (such as
>this post and the other about the German conference).  I must wonder,
>however, whether I made an incorrect assumption when subscribing to this
AAA
>division.  I thought urban anthropology was one of the more
>practical  arms of our
>discipline.  Either I was incorrect or we are turning  the clock back a few
>years to when post-mo became the standard  "scholar-ese," unapproachable
>to all
>not well versed in the esoteric world of  literary criticism.
>
>I have to wonder how this is going to be helpful to our discipline  with
>budget crunches in Higher Ed and tenured positions of  retirees turning
into
>multiple part-time adjunct pools.  Do we  not need to show our colleagues
and
>administrators how anthropology is *more*  rather than *less* applicable
>to today's
>difficult economic times in  education?
>
>Please think about trading in the seemingly self-important naval gazing for
>more fruitful, applicable and future-reaching approaches.
>
>Joe Ellman, Ph.D.