[URBANTH-L]CFP: AAA 2005 -- Student Activism as Public Anthropology

[Robert T. O'Brien]

CFP: American Anthropological Association (AAA) 2005 
Student Activism as Public Anthropology

Undergraduate and graduate students engaged in activist work
are urged to submit an abstract for a panel proposal for the
November 2005 AAA meeting in Washington, DC. A working
abstract follows. The panel needs at least one more
paper to be submitted. The final abstract will be determined
after paper proposals are accepted (but before the April 1
deadline).

Working Panel Abstract:

STUDENT ACTIVISM AS PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY The current
preoccupation with “public anthropology” has two fundamental
limitations. First, what is called public anthropology has
largely been discussed within the circumscribed bounds of
anthropology. Second, much of this work has focused on
anthropological utility to social policy rather than to social
change activism. It is patently obvious that “public”
anthropologists must engage in critical dialogue with
non-anthropological practitioners in the fields in which we
hope to intervene. Moreover, anthropological interventions at
the level of policy, while admirable, serve only to ameliorate
the fundamental crises of globalized advanced liberal
capitalism. These crises, arising from the conflict between
the twin promises of rational competition in the free market
and of full political participation in the liberal democratic
public sphere are not amenable to reformist solutions. 

The proposed panel is an effort by anthropology students to
overstep these limitations by presenting a critical discussion
on engaged anthropology. Papers include….

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Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out. 
Forget this and attaining Enlightenment 
will be the least of your problems. 

Robert T. O'Brien 
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Anthropology 
Temple University 
robrien at temple.edu 
215-803-5181

AAAUnite Ad Hoc Committee
http://AAAUnite.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aaaunite/