[URBANTH-L]SUNTA Teaching Workshop at AAA

[Robert Rotenberg]

Colleagues, 
With the support of the SUNTA board, I have organized a workshop on teaching
introductory courses using SUNTA-oriented perspectives and materials. The
idea is to offer our students a disciplinarily-engaged introduction that
does not reproduce the "savage-slot." We want our students to understand
anthropology as a social science that helps us make sense of where we are
locally and who our neighbors are, as well as, but neither in the first nor
the last instance, marginalized people around the globe.

I wanted to bring this to the attention of our members because some of us
tend to skip the workshop page of the preliminary program and also to offer
some assurances. I also wanted to offer a bit more detail than AAA allowed
me in my official description. This workshop fee is the cost of the
photocopied materials. I have declined a fee. In the spirit of full
disclosure, I should also say that I have a book of teaching in the
marketplace and that information about that will be available passively in
the room. However, there will be no commercials.

What I really want is a free and frank discussion about our collective
experiences with implementing our interests in introductory courses and
confronting the expectations (resistance?) of departments and curricula to
the challenge posed by a SUNTA-based introductory course. I had a successful
presentation on these issues at a conference on teaching run by graduate
students at the University of Chicago last April and. They told me they got
a lot out of it. I am excited about bringing these ideas to a wider audience
at AAA. 

I also cherish the opportunity to discuss innovative approaches to teaching
introductory courses with colleagues who are just start out and my fellow
greybeards alike. 

I hope you will consider adding attendance at this workshop to your plans
for San Jose. If the interest is strong enough, I will offer it every year
and we will have another recurring SUNTA event to look forward to.

Bob Rotenberg