[URBANTH-L]IRB

Tue Apr 3 15:40:24 EDT 2007

Having served as Associate Vice President for Research where part of my 
portfolio was compliance I may have a slightly different take on much of 
this.  I would say that a major solution too many of these problems would 
be if more Anthropologists would serve on University IRB boards.  We tend 
to let others sit on the boards because it is too much trouble or only 
involves ?our? field now and then.  All of the above are true, but the 
best way to educate IRB boards is to sit on them so they see Anthropology 
in action when reviewing other proposals.  Also more Anthropologists 
should attend Office of Research Integrity workshops so we know what the 
requirements of law are.  Many who sit on IRB boards do not really know 
and as such make decisions on what they ?think? their role is.  I am not 
trying to blame the victim here it is just that IRB is now a fact of life 
and we must learn to work with it not against it.  I for one have found 
little difficulty dealing with the IRB for research in the US, Mexico and 
Bolivia.

Arthur D. Murphy, PhD
Professor and Head
Department of Anthropology
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro NC 27412-5001
admurphy at uncg.edu
Tel (336) 334-5132
fax (336) 334-5674

"Deborah Pellow" <dpellow at maxwell.syr.edu> 
Sent by: urbanth-l-bounces at lists.ysu.edu
04/03/2007 10:03 AM

To
<gmcdonog at brynmawr.edu>, <urbanth-l at lists.ysu.edu>
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Subject
RE: [URBANTH-L]IRB

Appropos of what both Anne and Gary have written in: we in anthropology
HAVE tried to educate the IRB people about our work, the contexts within
which we work, and so on, and sometimes it's successful. It's certainly
better today than it was 15 years ago. When I was going off to do
research in N Ghana last year, the IRB insisted upon a letter of
consent. I gave them one in English and since much of my work would be
in Dagbani, they wanted it in that language. Once in the field I got
help translating it into Dagbani. But as I said the other day, it really
was pro forma.

As for exceptions: this is interesting, because the IRB make such a big
deal about students getting clearance before doing work with human
subjects. As it turns out, they no longer require students doing
interviewing for class projects to hand in an IRB application the
application (I think because their office is short-handed). I asked the
IRB office if it covers all fields and they said any MA/PhD students or
faculty, in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and so on, doing
field  research are required to do the application.

Deborah Pellow

-----Original Message-----
From: urbanth-l-bounces at lists.ysu.edu
[mailto:urbanth-l-bounces at lists.ysu.edu] On Behalf Of
gmcdonog at brynmawr.edu
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 1:02 PM
To: urbanth-l at lists.ysu.edu
Subject: [URBANTH-L]IRB

Deborah Pellow's comments reminded me of my own doctoral IRB review,
which
didn't actually seem to care much about the people involved, but
insisted
that my letter had to be in English for work in a non-English speaking
area.  The originals in Castilian and Catalan were sent back....

But this discussion also raises a question that I would like to know
more
about from colleagues.  I teach in an interdisciplinary undergraduate
program that deals with issues of both built form and socio-cultural
issues.  Because of the latter interest, ALL of our students need to
file
at least initial forms for "low-level" scrutiny on their senior thesis.
In
the end, we indicate to them that certain kinds of research are
impossible
without starting the approval process months in advance (and generally,
I
have agreed with imposing such limits on undergraduate adventures).  in
fact, this has become a good learning opportunity for them to think
about
research and responsibility, and we am not sorry that future architects
and planners have been dragged into the discussion.  Yet, I am struck
that
students in the humanities (and, to be honest, I have never asked
faculty
about their own reviews) can adopt "cultural studies" projects involving
interviews and observation in sometimes problematic situations with no
review whatsoever.  Deborah said Syracuse had no exceptions -- does this
apply to the humanities as well?  This might also be a point of
leverage/discussion in terms of the biomedical dominance of so many IRB
boards.

Gary McDonogh
Professor/Chair
Program in Growth and Structure of Cities
Bryn Mawr College

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