[URBANTH-L]COSWA Events at the AAA Meeting

[Tara Lynn Hefferan]

The Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology (COSWA) is pleased to 
announce the following events scheduled for the AAA meeting next week. 

In the "Family Gap:" Children, Motherhood, and Work
COSWA Special Event
2007 AAA Meeting, Washington DC 

Friday, 11/30/2007
12:15 PM - 01:30 PM 

Women caring for children face heightened career challenges: lower wages, 
"glass ceilings," insufficient maternity leaves and breastfeeding support. 
 From finding quality childcare-especially when a child is ill-to having time 
for oneself, multiple and competing demands confront women who have children 
and work outside the home. This special session is designed to provide a 
relaxed forum for such women to come together, connect with one another, and 
share their stories. This session will be loosely organized around 
audience-generated discussions covering common concerns, coping strategies, 
and suggestions for institutionalizing family friendlier policies within the 
AAA and beyond. Barbara Rose Johnston (Center for Political Ecology) and 
Rosemary Joyce (UC-Berkeley) will facilitate discussion. COSWA warmly 
invites children to this family-friendly session; as mother-anthropologists 
create support networks among themselves, their children can make new 
friends, too. 

Barbara Rose Johnston (Senior Research Fellow, Center for Political Ecology) 
does action-research on human rights and the environment. She advised the 
World Commission on Dams on reparations and the right to remedy, serves as 
an advisor and expert witness in Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal 
deliberations on the consequential damages of nuclear weapons testing, and 
serves a UNESCO-IHP advisor on water and cultural diversity. In 2002, the 
AAA presented her the Solon T. Kimball Award for work in human rights and 
environmental justice and this year she receives the Lourdes Arizpe Award 
for work on reparations and nuclear militarism. 

Rosemary A. Joyce (Professor of Anthropology at the University of 
California, Berkeley) has engaged in archaeological fieldwork in Honduras 
since 1977. She received the PhD from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 
1985. At Harvard University from 1985 to 1994, she served as Assistant 
Director and Curator at the Peabody Museum and Assistant and Associate 
Professor of Anthropology. She moved to Berkeley in 1994 Associate Professor 
of Anthropology and was Director of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of 
Anthropology from 1994 to 1999. Her recent books include Gender and Power in 
Prehispanic Mesoamerica, The Languages of Archaeology, Embodied Lives, and 
the forthcoming Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives. 


Please join us in honoring Joan Gero, the 2007 recipient of the Squeaky 
Wheel Award.  The award will be presented at 12:15, Friday October 30, at 
the COSWA Special Event. 


Family and Profession: A Gendered Perspective
COSWA Invited Session
2007 AAA Meeting, Washington DC 

Friday, 11/30/2007
1:45 PM - 5:30 PM
Washington Room 1 


Oftentimes women and men are faced with choosing between professional 
development opportunities and familial responsibilities, choices which may 
impact their advancement within their chosen profession, and/or may alter 
their overall career trajectory.  This panel brings together a myriad of 
perspectives on balancing work and family responsibilities within the field 
of anthropology, and includes discussion of both academic and practicing 
work environments.  The women and men who will speak in this skill-building 
session will use their personal experiences to offer insight into the range 
of possibilities available to anthropologists seeking a balance between 
their professional and personal well-being.  COSWA welcomes its audience to 
invite their family members and partners to attend this session. 

Points of discussion include:
•	The choice to become a parent (or not).  Timing of parenthood. Impact on 
professional advancement.
•	Taking families (or not) into “the field” and their outcomes
•	The tenure process – through various lenses (teaching institutions, 
research institutions, from before tenure, after tenure, to chair / dean)
•	The role family has played in influencing chosen career paths
•	Tips to find work/life balance 

Speaker Schedule:
1:45-2:00   Introduction by Keri Brondo
2:00-2:15   Holly Dygert (Michigan State University
2:15-2:30   Matt Gutmann (Brown University)
2:30-2:45   Carol Colfer (CGIAR)
2:45-3:00   Gregory Starratt (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
3:00-3:15   Geraldine  Moreno-Black (University of Oregon)
3:15-3:30   Discussion (Carla Guerron-Montero, moderator)
3:30-3:45   Break
3:45-4:00   Kathy Dettwyler (University of Delaware)
4:00-4:15   David McMurray (Oregan State U)
4:15-4:30   Katherine DeWalt (U of Pittsburgh)
4:30-4:45   Crysta Metcalf (Motorola Labs)
4:45-5:00   Laurie Wilkie (University of California, Berkley)
5:00-5:15   Florence Babb (University of Florida)
5:15-5:30   Discussion (Keri Brondo, moderator)