the unobservant anthropologist

I ended up taking both Sunday and Monday off to recover from what I considered to be total exhaustion. I was right back at it yesterday though. I actually just logged an estimation of hours spent since January on the podcasting project and it was 125 hours! If you consider that I have 2 classes, a RA position and an actual life outside of academia- that’s a lot! I’m still busy wrapping up the semester and working on the online/on-campus comparison study- but life has become a little calmer. It’s always a weird transition to go from being super, super, ridiculously busy back to normal busy.

As it stands now, we have two podcasts to be published on Saturday to the http://sfaapodcasts.net website. There will be an explanatory blog post associated with each recording that will introduce each participant and have some additional information such as their websites, contact info, papers, etc. It’s very exciting that I am now beginning to see the end product of my efforts and the products from the efforts of all of the participants.

After looking back at all of the sessions that we recorded and all of the people I spoke with at the conference, I really feel that this project has been a success. I’m defining “success” to mean that people are excited about the project/podcasts and the end product is looking good. I’m fairly certain that the project will be continued next year too!

We were careful to pick a wide variety of sessions, but I actually think there is something to be learned by all from each session. I’ve never attended a session at the SfAA meeting that I did not want to on my own. However, at this year’s meeting, I did have to attend a few sessions that I will admit I was not crazy about at first. Except- to my great delight, I enjoyed EVERY single session I was in! I’m thinking in particular about an archaeology session on Saturday afternoon. Archaeology is not one of my interests- BUT it was an excellent session! It was members of the Florida Public Archaeology Network and the ways in which they are getting the public involved in archaeology; citizens help with digs, archiving, events, displays, etc. I think we can all learn ways that we can get our clients (or the “studied” for those of you that chose) involved with projects from these archaeologists.

All of the participants in the sessions*, except for one group, were very accommodating, welcoming, and cooperative. I actually feel like some of the participates might be more excited than I am (Added 4/5 I just added the “s” to session above… I realized that with the s missing it changed the meaning of the sentence completely! I meant to say that one session was not very welcoming, and now I feel like I should explain that a little more too! The group was fine, they just acted like we were an annoyance to them and when compared to every other session they stick out in my mind.)

I still haven’t posted an official list of sessions that are going to be published as podcasts, but I have dropped some hints. Let’s think of them as “artifacts” (playing off of Lost’s easter eggs

Yesterday was the last day of the SfAA conference. I have to say that I’m a little “anthropologed out” (yes I had to invent a word to describe my state of mind). Four days of hearing about “all things anthropology” all day, every day is exhausting!

I presented yesterday on my undergraduate research and applying linguistics, to a room full of 9 people! I thank those 9 very much though. It was actually nice to have a small audience for my first presentation because it made me less nervous. Our Q&A was excellent, as is usually the case, and some of the audience had some very thought provoking questions and comments. I’m going to post my paper later this week and I’ll add more about the comments, etc then.

We recorded four sessions yesterday. Four is a lot of a two person team to do in one day (especially on the last day of the conference). On top of the four sessions and presenting- I was exhausted! Two of the sessions yesterday did not record well enough to be published. One didn’t record the audio at all and the other (my session) had multiple voices over top of mine and it is inaudible. What a shame! But, I think 2 out of 9 isn’t too bad!

Today is my “day off” so I’m going to relax.

Yesterday Celina Kapoor (my good friend and only helper) and I recorded one session. The session was part I of the University of South Florida’s impact on Applied Anthropology. As you may know, USF’s department of Anthropology was the first applied program in the country. It was also where I received my bachelor’s degree. I had a particular interest in the session, so I actually chose this one. I’m not sure what sort of audience it might have since it is about a particular department, but the speakers were all engaging and illustrated how different aspects of the discipline can be applied in praxis.

We also had the opportunity to record Gretal Pelto’s speech she gave after being awarded the Malinowski Award. She, like many others that have agreed to be recorded, appeared to be excited about the opportunity. It was a fantastic speech and I am happy that we will the recording as an archive. I’ve read a few of the Malinowski Award lectures from the past decade and always find them to be interesting.

We sat through the entire award ceremony last night. It was short and sweet, but still interesting to see what others had done in the past year or throughout the careers (Sol Tax Award and Malinowski). We were only able to record Pelto’s speech because of the limitations (not restrictive- but set in advanced) of the project. Sue-ellen Jacobs was awarded the Sol Tax Award. Jacobs and Pelto, as well as the anthropologists that introduced them, shared, in brief, their experience of interacting with the Society and applied anthropology. In particular, I found Jacbos’ story to be inspiring. Jacobs was the president of the SfAA in the 80′s, which was a time of, what seemed to be, chaos for the organization. The Society lost a lot of their (monetary) capital because of a situation with the AAA and she stuck out her term and was faced with difficult times, situations, and decisions. It showed her long-term dedication and reassured us that our presidents do indeed care.

The dedication and passion of most of the speakers to the discipline showed through in their talks. It seems as though many of them started attended conferences at a relatively early age, have stuck with it throughout their careers, and are truly “at home” in the Society.

I have found that I, myself, feel “at home” at the conference and within the Society as well. The atmosphere of the conference is rather inviting and I’ve found that in attending the sessions and chatting with folks in the hall, I have a better idea of what is going on within the discipline.

Today is the last day of the conference. It’s almost bitter sweet in that I’m really enjoying it but I’m also exhausted. There are four sessions scheduled to be recorded and I will be presenting at 1:30 p.m. (S-103).