the unobservant anthropologist

Yesterday, Thursday, was an awesome day. There were several receptions in the evening, which brought a lot of conference attenders together to socialize. Groups of people were gathering everywhere and talking and it was nice to see.

The student party last night was at my favorite Irish Pub and the turn out was respectable. We were actually graced by the presence of a well-known Irish folk singer, Jimmy Crowley- although I’m not sure anyone realized it.

My good friend from Wayne State, Celina Kapoor, and I recorded two sessions yesterday. I haven’t talked much about which sessions we are recording because I don’t want to jinx the recordings. I’m confident that the quality is of high-quality, so I’ll announce these two. Part I and Part II of Global Health in the Time of Violence. Presenters were; Paul Farmer, Phillipe Bourgois, Merrill Singer, Linda Whiteford, Carolyn Nordstrom, Barbara Rylko-Bauer, Didier Fassin, and Jame Quesada, all of whom were excellent speakers with excellent things to say. The room was packed and I believe there was 300+ people at any given time. These are the rockstars of anthropology. All of the presenters were thrilled to have their speeches recorded for the podcasting project and they even had me announce the project to the group. The fact that all of these presenters were excited about the opportunity to be recorded made the project worth it to me in itself. It actually was quite an honor What’s more, is how nice everyone was! These are the folks that are asked for autographs and followed around by groupies, but they are the most down-to-earth, nice people. We need more people like them in academia.

I’m off to the conference again today, more updates to come later.

We recorded our first and second sessions for the podcasts of the SfAA conference yesterday. Surprisingly enough- the recordings were fantastic and we were met with a warm welcome! I had been planning for the first session to not go so well because it’s always hard to take something live for the first time and there’s almost always a unforeseen interruption that occurs. But the only glitch was that the first few minutes of the session did not record- the rest was fine! The presenters (except for one in the first session) were very happy to have us their and to be recorded. It was very reassuring to see that the anthropologists were open to new technology, as we are not known as a “techy” or “progressive with new technology” field

There are some USF students doing informal interviews and some minimal coverage of the conference, which will be published on the web. I was only able to speak to the folks for a few minutes, so I’ll post some more details when I get them. Their goal was to seek out how anthropologists are using technology- I’m sure this will be of great interest to most of us and specifically to Lorenz over at anthropologi.info.

On a side note- I’m so excited that this conference’s vibe is totally different than the AAA conference I attended last year in San Jose. The two conferences are almost a dichotomy of each other. I’m finding this conference to be far more welcoming. It’s my third SfAA conference and I know a fair amount of people here- so I’m sure that is effecting my perceptions. However, the SfAA has a lot more students, which I think helps to add to the friendly and fun atmosphere. There is a bar and restaurant on the first floor of the conference hotel where you can always find some people sitting. There’s also a courtyard behind the hotel where various groups sit throughout the day. The fact that people are sitting together, hanging out, adds to what feels like a community. BUT most importantly, people aren’t so damn stuffy. People are acting like people. The ivory-tower types are fewer and further between than in San Jose (in my opinion of course I saw so many professors in San Jose that would walk around with an air of importance about them- it made them unapproachable (not that I wanted to talk to them though).

I am going to the AAA again this year; I’m presenting, but more importantly I want to give it another shot. I’m hoping that my awful first impression was just that and that the D.C. meeting will be fun.