Call for Proposals: Incarceration (Sept 25 Deadline)

Anthropology News welcomes proposals for our upcoming (January 2009) thematic issue on incarceration. All proposals related to this theme will be considered for our In Focus Commentary, Field Notes and other sections. Potential topics include, among others:

• Prison industries
• Prison overcrowding
• Reentry/reintegration
• Torture and interrogation
• Extradition/rendition
• Immigrant detention
• Political imprisonment
• Psychiatric confinement
• Prison power structures and social networks
• Expressions and limits of state authority

We are also particularly interested in receiving Teaching Strategies proposals from anthropologists with experience teaching in prison environments.

To participate in this thematic issue, email a 300 word proposal and 50-100 word author bio to Anthropology News editor Dinah Winnick by September 25. Proposals for photo essays should also include five high resolution photographs, each with a photo caption and credit. Selected authors will be invited to submit articles of 1000-1400 words (for commentaries) or 400-1000 words (for other content). See our website for details.

Anthropology of YouTube

Welcome to the final installment of this month’s four-part Michael Wesch video series, posted as an introduction to our upcoming September issue on the anthropology student experience.

Michael Wesch and the Kansas State University Digital Ethnography Working Group continue to explore opportunities to incorporate web 2.0 technologies as core components of anthropology courses. “Introducing our YouTube Ethnography Project” presents viewers with a quick snapshot of Wesch’s digital ethnography course, with more information and student videos available on their website. “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube” documents Wesch’s June 23, 2008 presentation at the Library of Congress, prepared in collaboration with his digital ethnography students.

For further discussion of diverse anthropology student experiences and new educational opportunities in anthropology see the forthcoming September issue of Anthropology News. We also welcome you to submit your own comments on anthropology education today.

Proposal Deadline Approaching: Housing Issue

The proposal submission deadline for the Anthropology News thematic issue on housing (Dec 2008) is approaching. Please submit your brief article proposal by Monday, August 25.

All topics related to housing will be considered, and potential topics include:

• Mortgage lending
• Homelessness
• Community (re)development
• Historic preservation
• Housing policy
• Sense of place, rootedness, locality
• Public/private distinctions
• Planned and gated communities
• Vernacular architecture and aesthetics
• Community organization, leadership and regulation
• Archaeology of residential sites
  

To participate in this thematic issue, email a 300 word proposal and 50-100 word author bio to Anthropology News editor Dinah Winnick. Proposals for photo essays should also include five high resolution photographs, each with a photo caption and credit. See our website for details.

Twitter and World Simulation

Welcome to part three of this month’s four-part Michael Wesch video series, posted as an introduction to our upcoming September issue on the anthropology student experience.

“Twitter and World Simulation” introduces viewers to a specific example of one course designed using the tools and pedagogical concepts discussed in Wesch’s previous videos. The World Simulation Project webpage describes the project as “a radical experiment in learning that is the centerpiece of the Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course at Kansas State University, created in a fit of frustration with the large lecture hall format which seems inevitable in a classroom of 200-400 students.” The project was designed to promote critical thinking among students, and to actively engage students in their own learning process. For an in-depth discussion of the project and the technologies it incorporates, see the final 20 minutes of “A Portal to Media Literacy.”

2008 AAA Photo Contest

Anthropology News welcomes submissions for the first annual AAA Photo Contest. Winning photographs will be printed in a fall 2008 issue of Anthropology News and displayed online. Additionally, AAA will invite selected photographers to exhibit their work at the AAA office in Arlington, VA.

Eigible photographs include those taken in the past year by current AAA members. We encourage the submission of both color and black and white photos featuring a variety of subjects, from landscapes and artifacts to community gatherings and ceremonies, portraits and informal group shots. Photographs that convey personal fieldwork experiences are welcome, as well as photos documenting archival work, public engagement or educational experiences.

Entries will be accepted through September 15, 2008. Click here for submission guidelines.

A Portal to Media Literacy

Welcome to part two of this month’s four-part series on Michael Wesch’s recent work examining students' changing educational expectations and experiences in today's digital world, in advance of our September issue on the anthropology student experience.

“A Portal to Media Literacy” documents Wesch’s June 17, 2008 lecture at the University of Manitoba. The video provides context for “A Vision of Students Today” (see previous post) and examines ways of incorporating emerging technologies into courses to promote student engagement, participation and collaboration. Wesch describes his efforts to develop and implement alternative pedagogies, making use of students’ interest in and familiarity with social media to integrate applications such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Apps into his courses.

AN Call for Proposals: Housing

AN is seeking contributions for a thematic issue on housing to be published in Dec 2008. Potential topics include:

• Mortgage lending
• Homelessness
• Community (re)development
• Historic preservation
• Housing policy
• Sense of place, rootedness, locality
• Public/private distinctions
• Planned and gated communities
• Vernacular architecture and aesthetics
• Community organization, leadership and regulation
• Archaeology of residential sites

Proposals in other areas related to housing are also welcome, as are proposals for various sections of the paper including In Focus commentaries, Teaching Strategies, Field Notes and photo essays. To participate in this thematic issue, email a 300 word proposal and 50-100 word author bio to Anthropology News editor Dinah Winnick. Proposals for photo essays should also include five high resolution photographs, each with a photo caption and credit. More more info see our website.

Proposal submission deadline: August 25, 2008

A Vision of Students Today

As an introduction to the upcoming student experience issue of Anthropology News we are pleased to feature this month a four-part blog post series on Michael Wesch’s recent work examining students' changing educational expectations and experiences in today's digital world.

“A Vision of Students Today” has been viewed more than 2.5 million times through YouTube. The film examines how the learning and communication styles, expectations, wants and needs of contemporary university students are disconnected from the outdated educational environments and pedagogical practices provided for them. Completed with Wesch’s Spring 2007 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class at the Kansas State U, the film features students’ reflections and invites you to become engaged in dialog on this topic through http://mediatedcultures.net.