Newsletter: January 2003
Nancy Vuckovic and Janelle Taylor, Contributing Editors
We have a number of people to congratulate for awards received during the annual meeting in November. We’ll be brief, due to space limitations. Check the SMA website for additional information on the winners, the awards committee and criteria for selection.
SMA Publication Awards by Vincanne Adams (UCSF)
This year’s winner of the Rivers Prize for outstanding work by an undergraduate anthropology student is China Star, a graduate of UC Berkeley and currently an intern with Partners in Health in Boston, MA. China’s essay “You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last: Unmarried Motherhood in Contemporary Rural Ireland” offers a sensitive exploration of the changing meanings and experience of unwed pregnancy and motherhood in rural Ireland. The winner of the Hughes Graduate Student Paper Prize this year was split between two winners. The first winner is Michael Oldani (Princeton) for his essay “Thick Prescriptions: Towards and Anthropology of Pharmaceutical Sales Practices,” which offers a revealing look at the gift economy that undergirds the production of scientific knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry. The co-winner is Sylvain Perdigon (Johns Hopkins), whose essay “Words Around an Infamous Woman” explores the suicide death of Wafa Idriss, the first Palestinian female to sacrifice herself for the intifada.
The Polgar Prize is selected from the articles
appearing in a single volume of Medical Anthropology
Quarterly (volume 15 this year). This year’s
Polgar Prize goes to Kenyon Stebbins, whose essay
“Going like Gangbusters: Transnational Tobacco
Companies “Making a Killing” in South
America” offers a powerful exposé
of the techniques used by transnational tobacco
companies to expand their markets in South America
and issues a “call to arms” to other
medical anthropologists to do more work on this
devastating epidemic.
Alfredo González Receives 2002
AARG Service Award by Elisa Sobo (Children’s
Hospital, San Diego)
The AARG Service Award is given every two years to a living anthropologist in recognition of meritorious contributions to the improvement of the health of people infected with or at risk of infection with HIV. The 2002 AARG Service Award goes to Alfredo González, a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, and a longtime AIDS activist. For many years now, González has been on the front line merging anthropology and HIV/AIDS advocacy, using spoken, written and video reports as well as outright activism to address audiences where his findings can have a direct effect.
AARG Board Recognition Award by Merrrill Singer (Hispanic Health Council)
The newly created AARG Board Recognition Award commemorates service to building AARG as a vital force in the promotion of AIDS research, service, policy formation, and advocacy. It was created with its first recipient directly in mind. The first award was given to Rev. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J., in recognition of the service he has performed on behalf of AARG with his computer wizardry. Fr. Bucko created and maintains our listserv and our website, which has played a major role in increasing AARG's salience and increasing AARG members’ ability to network and learn about recent HIV/AIDS-related news and scholarship. As a result of Ray's efforts, as well as those of other AARG members, the organizational membership has tripled in the last year. With the Board Recognition Award, AARG enthusiastically thanks and honors Fr. Bucko for his outstanding dedication and service.
Council on Anthropology and Reproduction
Publication Awards by Janelle Taylor (U Washington)
The Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (CAR)
at its November business meeting announced three
awards. Elly Teman (Hebrew U Jerusalem) won the
second annual Student Paper Prize competition
for her essay "The Medicalization of 'Nature'
in the 'Artificial Body': Surrogate Motherhood
in Israel." In the first annual edited volume
book prize competition, two prizes were awarded.
Alma Gottlieb's 1988 (U Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
edited collection Blood Magic: The Anthropology
of Menstruation was recognized for its "enduring
influence," while Margaret Lock (McGill U)
and Patricia Kaufert (U Manitoba) were recognized
for "significant recent work” with
their 1998 edited collection Pragmatic Women and
Body Politics.
Please send your comments, contributions, news and announcements to the SMA Contributing Editors Nancy Vuckovic (nancy.vuckovic@kpchr.org) or Janelle Taylor (jstaylor@u.washington.edu)