Newsletter: November 2004
Nancy Vuckovic and Janelle S. Taylor, Contributing Editors
SMA Takes A Stand
Craig Janes, SMA President (UC Denver)
At the upcoming AAA meetings in San Francisco the Society for Medical Anthropology will continue its “Takes a Stand” initiative. Through symposia, panel discussions, publications, and electronic communications, the goal of the Takes a Stand initiative is to provide substantive and relevant commentary to policy-oriented discussions occurring outside of the discipline. Our first initiative, headed by Kate MacQueen and Mark Nichter, addressed ethical problems associated with international clinical trials, especially those undertaken by the multinational pharmaceutical industry. A session on this topic was held at the 2004 Society for Applied Anthropology/Society for Medical Anthropology joint meetings in Dallas, Texas, and this group continues to work on assembling and disseminating the research and writing on this topic. A follow-up session is being planned for the upcoming Society for Applied Anthropology meetings next April. Please contact Kate MacQueen KMacQueen@fhi.org, or Mark Nichter Mnichter@u.arizona.edu, if you have an interest in participating in these ongoing discussions.
This year the SMA is taking on the problem of health disparities. We have organized two events to launch this initiative. In cooperation with the American Anthropological Association’s public program, “Understanding Race and Human Variation,” we have organized an invited session entitled, “Exploring the Intersection of Race, Human Variation, and Health.” Genetic anthropologists, biological anthropologists, social epidemiologists, and cultural anthropologists will participate in the session. Presenters include Adam Bennett, Bill Dressler, Alan Goodman, Lance Gravlee, Robert Hahn, Janis Hutchinson, Fatimah Jackson, Nancy Krieger, Jonathon Marks, Lorna Moore, and Kathy Oths. The session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, November 18.
Following this session, the SMA Health Disparities task force, headed by Suzanne Heurtin-Roberts and Merrill Singer, will host a panel discussion. It is intended that the panel discussion will launch a year-long effort to coordinate medical anthropological scholarship on health disparities and communicate that scholarship to a wider public.
Please plan to attend both of these important events.
Rutgers University Press welcomes Studies in Medical Anthropology
The Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology series is moving to Rutgers University Press. Under the Rutgers University Press imprint, Studies in Medical Anthropology will continue its tradition of publishing theoretically innovative scholarship on topics of current and fundamental concern to the field. The series will also publish a set of concisely written “theme books” that synthesize scholarship in developing areas of the field or offer new perspectives on traditional topics for undergraduate and graduate students, professionals in related disciplines, and practicing anthropologists in educational and applied settings. The series editor is Alan Harwood, and the editorial advisory board includes: William Dressler, Ronald Frankenberg, Mary Jo Good, Sharon Kaufman, Shirley Lindenbaum, Margaret Lock, and Catherine Panter-Brick.
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).