Newsletter: October 2007
KATHLEEN RAGSDALE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
The Political Construction of Global Communicable Disease Crises SfAA/SMA Abstract Deadline: October 15, 2007
The deadline for abstracts is fast approaching— you still have time to plan a session and/or submit a paper or poster abstract for the 2008 Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) Annual Meeting. The SfAA meeting will be held jointly with the 2008 Society for Medical Anthropology (SMA) Conference on March 25–29, 2008, in the historic and culturally rich city of Memphis, TN. The SMA is planning numerous special events during the conference, including an exciting plenary session, which will be followed by a reception.
The 2008 SMA Plenary, organized by Ruthbeth Finerman, Lenore Manderson, Carolyn Sargent and Carolyn Smith-Morris, is entitled, “The Political Construction of Global Communicable Disease Crises.” According to the plenary’s organizers, “Governments are charged with providing resources and support to protect public health and wellbeing. While various administrations have long been accused of neglecting this responsibility, many also increasingly manipulate health crises for political expedience. Authorities may maneuver to draw public attention to a potential threat in order to galvanize support for, and muzzle criticism of, unpopular policies. Alternately, they may seek to deflect attention from inadequate health responses or medical findings which pose political risks.”
Plenary panelists will address key emerging and established infectious diseases, such as avian flu, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), cholera, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB). As the organizers state, “Using infectious diseases as a foundation, panelists will explore the roles of culture, globalization and political maneuvering as these influence health policy, funding priorities, responsiveness and public awareness in the face of global epidemics. The issue is especially timely for the US, as the current election year could yield profound changes in the political landscape for addressing national and international health.”
The 2008 SMA Plenary reflects the SMA’s ongoing commitment to engaged scholarship on health within global and local contexts. As part of this commitment, the SMA website contains new and updated resources to enhance anthropological teaching, learning and praxis, and offers links to additional site and listservs for educators and practitioners, including:
- Film Database: The SMA has recently begun a database on fi lms related to medical anthropology. Help us build this database by submitting your favorite fi lms on shamans and spirit mediums; rituals, healers and traditional therapies; illnesses and treatments; pharmaceuticals; case studies of patients; patient narratives; and the health dimensions of social issues. View the database and contribute.
- Global Medical Anthropology Directory: The SMA is continuing to add to the membership of its comprehensive, online, searchable directory of medical anthropologists around the globe. The directory includes academic, practicing professional, retired and student medical anthropologists. Join at: www.medanthro.net/directory/index.htm.
- H-Medanthro.net: This listserv “addresses the needs and concerns of medical anthropology graduate students, practicing anthropologists, scholars and scholar activists who address issues of local, national and international health importance” and can be accessed at www.h-net.org/~medanthro/
- Special Interest Groups: The SMA currently sponsors 14 special interest groups that address the unique interests and needs of our membership, offer linkages to scholars with shared concerns, and sponsor informational newsletters, award competitions and projects. These include: Medical Anthropology Students Association (MASA); AIDS and Anthropology Research Group (AARG); Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Study Group (ADTSG); Bioethics Interest Group; Clinically Applied Medical Anthropology (CAMA); Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Integrative Medicine (IM) Group (CAM-IM); Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (CAR); Council on Infant and Child Health and Welfare (CICH); Council on Nursing and Anthropology; Critical Anthropology of Global Health Study Group (CAH); Disability Research Interest Group; Global Health and Emerging Diseases Study Group (GHEDSG); Pharmaceutical Studies Group (Pharma Studies); Science, Technology and Medicine Group (STM). In addition, the SMA has close connections with the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology (AAGE) and the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN). If you would like to submit information on your group or request a link to your group’s website, please contact the SMA
- Syllabi Archive: The SMA is constantly expanding its collection of syllabi that contain signifi cant content related to medical anthropology. Currently, the collection includes over 40 categories and encompasses syllabi as diverse as: “Science, Technology and Medicine: Global Knowledges?”; “Gender and Health: Feminist Ethnographies”; and “Tyranny of the Normal: Representations of Medicine in Film and Culture.” Visit the archives, and contribute your syllabi
Please send contributions to the SMA Contributing Editor, Kathleen Ragsdale (kathleen.ragsdale@ssrc.
msstate.edu)