News & Views: MASA, Minutes from the SMA Graduate Student Committee Business and Board Meetings

Thursday November 21 and Saturday November 23, 2002
2002 AAA Meetings, New Orleans, LA

In attendance:
Thursday Nov. 21: Sabrina Chase, Kari Olson, Dorothy Weaver, Doreen Montag, Tom Rice and Frank Mannix
Saturday Nov. 24: Sabrina Chase, Kari Olson, Dorothy Weaver, Michelle Osborn, Catherine Timura, Jill Owczarzak, Jim Peightel, Adriana Garriga Lopez

Sabrina Chase, Graduate Student Representative to the SMA Board, chaired the meetings. She introduced Kari Olson, the incoming representative. Sabrina will stay on board for one year before Kari takes over. Sabrina reported on a breakfast meeting of all SMA special interest group facilitators, led by Paul Farmer and Mark Nichter on Thursday Nov. 21. Mark and Paul emphasized three new areas of expansion for all SMA special interest groups:

1. Identify "experts" in various arenas of medical anthropology. The experts may be called on by the media when relevant issues arise, or when SMA members or others outside the society need information or assistance in a designated area of expertise. Our group considered the possibility of identifying graduate student contacts willing to provide support and/or information to other graduate students or potential graduate students. It was decided that for now, incoming inquiries would be referred to graduate student forum members with experience in those questions particular to a university or a specialty area. Inquiries about a university graduate program will be referred to student members enrolled in that program whenever possible and questions about a specific area of study will be referred to student members working in the same area. Kari Olson and Sabrina Chase will respond to all other inquiries.

2. Look at the new SMA website (www.medanthro.net) and identify existing gaps as well as recommend appropriate links. The group discussed ideas and links for the website of particular interest to graduate students. Suggestions included:

1. Assembling resources for graduate students in the dissertation writing stage (e.g. The Clockwork Muse, Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day, etc);
2. Contributing links to other websites of interest to graduate students (e.g. www.phinished.org; www.anthrojob.com);
3. Creating lists of major resources in medical anthropology for both novice and advanced users;
4. Compiling teaching resources and suggestions specifically targeted to graduate students and first time teachers (syllabi, tips, suggested readings, etc.);
5. Listing documents and resources designed to assist graduate students to apply for and receive IRB approval;
6. Assembling a list of self care tips for the preservation of graduate student sanity and well being.

Michelle Osborn is currently working on a survey of medical anthropology programs to provide information to potential students. The results will be posted on the website. Kari Olson will monitor a graduate student forum or listserve to share ideas and concerns and make connections with other students working on similar issues in different locations. Watch the website for these upcoming additions.

3. SMA Takes a Stand: This year the SMA’s focus will be on ethics and biomedical research, particularly the issue of clinical trials. The SMA Board is encouraging each committee to consider an issue of interest to them over the course of the next year---either this issue or another issue of relevance to the group. Groups are invited to hold discussions, encourage debate and provide resources covering the issue via the website. As a graduate student group, we feel that the issues most relevant to us at present are as follows: surviving graduate school, progressing through the dissertation writing phase, providing resources for current and potential graduate students concerning medical anthropology programs and guiding advanced graduate students towards future job prospects. Once these basic resources are in place, future incarnations of the SMA graduate student forum will be in a position to take a stand on a specific issue related to medical anthropology. Our current focus, however, remains on assembling a broad menu of resources for graduate students in medical anthropology. We do, however, wholeheartedly encourage graduate students to participate in this year’s SMA effort regarding the ethics of clinical trials.

Other Business:
1. We solicited ideas for and encouraged discussion of the 2003 AAA annual meeting Special Event (sponsored by the SMA Graduate Student Committee). The Special Event is usually a panel-style discussion on a topic of relevance to graduate students, junior faculty and others. Suggestions included:

1. Issues in Fieldwork and Methods: How to acquire a fieldwork affiliation: the pros and cons of using contract research and internships. Methodological issues, ethics in fieldwork, etc.
2. Anthropologists in Non-Traditional Settings-e.g. working in public policy, at the CDC, in health care policy, etc.
3. The Relationship Between Research and Activism in Anthropology
4. Professional Development Issues: How to get on a book reviewer list, how to turn your dissertation into a book, how to become a reviewer of journal articles, where to get teaching skills and resources, etc.
5. Issues Related to Informed Consent: How to get IRB approval, how to get anthropologists on your local internal review board, etc.

We will continue this discussion on the website’s graduate student forum, and we encourage students to submit their ideas for this upcoming event.

2. Doreen Montag mentioned her interest in creating links between medical students and medical anthropology students. She is beginning these efforts in her native Germany and would like to expand them to the U.S.

3. Catherine Timura is organizing a panel for the 2003 meeting on “Medical Anthropology and Public Policy: Roles for Anthropologists.” We discussed the possibility of forging a connection with the National Association of Student Anthropologists (NASA) and other student groups in order to expand our opportunities for sponsoring panels. As a student committee, we cannot sponsor a panel, but as an association, NASA can indeed do so. We will continue to pursue this avenue of investigation.

4. Catherine Timura also announced a conference entitled "Anthropological Approaches to Health Research: New England Regional Conference on Medical Anthropology" taking place on April 3, 2003 at Yale University. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2003. If you would like more information, contact Catherine at catherine.timura@yale.edu.

We hope to foster an increasingly active SMA Graduate Student Committee. We encourage ALL interested graduate students to contact us and to take part in these exciting developments within the SMA.

Sabrina Chase
Schase@cshp.rutgers.edu

Kari Olson
Kari-olson@uiowa.edu

conferences

collaboration

calls for papers

personal announcements

in memoriam

home

In Print! -- books, articles, theses, and more...