Quality of Life and the Role of Applied Anthropology
HPSfAA Annual Conference
April 15-17, 2011
Tivoli Student Union, Auraria Campus, Denver
Online Registration Now Closed
Online registration for the conference is now closed. If you have not yet registered, or if you registered but have not paid, you must bring payment (cash or check only) to the conference registration desk in the Tivoli Student Union Building.
Conference Info
Throughout the modern era, development policy has assumed that improving quality of life was equated with increased wealth. Applied anthropologists play an important role in directing policy and research to the full complex of factors that support actual quality of life.
This conference will explore the work of practitioners and academics in revealing and implementing programs designed to improve the actual quality of life in diverse communities of concern. Among the areas of exploration are: health, environment and sustainability; community development; new technologies; equity and social justice; education; housing; transportation; and economic, political and cultural self-determination.
For example, in the area of health, an applied anthropological approach to quality of life can help bring about an effective understanding of health and sickness by taking into account people’s beliefs, values and behaviors. Applied anthropologists recognize that a lack of access to resources, power, work, and wealth, in addition to neighborhood conditions, environmental degradation, and geographic displacement, can contribute to sickness just as germs and virus can.
Quality of life work can build culturally aware best practices, create partnerships and collaborative efforts, promote preventive approaches, and examine the root causes and social determinants of quality of life inequities.
Subtheme and Keynote Speaker
A subtheme of this year's C. conference is "The Legacy of Omer C. Stewart." Stewart, who was a founder of the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology, was a committed advocate of Native rights, and one of the most influential figures in the battle over the use of peyote as part of the Native American Church. Papers addressing the contributions of Omer to indigenous ecologies, religious freedom, the practice of applied anthropology, the creation of the High Plains Society, and other aspects of his career and research are invited. The Invited Keynote Speaker will be David White Bull, Loan Officer for The Lakota Fund on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, who will discuss “Community Development and the Native American Church.”
If you or your community, students, agencies, coalitions, organizations, teams, or colleagues have a story to tell, idea to explore, paper to present, research to expand our knowledge or experiences to share, we invite you to join us! Please use our online registration system to register and pay for the conference. Several registration categories are available for members and non-members.
For more information, please contact the program coordinators:
Kathleen Sherman, Dept. of Anthropology, Colorado State U.
Phone: (605) 441-0271
Teresa Tellechea, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado
Phone: (970) 351-1745
The High Plains Society has made arrangements for discounted rooms at the Hotel VQ at Mile High, which is within walking distance of the Auraria Campus. Rooms can be reserved for $79 per night (plus taxes and fees), and up to four people can share one room. Rooms with two queen beds or one king bed are available, with a block being held until April 1. After that rooms will be based on availability.
To make a reservation, call the Hotel VQ directly at 800-388-5381 or 303-433-8331. State that you are a member of the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology when making the reservation in order to receive the discounted rate. You must arrange payment for the room yourself; the HPSfAA cannot take payments or make arrangements for hotel rooms on your behalf.
The hotel is a 1.2 mile walk from the Tivoli Student Union Building on the Auraria Campus (link to map below). A free shuttle will also be provided from the hotel to the conference site and back. Also, a conference room will be available for our board meetings, along with a hospitality suite where we can have evening social events. The conference planners encourage you to take advantage of this hotel if you are coming from out of town.
