Over 60 participants, many of them new to HPSfAA, attended the annual meetings in Denver from April 22-25. Students from the Metropolitan State College of Denver, as well as UC-Denver, Colorado State, Northern Colorado, Arizona State, Arizona and other area universities, made up a large part of the attendance and also presented a good number of the papers.
Metro State students, under the guidance of President-Elect Jack Schultz, helped to organize and run the event. President Kathleen Sherman acted as program chair, overseeing the first year with two full days and one half day of presentations. For the fourth year in a row, the conference was held on the Auraria Higher Education Campus, in the Tivoli Student Union Building. Many thanks go to Jack, his students, the anthropology department and Metro State for playing hosts once again.
Highlights of the conference included the presentation of the annual awards on Saturday afternoon. Deward Walker, a founding member of the Society and 10-year editor of the Society's journal, then called the
High Plains Applied Anthropologist, was honored with the Bristlecone Pine Award, which recognizes long and meritorious service to the organization. The Omer C. Stewart Memorial Award, named after another founding member, was given to David and Emilia González-Clements, who work together on applied issues including alternative energy development. The Martha and Friedl Lang Student Award went to Ben Jewell, a Ph.D. candidate at Arizona State and current Newsletter Editor of the HPSfAA.
Presenters and attendees came from as far away as Portland, Oregon, and Portland, Maine, with strong showings from Arizona as well as northern Colorado. An intrepid group from Mesa State, led by Dr. Clare Boulanger, made the
difficult trek over the mountains in the middle of a spring blizzard that dumped
a foot or more of snow in the foothills and passes. Adding insult to injury, a suspected gas leak during their evening presentations forced them to abandon their session, which was made up in part the following day.
The keynote presentation was given by Ava Hamilton, an Arapaho filmmaker and President of the Native American Producers Alliance. In addition to speaking about Native filmmaking and the appropriation of Native culture by mainstream media, she showed her short documentary
Indians for Indians: A Radio Program, about a Native-run radio station in Oklahoma. The talk was the centerpiece of a conference that featured several presentations about video, photography and other media made by or with indigenous peoples.
A major issue at the conference was the future of the High Plains Society's journal, and the possibility of switching to an online publishing format. The high costs of printing and mailing were two factors discussed, along with current trends in academic publishing and research. Students in particular stressed that for them, electronic access to journals was crucial. Increasing readership of the journal was discussed as a major factor for many Society members. More information about this issue will be shared in a planned discussion forum on this website, with members able to contribute their points of view.
All in all, the 2010 Annual Conference was a successful and satisfying event, with great student participation and a wide range of high-quality presentations. Plans are currently underway for next year's conference, which might involve a change of venue after four years in Denver. Be sure to check back for more information!
Conference Photos
Dr.
Deward Walker, a founder of of the High Plains Society for
Applied
Anthropology and former editor of its journal, receives
the Bristlecone
Pine Award from President Kathy Sherman.
David
González-Clements shows the Pueblo wedding vase
given to him and his
wife Emilia (left), co-winners of the
Omer C. Stewart Memorial Award in
Applied Anthropology.
Ben Jewell, winner of the Martha and Friedl Lang Student Award
in Applied Anthropology, gives his acceptance speech.
Most
presentations took place in the Tivoli Tower (shown),
although the
conference spread through three rooms in the
sprawling Tivoli Student
Union Building of the Auraria Higher
Education Campus in downtown
Denver. The building, now
used for student services, stores,
restaurants, computer labs
and meeting rooms, used to house the Tivoli
Brewery.
Please send additional conference photos as medium-size jpeg files to webmaster@hpsfaa.org.
