HPSfAA Ghost Ranch Fall Retreat 2022
October 7-8, 2022
Schedule Now Available!
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“(re)Placing Anthropology: Reflecting on the Anthropologist in the Professional Realm”
Common advice for applied anthropologists starting out is the truth that often your employer won’t know they need an anthropologist—the trick is showing them they do. In this spirit the theme for our fall retreat is “(re)Placing Anthropology”. We ask you to share the work that you do or have done which at the time, was not necessarily under the auspices of anthropology or a related social science. We also invite you to share reflections on the process of interdisciplinary collaboration. As a community of practice committed to stepping out of academia to place our time and energy into applied work that seeks to facilitate intercultural collaborations, community centered development, or organizational assessments, our members often wear a number of hats.
While it is “the keen eye of the anthropologist” which is perhaps at the center of what made us a fit for a position or a spot on a team, we are not necessarily hired to fulfill the role of an anthropologist. Perhaps you were asked to engage in an Inclusivity, Equity, and Diversity audit for an organization or to develop recommendations for a business incubator for an underserved demographic—we would like to draw stories about how you did or didn’t successfully translate your tool kit, ethics, and methodology into cross-disciplinary or cross-sector work.
Furthermore, as applied anthropologists, what we do may fall outside traditional roles as explicitly anthropologists; but also the names, labels, and identity roles we are called and call ourselves may vary significantly. These names are important and can have ethical, legal, professional, or interpersonal ramifications. We invite reflections on the implications of these labels.
We invite presentations that explore the place of anthropology and the anthropologist. What is anthropology when the field site is your workplace? How does anthropology shape your work within other roles? How do you approach professional collaborations? How do the names we, or others, give to our roles shape our identities and our interactions with those we work with?
Join us for a period of rejuvenation and fellowship as we explore how each of us has had to re-place, re-position, and re-imagine ourselves and our discipline in the liminality of our professional lives.
We intentionally make a place within our community of practice for the presentations of students, researchers, professionals, and activists to share their work even if it does not precisely fit the theme. Furthermore, because interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to vibrant and meaningful applied work, our society extends a standing invitation to related disciplines and any who are committed to ethical community work.
Thank you,
High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology Planning Committee
Lucor Jordan, President HPSfAA
