Call for Abstracts: Anthro+ Student Conference

The Practicing Anthropologist Student Association (PASA) presents the 6th Annual Student Conference AnthroPlus on Saturday, April 11, 2015 at the Stamp Student Union. 

Join a conversation on diversifying the field of anthropology. Explore innovative knowledge production and presentation as we attempt to expand the horizons of anthropological method, theory, study, and practice within and outside of academia. 

Submissions of paper and poster abstracts about original research, ideas and projects are now welcome. Submission is not restricted to students of anthropology -- all students doing relevant work in the social sciences and humanities are welcome to submit! 

Please submit abstracts by March 1, 2015 through the Anthro+ website. 

For any questions, comments, or concerns, please email the Anthro+ inquiry email (anthropologyconferenceumd@gmail.com) or submit an inquiry on the website.

Publication Update: The State of the Hydrosphere - From a Biological Perspective

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Many of you came to Barbara Rose Johnston’s talks on campus last month where she mentioned this upcoming  article. 

Here is the link to the Table of Contents for the new environmental and social science journal focused on water issues;  'Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water'  or WIREs Water.

Barbara Johnston and I co-authored an opinion piece in the upcoming first issue of the journal titled “The precarious state of the hydrosphere: why biocultural health matters.” 

Abstract: 

While the fundamental role of water as a human need and a human right has been acknowledged by the United Nations and member states, too often strategies to secure that right conflict with the competing interests and actions for the same resource. We are approaching a global tipping point in the hydrosphere where the biocultural sustainability of water resources is threatened by the cumulative and synergistic impacts of degenerative changes. When water that sustains life, livelihoods, and culture is threatened, the cultural stability and diversity of peoples and their environment is also threatened. Achieving long-term sustainability of our hydrosphere requires re-embedding social, cultural, and environmental concerns within and throughout the local, regional, and global systems that plan, finance, develop, manage, and use our world's water. WIREs Water 2013. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1003

Advance publication is now available online:  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2049-1948/earlyview.  

If you would like a copy of our essay and are unable to access the Wiley content via university or institutional subscription, drop us a line and we will send you our essay.

All the Best and thanks!

Barbara Rose Johnston and Shirley J. Fiske

<bjohnston@igc.org>  and   <shirley.fiske@umd.edu>

Dr. Jen Shaffer weighs in on the human factor in protecting wildlife

UMD's Dr. Jen Shaffer was quoted in the Environment 360 report, "People of Parks: The Human Factor in Protecting Wildlife, an article critically examining the effectiveness of protected areas. Specifically, article author Richard Conniff discussed the conflicting nature of local communities as both sources of difficulties for park managers and as stronger caretakers of indigenous habitats and species. 

Of this contrast and the need for a better understanding of the relationship between local communities and national conservation efforts, Dr. Shaffer asks the pivitol questions: "[H]ow do we work with local people? What do they know that we don’t? And how can habitats benefit from encouraging those practices? What are they doing that harms the habitat? And how do we work with the community to improve or tweak those practices, so the community is benefiting and the biodiversity is benefiting?"

The full article may be read at:
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/people_or_parks_the_human_factor_in_protecting_wildlife/2707/