On November 6, Kregg Hetherington was invited to present a paper at the Yale Agrarian Studies Colloquium Series “Hinterlands, Frontiers, Cities, and States:
Transactions and Identity.” Dr. Hetherington’s paper was titled “Guerrilla Auditors and Duplicitous Documents: Information, Transparency and Land Struggles in Paraguay.” On the 16th and 17th of October, Dr. Hetherington was discussant at a conference at St. Mary's University called "Biofuels, Land and Agrarian Change.” He has also recently published the article "The strategic incoherence of development: marketing expertise in the World Development Report," in the Journal of Peasant Studies.
At the national meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Dr. Christopher Helland presented the paper “(Virtually) Been There, (Virtually) Done That: Ritual Practice of the Hip and Wired in the Hindu Tradition.” His paper was part of a panel that examined the new ritual development of “Cyber Puja.”
Dr. Emma Whelan presented a paper at the British Sociological Association Medical Sociology meetings in Manchester, England, September 3-5. The paper, co-authored by Mark Asbridge (Community Health & Epidemiology) and SOSA PhD student Susan Haydt, was entitled "Who's Responsible? Pain Activists and Experts on the 'OxyContin Crisis' in North America." It gave an overview of a 4-year study on the problematization of OxyContin, a prescription painkiller, and the ways those who support access to the drug for pain treatment respond to its problematization with their own moral regulation and responsibilization
strategies.
The department is pleased to announce that three of their students have received Social Science and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) CGS Doctoral Scholarships in the 2009/2010 competition. The recipients are Catherine Bryan and Tonya Canning, current PhD (Anthropology) students in our department. The third recipient is Chris Giacomantonio, graduated in May 2009 with a Masters of Arts (Sociology). He continues his studies at Oxford University pursuing his doctoral degree.
Dr. Emma Whelan has been awarded a Visiting Researcher Stay at the Fondation Brocher in Hermance, near Geneva, Switzerland. The Fondation's Stays provide accommodation, office space and living expenses to visiting scholars while they study the social, legal and ethical implications of technology in medicine. During her stay in February and March 2010, Dr. Whelan will begin her study of the use of online communication tools in the latest revision of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases, working at the Fondation and the WHO Library in Geneva.
An article by Dr. Emma Whelan appears in the international interdisciplinary journal Social Science & Medicine, 68(8), April 2009. The article, entitled "Negotiating science and experience in medical knowledge: Gynaecologists on endometriosis," examines the use of the concepts of science and experience as epistemic devices in gynaecological journal articles from 1985 to 2000, in the context of the concurrent rise of the movements for evidence-based and patient-centred medicine.
The department is pleased to announce that two of their faculty have received Social Science and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Standard Research Grants in the 2008/2009 competition. Dr. Robin Oakley was awarded an SRG for her project titled “People's Science in South India: Biomedicine and Ancient Healing at the Crossroads.” Dr. Christopher Helland was awarded an SRG for his project titled “Far Away—So Close: Assessing the Impact and Implications of the Internet and World Wide Web on Diaspora Religion.” Both scholars have received funding to conduct their fieldwork and research for the next several years.
In March, Dr. Christopher Helland presented a paper at the Biannual Joint Meeting of the Society for Psychological Anthropology and the Society for the Anthropology of Religion in Asilomar, California. The theme of the conference was "Moments of Crisis: Decision, Transformation, Catharsis, Critique." His paper was titled “Engineering an Alternative Ending: Creating Utopian Communities and Sacred Spaces in Cyberspace.”
Dr. Robin Oakley presented an Invited paper titled "Defying Profit-Based Medicine: Tamil Siddha Practitoners Perceptions and Practices of Healing" at the Sixth Conference of the Indian Association of Social Sciences and Health on Health, Equity and Human Rights March 7-8, 2009 at Pondicherry Central University, Puducherry, India.
Dr. Robin Oakley presented an invited paper at the the 4th Inter-Congress of Indian National Confederation and Academy of Anthropologist (INCAA) in collaboration with The Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad, India on the theme of Anthropology in India: Current Epistemiology and Future Challenges (February 21-23, 2009). Her paper was presented in the session "Inequality, Exclusion and Politics," organized by Prof N.Sudhakar Rao, Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad.
Dr. Liz Fitting organized a panel entitled "Contested ground: Agricultural GMOs and
rural futures" at the American Anthropology Association's annual conference in
San Francisco this November. As part of the panel, she presented a paper which
summarized her ongoing research in Mexico.
Dr. Liesl Gambold organized a session at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association titled “Common Work and Collective Emotions” where she presented the paper “Emotional Banking: Saving for the Future in Times of Change”. She also co-taught a one week graduate level course to natural science students at Hue University Sciences in Hue, Vietnam, with Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber. The course was Gender and Sustainable Development and there were approximately 17 students.
Dr. Robin Oakley was invited to present the Professor J.K. Bose Memorial Lecuture at the International Seminar on Humanity and Applied Social Science in BIDISA (Khardapur, West Bengal), India this December. Her Lecture was entitled: "Biomedicine and Traditional Healing at the Crossroads in India : A Critical Anthropological Analysis". The seminar was well attended by social scientists and research scholars from all over India.
Dr. Christopher Helland was invited to present a paper at the “Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual” conference in Heidelberg, Germany. The conference was hosted by the Collaborative Research Centre "Ritual Dynamics" (SFB 619 "Ritualdynamik") which is an interdisciplinary centre to research the dynamics of ritual. It is the world's largest research centre dedicated solely to investigating these issues, with over 90 scientists and researchers working in seventeen sub-projects. Dr. Helland’s paper was in the panel “Ritual and Media”, which discussed the effect new media is having on ritual practice.
Dr. Subramanyam Naidu, Senior Anthropologist and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and International Studies, Pondicherry University, is Guest Faculty in our department. He is here in a Shastri Indo-Canadian Faculty Enrichment Fellowship to develop a cirriculm for a new Canadian Studies Program at his University. Dr. Naidu has conducted ethnographic fieldwork among South Asian tribal communities, and his areas of speciality include Medical Anthropology and Hinduism. Pondicherry Central University is a federal Indian University and the Department of Anthropology has a strong graduate program with MA, MPhil and PhD programs.
Dr. Christopher Helland has published a chapter in the new book, Religion and Diversity in Canada, edited by Lori Beaman and Peter Beyer. Helland’s chapter “Canadian Religious Diversity Online: A Network of Possibilities” explores the ways in which religious groups are deploying new technologies to present themselves to the communities in which they live and to develop and maintain social networks. “Helland’s work also raises the important point that religious diversity within Canada is intimately connected to a global religious community for which the boundaries of nation state have limited meaning.”
Dr. Mi Park has just published her book, Democracy and Social Change: A History of South Korean student Movements,1980-2000, with Peter Lang. "The book explains the emergence of the radical student movement and the subsequent political transformation in South Korea in the last two decades. It pays particular attention to the various organizing methods, the patterns of changing ideologies, and political tactics of the student movement. With extensive interview materials taken from former student activists, the book provides insightful insiders' knowledge of what had happened in the student movement. By situating the South Korean student movement in its broad socio-historical contexts, it investigates the interplay of structural forces and agency to explain the political transformation of South Korea between 1980 and 2000." For more information go to:
http://www.peterlang.com/Index.cfm?vID=11066&vHR=1&vUR=2&vUUR=3&vLang=F
Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber’s paper "Cell Phones, Complicity, and Class Politics in the Philippine Labour Diaspora" is now published in Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology 51 28-42. This is part of a special theme section on "Migrants, Mobility and Mobilization" which she co-edited with Winnie Lem (Trent University). She also presented a paper at the International Studies Association conference in San Francisco in March. The paper "Lost in Translation? Policy Border crossings in Philippine-Canada Migration" represents one aspect of her SSHRC funded research on Global Migration and New Economic Subjectivities. This project provides opportunities for graduate researchers at Dalhousie and Guelph, as does the Metropolis project. The Atlantic Metropolis Centre hosted the national conference on immigration and citizenship policy related research in April and Dalhousie was well represented at the conference. Pauline Gardiner Barber’s panel on the Ideal Immigrant included papers from Dalhousie students Sinziana Chira (SOSA MA 2008) and Joseph Nyemah (IDS MA 2008). Natasha Hanson, Will Silver and Chris Giacomantonio were among the SOSA graduates who volunteered at the conference.
Dr. Brian Noble was featured in the Dal News for his work examining intellectual property and cultural heritage. Dr. Noble is a co-investigator on the project "Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage: Theory, Practice, Policy, Ethics." The project has received an award of $2.5 million from SSHRC and $4 million in support from participating universities. For the full story go to: http://dalnews.dal.ca/ (May 29, 2008).
Many members of the SOSA department, past and present, faculty and students, participated in this year's CASCA (Canadian Antrhopology Society/Societe Canadienne d'Antropologie) Conference at Carleton University in Ottawa May 7-10. Professors Gambold and DuBois were there (as was Prof. Janice Graham, cross-appointed from Bioethics). Current students in attendance included: Katrina Hill, Christina Holmes, Liz Toller, Erika McCroskey, Claire Poirier. Alumni included: J. Dylan Turner (PhD student at CUNY) Chantalle LeBlanc and Yonelis Negri (both PhD students at Toronto), Mary Gaudet, Maya Shapiro, (PhD students at York), Maggie Cummings (PhD York), Stacey Lockerbie (PhD student at McMaster), Matt Theoret (MA student at Waterloo). It was a pleasure to see so many Dal people! Look for a Dal social at next year's CASCA.
Dr. Lindsay DuBois participated as a discussant at the recent CASCA conference, May 7-10. On May 23, she presented a paper "The Romance of Reminiscence: Problems posed by life histories with activist pensioners in Argentina" at the symposium The Politics of Forgetting: Stories to Pass On. The symposium was sponsored by the Centre of Excellence on Political Theory and Conceptual Change, Jyvaskla, Finland and the University of King's College, Halifax. She is also pleased to report that her book, The Politics of the Past in an Argentine Working-class
Neighbourhood (2005) University of Toronto Press, is now available in paper.
Dr. Liesl Gambold has a piece in this edition of Anthropology News (Volume 49, Number 5, May 2008), called “Retirement Migrants: The Global Flow of the Non-Working.” It is a "Commentary" in the In Focus series on Migration Policy and Transnationality. The piece discusses the critical importance of retirement as baby-boomers begin to retire and the related trend of retirees moving across international borders to live out the later part of their life course.
2007/2008 SOSA Department News
2006/2007 SOSA Department News
2005/2006 SOSA Department News