Join us for a monthly showcase of research-in-progress by Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences faculty members. The campus-community and the general public are invited to interact with faculty in conversations about their research, gain a sense of how research practices shift as they move across disciplines and sectors, and think critically and creatively about the implications of different forms of research design.
No RSVP is required for general attendance. A one-credit course option is available to graduate students.*
Spring 2012 Speaker Lineup
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
4:00 – 5:30pm
Does a Corpse Have Human Rights?
Bruce Kochis
This research explores the complexity of the concept human rights, specifically what is a “human” and how far can rights be extended outside of the political consensus that recognizes them. Triggered by the aftermath of Katrina when bodies were left to rot in the sun without being attended to, the research uncovers the issue of extending the notion of human dignity beyond biological life. Historical and cultural practices suggest that there might be a universal claim for an extension of the idea of human life beyond the biological to the metaphorical or memorial realms. At the same time, “rights” are being extended in law to animals to unborn fetuses to stem cells to clones, which suggests that rights are not solely a political claim by political actors on their own behalf.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
4:00 – 5:30pm
Landscape Change in Western Amazonia: From Dispersed to Nucleated Production Systems
Santiago Lopez
This presentation describes the implications of changes in settlement patterns on food production systems and territorial organization in Western Amazonia and highlights the effects of landing strips on current land-use patterns in indigenous territories in the region. The study characterizes riverine and inter-fluvial production systems in the lower Pastaza River basin in Ecuador based on ethnographic records, remotely sensed data, surveyed information, and statistical descriptions. Results show that nucleation of local populations around landing strips increased control of indigenous populations over their ancestral territories and changed the political and geographic landscape. At the same time, nucleation is slowly transforming indigenous livelihoods from mobile cultivators and foragers to sedentary stock-farmers. We conclude that even though indigenous communities will eventually integrate into the national economy, the main elements of the traditional food production system will likely remain the same. This suggests the creation of adequate development programs that respond to local land use management strategies and guarantee the long-term sustainability of local socio-ecological systems.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
4:00 – 5:30pm
Donation, Compensation, and Data: The Politics of Transnational HIV Research in Uganda
Johanna Crane
What happens when humanitarian aspirations to “do good” are wedded to the scientific imperative to produce knowledge? This paper uses tools from medical anthropology and science studies to examine the intermeshing of humanitarian and scientific motivations as they played out within a U.S.-sponsored HIV research project in rural Uganda. In this project, the humanitarian act of “donating” information technology to a Ugandan HIV clinic led to tensions and complications over the status of the data that this technology supported, forcing U.S. scientists to choose between their motivation to “give” to the clinic and their desire to assert ownership over valuable scientific data. Moreover, the growing prominence of global health research as a source of supplemental income for underpaid local health professionals at the clinic produced an uncomfortable politics around compensation from which my own anthropological research was not exempt. I use these examples to argue that the humanitarian ethos underlying global health risks positioning researchers in low-income countries as recipients of charitable donation rather than as scientific peers.
All colloquium presentations occur in the following location:
UW Bothell, Building UW1, Room 280 (Rose Room)
Directions
Read about past colloquium presentations.
*A one-credit course option is available to graduate students (BCULST/BPOLST 591). The first class meeting of the quarter begins at 3:30pm (location TBD), with the actual colloquium presentation beginning at 4:00pm.
The University of Washington is committed to providing equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities, education and employment for individuals with disabilities. To inquire about disability accommodations, please contact Rosa Lundborg at Disability Support Services at least ten days prior to the event at 425.352.5307, TDD 425.352.5303, FAX 425.352.5455, or email dss@uwb.edu.