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Ethically Impossible: STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Joslyn O.

Report released by the US Bioethics Committee on the Public Health Service’s supported research on STDs in Guatemala in the 1940′s -

Following the revelation last fall that the PHS supported research on sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948, President Obama asked the Bioethics Commission to oversee a thorough fact-finding investigation into the studies. Commission staff carefully reviewed more than 125,000 original pages of documents and approximately 550 secondary sources collected from public and private archives around the country. Commission staff also completed a fact finding trip to Guatemala and met with Guatemala’s own internal investigation committee.

The PHS research involved intentionally exposing and infecting vulnerable populations to sexually transmitted diseases without the subjects’ consent. “In the Commission’s view, the Guatemala experiments involved unconscionable basic violations of ethics, even as judged against the researchers’ own recognition of the requirements of the medical ethics of the day,” Commission Chair Amy Gutmann, Ph.D., said. “The individuals who approved, conducted, facilitated and funded these experiments are morally culpable to various degrees for these wrongs.”

The full report, Ethically Impossible: STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1953, also includes the Commission’s ethical analysis of the case.

Read the entire press release here. How do you think this will impact future research on human subjects? Drop your comment below.

Filed under: Advocacy, Anthro in the Media, Commentary, Ethics | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

AAA Members Showcase NSF Study to U.S. Senate

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Joslyn O.

AAA members Kenneth Broad and Ben Orlove participated in a showcase of NSF-funded Hazard Research on Capitol Hill last week in recognition of National Preparedness Month (September).

Ben Orlove, Robert Meyer and Kenneth Broad

The showcase took place at the Hart Senate Office Building where members of Congress and their staffers could drop-in to learn about the important use of NSF funding.

 Broad and Orlove are part of a dynamic research team that studies how natural hazard warnings can be improved. Joined by Robert Meyer, Shuyi Chen, Jay Baker and Katherine Thompson, this team seeks to understand how the public interprets and responds to information about natural hazards.

Our study integrated innovative social science research methods to identify patterns in behavioral strategies in the face of disaster forecasts, risk factors and means of improving communicating forecasts.

 In order to best serve the people of the United States in the face of natural hazards, further research is needed to understand the influence of mass media, social interactions, and past experience with false alarms, on public response to forecasting.

Filed under: Advocacy, Anthro in the Media, Career/Funding/Awards, Events and Exhibits, Resources | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

New Exciting Website for those in Primate Research

Posted on September 5, 2011 by americananthro1902

All The World’s Primates is a new exciting website that has been launched Primate Conservation, Inc. (PCI).   The website catalogs all the world’s primate species in an interactive and easily searchable database. Each species and subspecies are described separately through an extensive information database, interactive range maps, photographs, illustrations, video and audio, overview articles, and other useful tools.  All The World’s Primates members can share information and insights with other members through blogs and forums.  There are over 3,000 photographs and illustrations in this fully referenced website making it a great resource for students and researchers.

Please click here to explore this new website.

Filed under: Advocacy, Resources | Tagged: , | Comments Off

ANPRM – Human Subjects Research

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Joslyn O.

On Tuesday, July 26, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for “Human Subjects Research: Enhancing Protections for Research Subjects and Reducing Burden, Delay and Ambiguity for Investigators.” The notice was published in the Federal Register (76 FR 44512).

The Chronicle reported this week that there would be a one month extension for universities to submit their pleas…

Universities knew they faced a complicated and far-reaching challenge when the federal government announced last month that it planned the first overhaul in three decades of regulations governing research on humans.

That realization was confirmed Wednesday with an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that it would accept university pleas for a one-month extension of the period for comments on the plan.

Read the entire article here: http://chronicle.com/article/Complexity-Slows-Drive-to/128852/

Want to know more about Protecting Human Subjects? Visit the AAA website: http://www.aaanet.org/issues/policy-advocacy/Protecting-Human-Subjects.cfm

Filed under: Advocacy, Anthro in the Media, Association Business, Commentary, Ethics | Tagged: , , , , | Comments Off

AAA General Statement on Immigration

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Joslyn O.

Following the passage of anti-immigration laws in several states, the Executive Board’s Ad Hoc Group on Immigration has released a statement making recommendations to avoid investing in areas that sponsor or pass such legislation.

In further investigating the immigration issue, the Executive Board’s Ad Hoc Group recommends the Executive Board continues to monitor closely and avoid investing in states that sponsor laws that:

  • give police broad powers and discretion to single out members of a specific ethnic group whether in principle or by practice;
  • remove social services from undocumented immigrants;
  • ban undocumented immigrants from public schools and colleges, and/or charge discriminatory fees;
  • criminalize those who drive or shelter undocumented immigrants; and
  • require individual identification cards that indicate immigration status.

View the complete General Statement on Immigration.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts about this issue as a comment to this post.

Filed under: Advocacy, Anthro in the Media, Association Business, Commentary, Resources | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

Anthropologists Denounce New Georgia Anti-Immigration Law

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Joslyn O.

The Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) strongly condemns recently-signed legislation in Georgia that unfairly targets illegal immigrants, calling the law “discriminatory and weakening customary legal prohibitions of police investigations on immigrant status.” The group passed a resolution speaking out against the law on May 22.

Georgia House Bill 87, signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal (R) would, among other things, allow local and state police to arrest illegal immigrants and transport them to state and federal jails; punish people who use fake identification to get a job in Georgia with up to 15 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines; and punish those who knowingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants or encourage them to come to Georgia. First-time offenders would face imprisonment for up to 12 months and up to $1,000 in fines.

Georgia is the third state to pass anti-immigration legislation within the past year. Utah and Arizona both passed similar types of legislation, with Arizona’s law currently being challenged in Federal court. Last year, AAA issued a statement condemning the Arizona law, calling it “predatory and unconstitutional.”

AAA leadership was united in its opposition to the law. “Georgia’s new law unfairly targets illegal immigrants and includes draconian punishments for those who can least afford to be treated so harshly,” AAA President Virginia Dominguez said in a statement issued today. The sponsor of AAA’s measure, George Mason anthropologist Hugh Gusterson, noted that with the passage of the resolution “the anthropological community has shown that it will not bring its business to a state that has moved so far from American traditions and, instead, chosen to scapegoat its weakest citizens.”

The AAA resolution pledges that the association as a whole will refuse to hold a scholarly conference in Georgia until House Bill 87 is either repealed or struck down as constitutionally invalid.

Click here to view the official AAA press release.

Filed under: Advocacy, Anthro in the Media, Association Business | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

New Executive Board Statement on Evaluating Scholarship Through Tenure and Promotion

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Joslyn O.

The AAA Executive Board on May 21, 2011 adopted and endorsed a statement on Evaluating Scholarship on Practicing, Applied, Public Interest, and Engaged Anthropology Through Tenure & Promotion.

AAA recognizes the growing number of anthropologists who identify as practicing, applied, public interest, or engaged anthropologists. Departments of anthropology and their home colleges are thus challenged with documenting and evaluating the scholarly nature of this type of work in faculty promotion and tenure decisions. Accordingly, the AAA offers the following guidelines developed for departmental and college T&P committees for the evaluation of scholarship in the realm of practicing, applied, public interest, and engaged anthropology for consideration in tenure cases and promotion to associate and full professor.

The full statement and additional resources are also available on the AAA’s Department website.

Filed under: Advocacy, Association Business, Career/Funding/Awards, Resources | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Budget Cuts Impact Humanities

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Joslyn O.

Most federal humanities programs received major cuts in FY 2011, and new budget allocations released by the House indicate that FY 2012 could result in even larger across-the-board reductions. As work on FY 2012 appropriations in Congress moves forward, you can help by contacting your congressional representatives. Here are two programs that directly impact many AAA members:

Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education Programs
The U.S. Department of Education just cancelled all new Fulbright-Hays International Education Program grants, stating: “Congressional action on the FY 2011 budget substantially reduced funds available for grants from the Title VI Programs, including new grants under the DDRA (Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad) Program. Therefore, no new awards will be made under the DDRA Program in FY 2011.”
Please write your Members of Congress and ask them to restore FY 2012 funding for the Department of Education’s International Education and Foreign Language Studies programs-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays- to the FY 2010 enacted level of $125.9 million.

Ask Congress to Support the Humanities – Restore NEH FY12 Funding
Please write your Members of Congress and ask them to support the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by requesting $167.5 million in FY12 funding for the agency. This would restore NEH funding to the same level the agency received in FY10. As you may know, the final, FY11 year-end Continuing Resolution (CR) set NEH funding for the current year at $155 million–a $12.5 million cut from the FY10 level.  In the FY12 Budget Proposal, President Obama has requested $146 million for the agency in FY12.  If enacted, this figure would represent an even deeper, $21 million cut from the FY10 level.

The National Humanities Alliance has template messages in which you can personalize for your congressional representative. Please contact your representative today!

Filed under: Advocacy, Career/Funding/Awards, Resources | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Free Speech Anthropology Forum

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Joslyn O.

Reactions to the early May 2011 capture and death of Osama Bin Laden are multiple and vary in intensity, yet it is clear that anthropologists have much knowledge and insight to offer each other and the rest of the world.  Notice the  Free Speech Anthropology Forum tab on this blog in order to stress the value of space for thoughtful, scholarly, and analytic debate and discussion among anthropologists and others we seek to reach.  AAA endorses and seeks to facilitate the space for dissent, free speech, and thoughtful analysis.  At times like this one, when many are either just euphoric or others offer critiques that look quite politically partisan, it may be more important than ever to endorse thoughtful, scholarly, analytic discussion and commentary.

The future will no doubt bring us other subjects of similar intensity and public attention, but this seems to be an especially apt time for our Free Speech Anthropology Forum tab on this blog, providing our members with the space and the opportunity to engage in important but possibly difficult exchanges over reactions to the Bin Laden death.

- Virginia R. Dominguez
President, American Anthropological Association

Filed under: Advocacy, Association Business, Commentary | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Elimination of “Linguistically Isolated” as Classification by the U.S. Census Bureau

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Joslyn O.

AAA experts on Language and Social Justice from the Committee for Human Rights and the Society for Linguistic Anthropology have been working with the U.S. Census Bureau for several years to spur terminology change in the tabulation of household language data. As a result of our extensive communication with the U.S. Census Bureau, and with the support of the Census Advisory Committee on the Hispanic Population, the U.S. Census Bureau agreed to eliminate the phrase “linguistic isolation” from its products issued starting in 2011. In a recent letter, the Bureau writes, “We have changed the terminology to one that we feel is more descriptive and less stigmatizing. The phrase that will appear in all new products will be Households in which no one 14 and over speaks English only or speaks a language other than English at home and speaks English ‘very well.’”

For the complete story, click here.

Filed under: Advocacy, Anthro in the Media, Association Business, Public Affairs | Tagged: , , , , , , | Comments Off

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