January 26–28, 2016

Linking the Past to the Future: 2000 Years of Human Resilience and Socioecological Change in the Central American Tropics

Co-chaired by Keith M. Prufer, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico and Rebecca Zarger, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida

This seminar brought together researchers from the NSF Human Social Dynamics project (Development and Resilience of Complex Socioeconomic Systems, 2008-2013) focused on understanding environmental change and human-environment relations in southern Belize. The primary goal was the modeling of dynamic human behavioral responses to environmental transformation, and linking these processes to climate dynamics, patterns of settlement, resource exploitation, agricultural intensification, competition, and polity stability.

February 23–25, 2016

Innovative Approaches to the Global Water-Energy Nexus

Co-chaired by E. Christian Wells, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida and Linda M. Whiteford, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida

While scientific assessments and engineering solutions are necessary to address coupled water and energy challenges, anthropological research increasingly demonstrates that cultural and political contexts must also be understood and integrated into long-term solutions. This seminar convened a panel of engineers and anthropologists which sought to break down these intellectual barriers and disciplinary silos, and expand on the emerging conceptual synthesis.

October 25–27, 2016

Reassembling The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians: Toward a Collaborative Critical Edition of Franz Boas and George Hunt’s Pioneering 1897 Monograph

Co-chaired by Judith Berman, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria and Aaron Glass, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Bard Graduate Center

An international, collaborative project is bringing anthropologists together with Kwakwaka’wakw elders, artists and community researchers in order to produce an innovative critical edition—in both print and digital formats— of Franz Boaz’ seminal text, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians. It will reunite the original text with the vast archival materials relating to the book’s production and afterlife, and with contemporary Kwakwaka’wakw perspectives.

Generous funding for the Research Team Seminars provided by the National Science Foundation.