9:00pm – The afternoon was a blur of meetings, business and personal. Heading to the Michigan alum + friends function in a bit, then off to bed to get ready for my session tomorrow.
12:00 – Q and A wrapping up. I am getting ready to head to BioAnth Exec meeting. Good morning of talks.
11:40 – the role of ‘discussant’ has to be the hardest at AAA
11:15 – Sara Alexander (Baylor) talking ato lot aboutto scale and climate changechange in Belize. Reason I like 4-field anthro and climate changes is its ability to work across axes of scale, temporal, ecological, human (practice and policy).
11:00 – Really like Derek’s talk. Basically, process of sustainable certification in biofuel production creates a sense of action, but in reality provides no mechanism to enforce corporate responsibility in absence of local policy enforcement. Seems like a solution, but really an inappropriate solution to a collective action/risk problem.
10:45 – Now Derek Owen Newberry (U Penn) talking about biofuel certification in Brazil. Certification processes, according to Derek, rather than solving problems, make them worse by applying inappropriate veneer of ethical action to a group action problem.
10:30 – I moved to a session on climate change, a topic that I feel four-field Anthro perspectives have a lot to contribute. Current speaker is Dr. Mark Calamia, who works for the National Park Service, talking about changing weather patterns and access to raw materials by indigenousa groups at Pipestone National Park.
9:45 – Sitting in on an interesting session on archaeological research on contemporary and historical immigration. Came into the session during Stephen Brighton’s talk on his work on contemporary transborder crossings in the Sonoran desert. Stephen collaborates with the Jason De Leon, who we had at Wellesley for a talk last week. Really ineresting work and a great example of archaology producing relevant knowledge for contemporary issues.
9:15 – No line with for registration, so badge and program collected. The competiton between my wife (MLA) and me over whose organization has the larger program heats up with this edition…700+ pages.
8:45 After arriving into San Francisco late last night, I am heading off now to register and begin my AAA experience. My morning began in my otherwise wonderful hotel room by discovering the shower has the water pressure of a nearly empty sun-shower. I had to crouch in the bottom of the tub just so that gravity had a little more opportunity to accelerate the water as it dribbled from the shower. Given the sound of rain outside my window, though, I may have been better served to just shower on the sidewalk. I have a few business meetings today, but I will try and provide some updates throughout.
