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  • Good Morning Dr. Bronitsky,

    I am a PhD student in Development Economics at North Carolina State University and because so much of my future work will be alongside Anthropologists I am taking a course on anthropology to understand the methods and techniques of the discipline. Our professor asked us to interview an Anthropologist that works in an area similar to ours to gain a better understanding of why and how you chose this career path. Based on your experience I believe you’re an excellent example of what can be done. As a favor I was hoping for only a couple minutes of your time when it is convenient for you, and I will keep the process quick because I am sure your schedule is very demanding.

    Thank you for your time and I'll be looking forward to hopefully speaking with you.

    Jonathan Whittington
    Jonathan.whittington@sas.com
  • Sounds good. I'm on east coast time, so I'll start with an e-mail.
  • Gordon-just now responding to your comment. Glad to have been a reminder. It looks like you are doing very interesting work. Let me know if you may be interested in talking about each of our work and any other opportunities.
  • Thanks for reminding me--I guess I'm getting more and more forgetful. Horst is now teaching English in Bonn but I have another German partner, in Breisach, and will soon get a Pacific (Australia/NZ) partner, although he lives in the US. Me--acerbic? I'd rather die. I guess it's that I've been in this business since 1994 and I just don't have any patience any more for obscure anthropological jargon (disimbedded in a post-structuralist deconstruction as it is!--whatever that means) and even less patience for anthros who want to protect and preserve "their" people until they die of starvation or boredom. I'm coproducing an international Indigenous theater festival in London and touring the Chinle Valley Singers (traditional Navajo music/dance) to Dubai in August--their 7th trip overseas in 12 years. I'm also waiting for word from the Mexican embassy in Beijing about whether they'll fund travel for the Houston mariachi band I got invited to a festival in Mongolia. Never a dull moment!
    I let my AAA membership lapse several years ago--tired of the socialist/left cant, tired of the anti-Israel politics, tired of "capitalism is evil". What did they do in 2005 that made you quit?
    Too bad I won't be in LA to hear you sing--I'm sure it will be great. On the other hand, if you'd like a rock band from Greenland, an Inuit heavy metal band, a Maya rock band, a Papua New Guinea anti-AIDS theater troupe, a gay mariachi band, whatever--just let me know!

    Gordon
  • Hi, Gordon, Apparently you've forgotten who I am. Although I don't think we've ever met in person, I have known you for many years from ANTHAP and I think ANTHRO-L (? -- I no longer subscribe to that one). I definitely know what you do and we have exchanged personal e-mails in the past. I even visited with your European partner Horst in Germany about 6 or 7 years ago. How is his southern Italian wife doing, btw??

    I'm based in Los Angeles and when we last e-mailed I was working in institutional research capacities in universities (university administration). For the last five years I've been working as a consultant, owner of REAP Change Consultants, doing social science Research, program Evaluation, academic Assessment, strategic Planning and organizational change with non-profits, higher education, and some government agencies (see http://www.reapchange.com for more). It keeps me out of trouble but not in a lot of money. I just got back from the Institute for Community Research, Crossroads II conference where a bunch of researchers, community activists, and some artists got together around social justice concerns.

    I've always been interested in your cultural presentations approach including contemporary art, music, dance, etc. and see that you are still at it. Good for you!! I would think that with the advent and rise of the "Anthropology of Tourism" what you do would be more acceptable to more anthropologists. However, from your response you seem as outspoken and acerbic as ever!! :-) When I was on the NAPA Board recently I tried to get them to divorce from AAA but got nowhere.

    I've finally stopped paying for AAA membership, although I'll miss NAPA, after the leadership's behavior with regards to the 2005 meetings in SF. However, I'm keeping connected as a SfAA member and a member of SCAAN although SfAA seems to be getting kind of academically focused as well. My friend Allyn Unterberger (sp?) in Florida has also stopped her AAA and NAPA membership but remains part of SfAA, I think. She was on the NAPA Board with me, starting as a student rep, and wanted to "Make Anthropology Cool" (MAC) but she didn't have any more luck than I did with NAPA.

    No one knows yet how the SfAA network is supposed to work. It's up to us all to create it as an online social environment. At a minimum being my friend means your photo and name appear on my webpage on this site as linked as "friends." I haven't tried to see if one can do mass communications to friends or what. Have you tried to put up any video clips or anything yet? I've only put up some photos since I'm still not into videos.

    Other than that, I continue to sing with an excellent church choir that in a way meets my own cultural heritage needs (I'm 3/4th German-American) and nourishes my creatie soul. Should you be in Los Angeles tomorrow (June 15), we are singing J.S. Bach's "Magnificat" and also his Motet #6 with orchestra at Westwood Presbyterian Church.

    Does that help remind you who I am??? Take care.
    Steve
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