Meeting Information:
Location: San Francisco, CA.
Date: March 17-21, 2010
Theme: SUSTAINABLE TEACHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY, CAN ANTHROPOLOGY HAVE AN IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP?
Meeting Summary:
SACC’s 2010 annual meeting took place at the Radisson Hotel Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, March 17-21. President George Rodgers and fellow SACC member Jo Rainie Rodgers did an extraordinary job of not only arranging the conference but also generously and expertly preparing and sharing delicious food and drink.
SACC was honored to have Professor Laura Nader (U Cal Berkeley) as keynote speaker and AAA President Virginia Dominguez (Professor, U IL, Champaign-Urbana) as a visiting guest and conference participant. Nader is editor of The Energy Reader (Wiley-Blackwell, May 2010), and advocates emphatically that social scientists—especially anthropologists—collaborate with physical and nuclear scientists and take leadership positions in evaluating and formulating energy policies. She feels that anthropologists have the general cultural perspective so often lacking in other policy makers. She is also highly critical of current nuclear energy practices and insists that we must first solve the waste disposal problem before building more nuclear power plants.
Dominguez selected SACC as one of a number of section conferences to attend, in order to learn more about the diverse groups that comprise the AAA. She dined with us and traveled with us on our field trip that included a behind-the-scenes look at some collections of the California Academy of Sciences and the King Tut Exhibit at the De Young Museum of Art, both in Golden Gate Park. She attended SACC presentations and led a stimulating discussion with us on such topics as the goals of AAA, the goals of SACC, and the relationships between the AAA and its 38 sections.
In Ann Kaupp’s stead, Dianne Chidester presented SACC Teacher of the Year Awards to Laura Tubelle de González of San Diego Miramar College and Tad McIlwraith of Douglas College, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Nominations materials sent to The Awards Committee (Ann Kaupp, Chair, Beverly Bennett, Dianne Chidester and Nikki Ives) said that both recipients “possess sensitivity, creativity, and connectivity in teaching students of diverse backgrounds” and make “a significant difference within their respective communities.”
Lloyd Miller, SACC editor