What Scientists Can Be Grateful for on Thanksgiving

By Adam Ruben

November 25, 2011

AAAS

 

Thanksgiving is a time when we’re forced to verbalize what we’re thankful for. Not that we’re ungrateful in general, but we usually don’t sit around the dinner table taking turns expressing gratitude while our food gets cold.

At Thanksgiving, we identify the usual culprits. We’re thankful for family, we’re thankful for friends, we’re thankful for the food itself. We’re thankful that Farting Cousin Barry’s flight was delayed. But do we ever stop and express our appreciation for science?

let’s do it now.

• We are thankful to the funding agencies that support our research. Without them, we’d be at home experimenting on our cats.

• We are thankful for coffee. So, so thankful.

• We are thankful for that one colleague who knows statistics. There’s always one.

Read more things that scientists can be thankful for here:

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2011_11_25/caredit.a1100131

Credit: Hal Mayforth

This is Anthropology

Students at University of South Florida respond to Gov. Rick Scott’s assertion that the state of Florida doesn’t need any more anthropologists. As Prof. Arlene Torres observes in comments on this web site: “A very thoughtful and creative response. The Governor has much to learn and consider.”

Laura Davis joins Anthropology as New Undergraduate Advisor

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Laura Davis to our Department this Fall as our new Undergraduate Advisor. She has energized our program remarkably and inspired many of our students to explore new initiatives and learning. Laura provides a brief sketch of her background and current research: “After hopping around the Midwest in Minneapolis and Chicago, I am happy to try out small town life and have really liked advising and getting to know all of you. I received my BA in history and my MA and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Minnesota. One underlying question that continues to motivate what I do is: How do we build sustainable and equal communities? In general, I am interested in how people mobilize around issues pertaining to health and safety and how groups influence decision-making and governance within local communities. For my latest project, I have been investigating the legacies of industrial plants and toxic contamination of the environment in the Urbana and Champaign area. This coincides with one of my goals in the Anthropology Department, which is to help develop more community outreach projects and internships.”

More Universities Break the Taboo and Talk to Ph.D.’s About Jobs Outside Academe

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

November 6, 2011

By Audrey Williams June

Columbus, Ohio

A gathering on Ohio State University’s campus here last month had the familiar trappings of a traditional college lecture. Graduate students filed into an auditorium, and some cracked open their laptops or pecked the screens of smartphones as they waited for the speaker to begin.

But in one important way, this lecture was different than most they would attend as doctoral students.

The speaker, Paula Chambers, would talk openly about a subject that graduate students tend to discuss in hushed tones among close friends or trusted mentors—or anonymously in online forums. The taboo topic: preparing for nonacademic jobs.

Paula Chambers (left), a speaker on alternative career paths for Ph.D.'s, talks with a student after a recent seminar on nonacademic careers for graduate students in the humanities at Ohio State U.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:

http://chronicle.com/article/More-Universities-Break-the/129647/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Gov. Scott of Florida Disses Anthropology

Gov. Scott of Florida has singled out anthropology as an example of a wasteful college degree that neither trains students with useful job skills nor benefits the state of Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can read excerpts of his comments (made on a Florida radio show this past Mon.), and a critique by Mother Jones’ national security reporter,  Adam Weinstein, here: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/rick-scott-liberal-arts-majors-drop-dead-anthropology

A group of anthropology students at the U. of South Florida has waged a vigorous protest against this accusation.  They have created a terrific slideshow online showcasing multiple anthropological research projects they are conducting that directly benefit the citizens of Florida.  You can see their wonderful slideshow here:

http://prezi.com/vmvomt3sj3fd/this-is-anthropology/

And our own Prof. Virginia Dominguez, as president of the American Anthropological Association,  has co-authored an open letter to Gov. Scott inviting him to meet with her to learn of anthropology’s robust contributions to science, the economy, and Florida’s “well-being”; you can read Prof. Dominguez’s letter here:

http://www.aaanet.org/issues/policy-advocacy/upload/Letter-to-Gov-Scott.PDF

New Family-Friendly Policies at NSF Will Support Female Scientists’ Research

The NSF has just instituted an exciting ten-year initiative aimed at increasing the number of women who embark on, and succeed in, scientific careers.  The initiative will allow for a year of delay for new mothers to accept awarded grants, for example.

Read about this and many other creative new policies here:

http://chronicle.com/article/New-NSF-Policies-Provide/129168/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en