Anthropology roundup: #SaveAnthropologyALevel in UK…

The Anthropology A-level, introduced in 2010 in UK schools,  is now at risk to be discontinued by the exam board AQA. The curriculum is very  VA-based, using films and media for teaching and as learning devices… so perhaps you join by signing the campaign?

The campaign to #SaveAnthropologyALevel is gathering pace.

Over the weekend the story was covered in The Observer and The Independent (links below).
This morning the petition reached 3000 signatures!  You can help to keep this important subject in schools around the UK by signing, tweeting and sharing the petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-anthropology-a-level/u/9586711
The goal is to reach 10,000 signatures. Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen has already signed and commented alongside many academics, students, parents and teachers.
You can read their comments by clicking on the petition link above.

Anthropology A-Level
Wondering what Anthropology A-Level is like? Watch the video:

Anthropology A-Level was first taught as a pilot qualification from September 2010.  It has only been running as a fully-fledged qualification since September 2011.
Despite a growing network of committed teachers and increasing numbers of students studying the course, the AQA exam board have announced that the qualification will be axed. The final exams will be in June 2018  (final re-sits: June 2019).
Please help #SaveAnthropologyALevel !

Media Coverage
Over the weekend the story was covered in:

The Observer: Axing anthropology A-level is ‘cultural barbarism’, say experts http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/08/anthropology-a-level-axed-cultural-barbarism

The Independent: Anthropology becomes latest A-Level to be axed http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/anthropology-becomes-latest-alevel-to-be-axed-10030033.html

Twitter
Join the conversation on twitter with the hastag #SaveAnthropologyALevel:  https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaveAnthropologyAlevel .
Alongside retweets of the petition by celebrities like Russell Brand and Thandie Newton, support has come from anthropologists, students and members of the public around the world.

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Race is a Technology (and so is Gender)

I think there are two very different ways of talking about race and racism which frequently get conflated, and I think this confusion is responsible for a lot of wasted energy in various online debates. The same goes for discussions about gender and sexism. On the one hand we have a moralistic view of racism/sexism. This view seems more likely to be held by people who are decrying accusations of racism/sexism than by those who try to call attention to them, but not exclusively. Those who call out racism/sexism, on the other hand, are more likely to be talking about race/gender as technologies of power which work to systematically marginalize certain voices (and certain lives) than they are to be accusing anyone in particular of being immoral.

 

Issue of climate change prompts new anthropology major
The Maine Campus
As a reaction to the changing climate, the University of Maine’sAnthropology Department has added a new major, Human Dimensions of Climate Change (HDCC), to its degree offerings. The addition of the major was proposed by former department chair, Dr.

J. N. B. Hewitt, Iroquois Americanist (SMNAB 1)

It took me several years to get a command of the Hewitt Six Nations ceremonial and text notes. – Bill Fenton1

John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt (1859–1937) is often described as a linguist by vocation, but his interest in linguistic structure was of a piece with a much broader set of research interests. He was a skilled comparativist who collected native language accounts in the service of historical reconstruction. In his reliance upon this particular set of sources and methods, Hewitt falls squarely within the Americanist Tradition.2

Axeing anthropology A-level is ‘cultural barbarism’, say experts
The Guardian
This month the AQA exam board told schools and colleges that carry anthropology as an A-level that the 2014-2015 cohort would be the last. According to the figures for 2013-14, 610 students are taking AS-level anthropology and 222 the full A-level


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