When we initially created the network in 2019, we intended it as way to bring together CASCA members interested in the intersections between anthropology, ethnography, and critical pedagogy, with a particular focus on the unique pedagogical challenges and possibilities faced by those of who work in Canadian anthropology (whether by virtue of research interests, institutional affiliation, or both). The Network sponsored its first panel (Critical Pedagogy and Changing Climates in Canadian Anthropology) at the annual meeting in Vancouver in November 2019, and maintains a list serve where members share calls for papers, relevant news items, and teaching resources (to join the list serve, email Mélissa Gauthier at meligau@uvic.ca).

In light of the COVID-19 crisis and in the spirit of keeping in touch, maintaining a sense of community, the Network for Critical Pedagogy in Canadian Anthropology has started a new online community of anthropology teachers on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/212791153300834/).

Mélissa Gauthier and Maggie Cummings

Co-Chairs of the Network of Critical Pedagogy.  

Cultural expertise is an emergent concept in the social sciences to indicate the special knowledge deployed by experts of laws and cultures for assisting decision-making authorities in conflict resolution and the ascertainment of rights, with information on the socio-legal backgrounds of facts and persons involved.

CASCA's Cultural Expertise Network seeks to accomplish a series of interrelated goals:

1. Contribute to the further development and refinement of cultural expertise as a service and career pathway in Canada.
2. Facilitate the professionalization of, and support provided to, graduate and early-career CASCA member-anthropologists entering the field, such as through CASCA-sponsored training, workshops, and events.
3. Help ensure anthropologists’ practice of cultural expertise is legally principled and sound, culturally competent, and ethical at disciplinary, deontological, and legal scales.
4. Link Canadian anthropologists to scholarly, service, and employment opportunities, such as they relate to work in the areas of – for instance - asylum and refugee claims, criminal and family law, and treaty negotiations and claims. The network could also serve as a vital dissemination platform, capable of promoting the efforts and outputs of CASCA members active in this field, and a forum for discussions related to the sometimes-challenging realities of anthropologists’ service to Canadian courts and out-of-court adjudication processes.
5. Foster the exchange of experiences and scholarship between CASCA member-anthropologists and CULTEXP interdisciplinary network on cultural expertise, explore opportunities for joint research projects, visiting programmes, and the further development of platforms that facilitate and support the role of anthropologists in the ethical contribution to social problems.
6. Consolidate the role of anthropologists acting as experts in court for voicing and making room to the voices of the beneficiaries of cultural expertise.

For CASCA members interested in learning more about and/or joining the Cultural Expertise Network, please contact its Chair Prof. Livia Holden care of:
culturalexpertise@culturalexpertise.net

About the Network's Chair

Prof. Livia Holden has developed the new socio-legal concept of cultural expertise, and is the Principal Investigator of EURO-EXPERT and CULTEXP Projects, which are funded by the European Research Council (ERC). EURO-EXPERT includes a team of more than 50 researchers that has studied the use and impact of cultural expertise in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Three spin-out projects funded by the Global Challenges Research Funds and the Independent Social Research Foundation have carried out the study of cultural expertise in Pakistan, India, and Indonesia.

EURO-EXPERT has led to the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data that maps the use of cultural expertise in-court and out-of-court, and led to a number of important outcomes: 1) map cultural expertise in court and out-of-court, 2) the creation of K-EXP a toolkit capable of measuring the prospective impact of cultural expertise; 3) the development of CULTEXP an Open Access searchable platform for the consultation of cases and expert reports including cultural expertise; 4) the design of a teaching and learning module and training components; and 5) the formulation of policy-making guidelines including a roadmap for the adoption of cultural expertise.

The Labour Committee advocates for precariously employed anthropologists and explores solutions to the current labour environment.

David Thorsen-Cavers 

Deidre Rose

Eric Henry

Following discussions at the 2016 CASCA conference, and in recognition that there are a growing number of Canadian anthropologists who find themselves in precarious circumstances with limited or no employment security, we are establishing a network for precarious anthropologists in order to facilitate solidarity and communication, and opportunities to work through, together, the common (and uncommon) issues that we face.

A Facebook group Network for Precarious Anthropologists is being created in order to aid in linking us together, and sharing ideas about the nature, purpose and future of this network. If you are not in precarious circumstances, we hope that you will let people you may know who are in precarious circumstances know that this network is in the works.

David Thorsen-Cavers 

Lori Barkley 

CASCA does not have its own Code of Ethics.

International Ethics Code, Guidelines and Resources

American Anthropological Association Ethics Resources, Code of Ethics (2009 version)

Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa New Zealand Code of Ethics (2016)

Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth Ethical Guidelines for Good Research Practice (2011)

Australian Anthropological Society Code of Ethics

Canadian Association for Biological Anthropology Ethics Resources

National Association For The Practice of Anthropology Guidelines for Ethical Practice

Society for Applied Anthropology Statement of Ethics & Professional Responsibilities

CFHSS Code of Conduct

The CASCA Medical Anthropology Network is made up of a broad range of anthropologists working in the areas of science, technology and medicine who study, interpret, challenge, disrupt and contribute to evidence and best practices across diverse landscapes of health, illness, sickness, infection, abilities and disease in Canada and around the world. Individuals, institutions and organizations wishing to subscribe and/or submit items to the listserv should email one of the co-chairs (Sylvia Abonyi, sylvia.abonyi@usask.ca and Pamela Downe, pjd975@mail.usask.ca).

Medical Anthropology Network: Best Paper Award

CASCA’s Medical Anthropology Network (CMA) has established a Best Paper Award. The Award will be awarded once per year to the Anthropologica research article or multi-modal publication that is assessed by the adjudicating committee to represent excellence in medical anthropology, engaging with issues of health, illness, wellness, and wellbeing.

There is no nomination process. The adjudication committee will review all the articles that fall within the area of medical anthropology that appear in one volume (both issues and associated multi-modal publications) of Anthropologica.

Eligibility

Eligible research articles and multi-modal publications must:

• Appear in Anthropologica within the period of January to December (representing one volume)
• Have a clear focus on issues of health, illness, wellness, and wellbeing, engaging with medical anthropological literature and work

Award

The Award consists of:

• A certificate, to be awarded at the General Meeting at the annual CASCA conference
• $200
• A short profile in CASCA’s newsletter, Culture

The Adjudication Committee

The three-member Adjudication Committee will include:

• The Co-Chairs of CMA
• One member of the Anthropologica Editorial Board (to be confirmed each year by November 30)

Please Note: If there is only one CMA Chair, then two members of the Editorial Board will serve on this committee.

Award Schedule

Anthropologica normally publishes two issues per year (spring and fall). The Adjudication Committee for the CMA Best Paper Award will meet in December of each year to develop a short-list of eligible research articles and multi-modal publications. The Committee will meet again in January to select the recipient of the Award. The Award will be announced by February 1, and presented at the annual CASCA conference (which is normally held in May).   

--

We are thrilled to announce the inaugural award is presented to Andrée-Ann Métivier, Université Laval, for her article, “Des psychologues en pleine conscience. Tension entre légitimation scientifique et adhésion morale dans la recherche sur le mindfulness,” published in Anthropologica 64(1), 2022. 

More information

The EnvAnth-net listserv provides a forum for the exchange of knowledge, news, and resources related to environmental anthropology and advocacy. We accept posts on conferences, literature, opportunities, scholarships and other resources.

To join the EnvAnth-net listserv, please subscribe via:
http://www.mailman.srv.ualberta.ca/mailman/listinfo/envanth-net

This is a network of Canadian practicing anthropologists and like-minded community-based social scientists working (largely) beyond the university. Our goal is to support the development of Canadian anthropology by the increasing number of anthropologists working outside of traditional tenure-track academic careers. This includes recognizing professional challenges, standards and responsibilities, and supporting dialogue and community for CASCA members working as social science professionals for communities, governments, NGOs and companies. Existing PAN members work in applied areas including indigenous rights, medical anthropology, science and technology, media, public policy and elsewhere.  If you are interested in joining this listserv, please contact Craig Candler at craig@reciprocityconnects.ca. 

About: Purpose

Mailing List

Graduate Student Award

Member Bios

About: Purpose

LingAnthLing is a newly created group within the Canadian Anthropology Society. Some of the functions of this network include: facilitation of research collaboration; networking for our graduate students; the organization of LingAnthLing panels at CASCA every year; news about our respective research and publications; actions and interventions in the public domain; graduate prizes for best essays, thesis, etc.  Any other suggestions are most welcome.

You can also find us on Facebook: LingAnth Ling

Mailing List

If you would like to be on our mailing list, please contact Alexis BLACK at lingathling@cas-sca.ca

Graduate Student Award

Graduate students in anthropology who will be presenting a paper at the CASCA meetings are invited to submit their papers for consideration for the CASCA LingAnthLing Award for Student Paper in Linguistic Anthropology ($250).

This award was created in 2016 to encourage research into language related issues from an anthropological perspective by emerging scholars in linguistics and anthropology in Canada.

Eligibility
    •    Candidates must be registered full-time in a graduate program in Anthropology at a Canadian university, or have graduated from such a program less than one year ago.

Judging criteria
The adjudicating committee look for papers that:
    •    Explicitly engage with linguistic issues, and clearly demonstrate that engagement in their treatment of the topic
    •    Take an anthropological perspective, with reference to relevant literature
    •    Are not merely descriptive and show evidence of original critical analysis.

The paper
    •    Should be sent to the CASCA LingAnthLing member Dr. Christine Jourdan (christine.jourdan@concordia.ca) for consideration by our award panel
    •    Must be received by December 31 of the year of the conference at which the paper is presented
    •    Must not exceed 10 pages in length
    •    Can be submitted in either English or French
    •    Must include an abstract
    •    Must indicate the university at which the candidate is registered and their current year in the program

 The prize-winning paper will be published (following peer review) in the Canadian anthropology journal, Anthropologica.

Member Bios

Christine Jourdan is professor of anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal. Her work focuses on theories of cultural and social change, on the pidginization and creolization of languages, on the linguistic representation of cultural knowledge and practice, on language ideology and on changing food practices in Québec and in the Pacific. She has published books and articles on Solomon Islands Pijin, urbanization in the Pacific, and socio-cultural creolization. She is currently writing a book on the anthropology of pidgin and creole languages (Cambridge University Press) and researching a book on the cultural localization of rice in Solomon Islands. Her current SSHRC project ‘Bridewealth Revisited’ is a study of the transformation of the ideologies and practices of bridewealth in Solomon Islands.

Alexis Black: I am currently a doctoral candidate under the direction of Christine Jourdan at Concordia University in Montréal and pleased to be the Communications Coordinator for the LingAnthLing interest group.  My research is rooted in cognitive linguistics and anthropology and examines how metaphors operate when communicating the unknown and how metaphors facilitate the construction of conceptions on the edge of reality.  I am examining this process by conducting an ethnographic and discursive study of francophone discourse concerning sustained extra-planetary human existence.  I find extra-planetary human existence a particularly appropriate topic for analysis of the relation of metaphor to imagination and reality because it is a complete unknown.  I am currently working on an article concerning the deployment of metaphors in simulated extra-planetary environments (e.g. The Mars Desert Research Station) and have a forthcoming article mapping metaphors in francophone obituaries in the Québec Studies Journal.

Christine Schreyer: My research is on language revitalization and documentation, orthography development, and the study of constructed languages. In particular my recent research projects with examine the connection between language revitalization and stewardship in Canada (with the Taku River Tlingit First Nation) and Papua New Guinea (with Kala speakers). As well, I have also examined the potential connections created language communities have to communities that speak endangered languages and what this might tell us about newly developing speech communities and digital fandoms.

Monica Heller is Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Her work focusses on changing ideologies of language, culture, nation and state, with an ethnographic focus  on francophone Canada. More broadly, she is interested in political economic approaches to exploring the role of language in the construction of social difference and social inequality. Her latest publication is a team effort: M. Heller, L. Bell, M. Daveluy, M. McLaughlin and H. Noël, 2015, Sustaining the Nation: the Making and Moving of Language and Nation (Oxford University Press). She is currently preparing, with Bonnie McElhinny, an alternative textbook on linguistic anthropology, for University of Toronto Press. Her current SSHRCC-funded project is an interdisciplinary approach to mobilities and moorings in francophone Canada.

Eric Henry: I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and also a member of the Linguistics and Asian Studies Programs. My research describes the linguistic component, particularly in the form of global languages, of China’s ongoing drive to modernize. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the northeastern rustbelt city of Shenyang, I examine language schooling and the attendant style shifts among multiple language codes as attempts by speakers to situate themselves at the forefront of China’s socioeconomic transformations and cultivate transnational subjectivities. I am currently preparing a book manuscript on this topic entitled “The Future Conditional: Building an English-Speaking Society in Northeast China.”

Şükran Tipi holds a Masters degree in Linguistics (French/German) and arrived in Quebec in 2008 to work as a researcher for the Counsel of the Innu First Nation of Mashteuiatsch until 2011, when she became the Counsel’s linguistic consultant until 2014.  Currently, she is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at Laval University (under the co-direction of Michelle Daveluy and Frédéric Laugrand) and leads a collaborative research project funded by the CRSH (2013-2016) in partnership with the Mashteuiatsh community.  Using an intergenerational perspective, this project explores the link between language and territory through the analysis of different modes of expressing connections between ancestral territories utilized by three generations of Pekuakamiulnuatsh (Innus from Lac Saint-Jean).  Beyond this doctoral research, Sükran’s research interests are situated within native toponymy, linguistic anthropology, the revitalization of native languages, and the ethics of research collaboration with the First Nations.

Isabelle Violette is an adjunct professor in the Department of French Studies at the University of Moncton.  She received her PhD in Language Sciences from the University of Moncton under the co-direction of the University François-Rabelais (2010), her research interests include linguistic minorities, immigration, linguistic nationalism and linguistic ideologies.  She is principally concerned with the study of sociolinguistic issues concerning francophone immigration in the bilingual region of Moncton.  Currently, she is preparing a critical ethnography of the Acadian community of Cap-Pelé (N.B.) addressing the linguistic dynamics of migratory trajectories and the modalities of integration employed by temporary foreign workers.  Her research has been published in journals such as Anthropologie et Sociétés, Langage et société, Francophonies d’Amérique as well as in diverse anthologies concerning Canadian francophonie.