PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY brings the issues, concerns, and insights of anthropology as broadly understood to both an academic and non-academic audience, striving to produce materials (books, articles, internet sites, CDs, videos, films, and more) that speak to a wide range of social sectors. While some have argued that "public anthropology" simply reproduces what was understood traditionally as "applied anthropology," it is something more. It is more an act of translation. Public Anthropology involves taking the theoretical, descriptive, and practical insights of anthropology and making them available in forms that are of interest to and accessible to a broad public. In part, this also implies a re-examination of what the priorities of anthropological investigations are, how projects are formulated, and most importantly how information about research results is disseminated. If research projects are done in collaboration with non-academic organizations, groups, and entities and are broadly disseminated through the web, the popular press, and in other forms, more of the "public" will know what is going on in anthropology. While such an effort can include results that have an immediate practical application, they need not. Many public ideas have remained on a more abstract and theoretical level and have inspired others to apply them to their own specific problems. Public Anthropology can do the same. 

Below are brief descriptions of Public Anthropology projects in which faculty and students at the University of Oregon are engaged. 

KEEPING CULTURE ALIVE For many years archaeologist Madonna Moss has collaborated  with the Tlingit community in Alaska to keep important Tlingit traditions alive by working with elders to achieve an understanding of what a combination of the archaeological record and oral tradition can reveal about the traditional lifeways of the Tlingit. This historical knowledge is then shared with school children and the community at large. For a popular account of the work of Professor Moss with the Tlingit, click HERE. Some of her work with Tlingit community scholars is now available in "Haa Atxaayí Haa Kusteeyíx Sitee, Our Food is Our Tlingit Way of Life," published by the USDA Forest Service, Alaska Region.
Contact: Madonna L. Moss

HUMAN RIGHTS The Department of Anthropology has a teaching, research, and applied interest in human rights. The relationship of Anthropology to human rights, including the gendered dimension of human rights, is addressed in a number of courses. In addition, a number of students and faculty (including Carol Silverman and Lynn Stephen) have served in intern, training, and consultancy postions in NGO's and documentation organizations. Eastern Europe and Latin American are especially targeted, but the issue of minority and indigenous rights is broadly conceived and ties are made with Native North Americans. Examples of deaprtmental connections include the Human Rights Project (Sofia, Bulgaria) ,various NGO's dealing with Roma (Gypsies) in Italy, Humans Rights Watch, European Roma Rights Center, Voice of Roma, human rights agencies in Guatemala and Mexico. 
Contact: Carol Silverman  regarding Eastern Europe 
Contact: Lynn Stephen  regarding Latin America 

THE LIFE OF A STRAWBERRY In the 2000-01 academic year, UO anthropology professor Lynn Stephen, collaborating with the farm workers union, PCUN, worked with students in her ANTH310 course to chart the movement of Oregon strawberries from the fields to UO dining halls. The project was funded by the Morse Center, as part of its series on "Labor in a Global Economy." The students examined the human labor relations and structural connections involved in food production, distribution, and consumption. The product was a theatrical presentation called "The Life of a Strawberry Project," which took place over the course of the entire academic year. In the fall, two graduate students and five undergraduate students worked with Stephen to carry out research, including interviews and participant observation in the field, as well as in six different sites in the chain of food production and processing. During winter and spring terms, students wrote scripts gleaned from interviews with several workers and rehearsed their presentations. They also created the following website, designed by Gabriel Guzmán: http://www.morsechair.uoregon.edu/berry/index.htm
Contact: Lynn Stephen

SOUTHWEST OREGON RESEARCH PROJECT The Southwest Oregon Research Project (SWORP) is a collaborative effort between the Coquille Indian Tribe, the UO, and the Smithsonian Institution to copy archival resources that might lead to a better understanding of military actions, ethnohistory, and the early settlement of the Oregon Territory. Led by members of the Coquille Indian Tribe (North Bend, OR) who are also graduate students in the Dept. of Anthropology at the UO, this research effort copied archived documents from the National Archives and the National Anthropological Archives in Washington DC in 1995 and 1999. In the two research efforts, nearly 110,000 military documents, maps, journals, and ethnographic information was recovered and is now archived at the UO Knight Library and at Tribal libraries. Since that time, 12 graduate studentshave used this collection as a major resource to complete their doctoral dissertations or masters theses. This effort showcases the empowerment of Native scholars, inter-agency collaboration, and the progress many anthropologists and Native Tribes look for in understanding the diversity of culture and history. 
Contact: David Lewis

UNEARTHING THE DEAD: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EXHUMATION WORK IN GUATEMALA As a Masters student in the UO Anthropology Department, Tami Hill worked with the exhumation team of a Guatemalan NGO (Centro de Accion Legal en Derechos Humanos - CALDH). This team was one of three operating in Guatemala to exhume some of the hundreds of thousands of people (most of them Mayan) killed during Guatemala's thirty-six year civil war, a war that officially ended with the signing of the peace accords in 1996. The team of CALDH operated at the request of various local communities to locate clandestine graves; remove, clean, and identify remains; document the cause of death and those responsible; and return the remains to family members for a proper burial. Tami's masters thesis focused on how exhumations contribute to projects of historial truth, collective memory, and indigenous cultural survival in Guatemala. She is continuing this work as a doctoral student,and traveled to Guatemala in the summer of 2001 to witness a reburial ceremony for 120 victims of the violence. Her questions regarding this work currently focus on the different goals and methodology of the various exhumation teams, the different meanings exhumation work has for various groups and individuals, and the way exhumation work and the truths it uncovers can be used to educate a broader audience about the war in Guatemala, with the goal of preventing further violence in the future. 
Contact: Tami R. Hill