Request for Papers-CSL in Anthropology

Title: Request for Papers-CSL in Anthropology

We are writing to see if you would be interested in submitting an  article for a special issue of The Michigan Journal of Community Service  Learning that will be devoted to service learning and anthropology.  The issue will be released in March of 2004. The MJCSL is a national peer reviewed journal and the foremost academic journal devoted exclusively to curriculum- based service learning in higher education. In order to consider your contribution we would need  an abstract of  roughly 250 words before January of 2003.  We will review and accept  abstracts on  a rolling basis until January of 2003. If your contribution is accepted, a final version of your paper will be due on August 1, 2003. Papers will be peer reviewed in October of 2003 and final revisions will be due by December 2003. The special issue will be co-edited by Jeff Howard, the editor of the MJCSL,  Art Keene from the Department of Anthropology at UMass-Amherst  and Sumi Colligan of the Department of  Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work at the Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts.

In thinking about this issue, we have been struck by the irony of  anthropology's relatively low visibility in the field of service learning as well as the low visibility of CSL within Anthropology. This strikes us as ironic because service learning draws explicitly on many of the theories and skills developed within our profession. For example, much  service learning clearly has an ethnographic component and this ethnographic character is  frequently acknowledged explicitly  by non-anthropologist practitioners. Anthropological concerns frequently found in CSL include (but are not limited to), participant observation, ethics and logistics of negotiating entry into a community that is not our own, theory and practice in interview techniques and field notes, preparation of students and selves for entry into the field, contending with culture shock and ethnocentrism,  development of an established body of theory for problematizing difference and diversity, developing a holistic, anti-essentialist inter or meta-
 disciplinary perspective on the human condition, and careful reflection on the ethics and mechanics of partnership between a host community and its  long-term visitors.

 There are currently 18 handbooks published by the American Association  for Higher Education that deal with community service learning in specific  disciplines. There is none for anthropology. This is vexing because those of us who practice CSL within anthropology have discovered it to be a valuable route to melding good anthropological practice and good  citizen  activism with effective teaching and scholarship.  While the profile of CSL within Anthropology has been quite low (we are aware of a couple of organized sessions that have been held  at the SFAA meetings and two at recent AAA meetings as well as a couple of special regional sessions organized by Sam Beck and Art Keene) we expect that there are many more of us out there who have been too busy with our community projects to bring our work to these national
forums. This special issue of MJCSL will afford us such an opportunity.

 We are looking for papers that will address the irony of anthropology's invisibility in CSL (and vice versa) and that will highlight some of the good work currently going on within Anthropology.  We are looking for  contributions that go well beyond "Service Learning 101"  - that is, papers that simply relate how service was incorporated into an Anthropology course. We want papers that highlight the value of Anthropology to CSL and vice versa and support these claims with strong cases and analyses. We seek papers that use anthropological insight to critically assess, expand, and give depth to service-learning’s assumptions, objectives, and projects. We are especially interested in papers that specifically address issues raised in past issues of the MJCSL. For example we would be especially  interested in papers that do one or more of the following:

 1) Papers that illustrate the importance of anthropological practice
 to CSL through specific examples of its effective application within CSL
 programs: that is, addressing how specific anthropological theory and practice
 serves the larger inter/meta-disciplinary objectives of CSL.

 2) Brief case studies that illustrate innovative CSL programs within
 anthropology departments. For example, we would be especially
 interested in descriptions of immersion programs and the preparation that students
 undergo for life in a community unlike their own, and the means by which the
 impacts of such programs on the students and the host communities are evaluated.

 3) Papers that address some of the key issues raised in recent issues
 of the MJCSL. For example, several past issues have focused on evaluating
 students' work in the field. What can anthropology, with its emphasis on
 fieldwork, tell us about evaluating field experiences? Or,  many articles in past
 issues have focused on reflection. How has your use of field note protocols
 worked as a means for creating more effective reflection?

 4) Papers that address how current debates within higher education circles concerning
 the evaluation of faculty have impacted the integration of anthropology and CSL with special consideration for how the experience of anthropologists in this domain might shed light on the struggles of faculty in other  disciplines. For example, applied anthropologists have had a good deal of experience in negotiating the difficult landscape of the differential valuation of applied vs. theoretical work. How can our own disciplinary experience help colleagues  who are facing similar challenges and students who are trying to decide ho  they will use their lives?

These are but examples of how the issue of CSL in anthropology might be approached. Foremost, we are looking for people who want to report on exciting and innovative work. We hope that you will consider contributing  Additionally , we ask you to pass this request on to others who you think might be interested in the project or to contact us with their names.

 We look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to call us or emailus if you would like to discuss your proposed contribution.

For more information about The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, to view abstracts of past articles, and for general submission guidelines, please visit the web page at http://www.umich.edu/~mjcsl/

 Sincerely,



Jeffery  Howard   jphoward@umich.edu
Art Keene   keene@anthro.umass.edu   413-253-3421
Sumi Collagin  scolliga@mcla.mass.edu 413-662-5472

P.S.  Sumi and Art are thinking about putting together a session on Anthropology and CSL for the 2003 Applied meetings. As of this writing the dates have not been set though we expect the meetings to be in early April.  If you are interested in participating in such a session would you please let us know.