AAPA meeting summary

The ad-hoc committee on the status of underrepresented groups in physical anthropology met over lunch on Saturday March 31st. Approximately 10 people attended – representatives of the AAPA executive committee included Fred Smith (President) and Phil Walker.

Several topics were discussed:

1) Scope of the committee and which groups it encompasses

2) Committee visibility, webpages and listserves

3) A Mission Statement

4) Assessment of underrepresented groups in U.S. Departments

5) AAPA and other activities and networking

Brief Results:

The main goals for the upcoming year are 1) construction of a mission statement, 2) placement of the group on the AAPA webpage and developing a web forum for the committee, 3) construction, delivery and analysis of an assessment survey for US departments.

Scope of the Committee:

Several concepts about the scope of included ‘underrepresented’ groups were discussed and it was generally agreed that the larger umbrella committee might include

• US “minorities” (those traditionally underrepresented)

• First generation college students

• Scholars with disabilities

• International scholars from developing countries

• Gay, lesbian and transgender scholars

The focus of activities for each of these may differ from one another and subcommittees may decide in future to focus activities on any of these (or on other groups) as interest develops.

The current focus of interest from both committee members and the executive board attendees is in assessing the status within U.S. departments of faculty and graduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups of various ethnicities, and providing mentoring, networking opportunities, and training initiatives for the same.

Committee Visibility:

Listserve: The committee already maintains a listserve (administered by Phoebe Stubblefield) that can be joined by: sending an email to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU. This email has no subject, and in the body one writes: SUB UND-AAPAUNDER-REP@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU Full Name. If you use an automatic signature, please make sure to delete it before sending commands. Once subscribed, the list will send the new subscriber some basic instructions.

AAPA webpage: To promote greater visibility of the committee and its activities, Phil Walker has created a webspace on the main AAPA site. The space is just beginning to be developed but currently contains instructions for joining the list. You can reach the page directly at http://www.physanth.org/underrepresented.html or you can link to it from the AAPA homepage.

Web Forum: The committee is also considering developing its own web forum that could be reached via a link on the AAPA webpage. *Contact Phoebe Stubblefield (phoebe.stubblefield@und.nodak.edu) if you have interest in this aspect of the committee.

Mission Statement:

A short mission statement will be written to delineate the aim and scope of the committee. Once crafted, this mission statement will appear on the webpage.

*Contact Susan Antón at susan.anton@nyu.edu if you would like to be part of this work or if you have mission statements from other such groups that you would like to share.

Assessment:

Since adequate assessment is not currently available, the committee will put together a survey for physical anthro programs. The aim will be to assess the number of students and faculty from underrepresented groups currently in U.S. graduate programs. Ancillary questions regarding funding and commitment to underrepresented students will also be included. A subcommittee will develop the survey before summer for distribution to senior physical anthropologists in early Fall 2007. *Those interested in helping with the survey contact Agustin Fuentes at Agustin.Fuentes.10@nd.edu

2008 AAPA Activities:

Info Table: This year’s committee information table had good success (thanks to Christina Torres-Rouff and those committee members that staffed the table), so we plan to continue the table next year. Send any information you’d like included to Christina at ctorresrouff@ColoradoCollege.edu

Sat Meeting: The committee will again meet at the Saturday noon lunch hour – so plan your trip accordingly.

Other ideas for AAPA activities?: Contact one of us.

Other Activities and Strengthening the Pipeline:

Funding and graduate programs: Phil Walker suggested the group look into local funding initiatives that would support participation of underrepresented students.

Pipeline issues: a future issue of concern is how to increase ‘flow’ of students through the pipeline. We have no concrete ideas for this at the moment but a lot of interest.

If you would like to start a discussion on these or other ideas – send your thoughts to the list.

Thanks to all who attended the meeting and for your future help.

Susan Antón and Agustin Fuentes

Co-chairs