FYI: Archaeology Summer School

South Africa Paleontology, Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Summer School through Arizona State

May 21–June 19, 2011 (6 credits)

The Institute of Human Origins in ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change, in conjunction with the Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town (UCT), offers an internship focused on the west coast of South Africa. The ASU course co-coordinator is associate professor Kaye Reed, and the UCT course co-coordinator is Dr. Deano Stynder. In the program, students will learn about the ecology, paleoecology, and conservation of the unique habitat of this region; excavate 730,000-year-old fossils; and become familiar with the geology of the area.

For the first two weeks after arrival, you will attend lectures (along with UCT post-graduate students) in the analysis of African fauna at the University of Cape Town. During this time, you will reside in a conveniently located youth hostel and will have the opportunity to explore the sites and sounds of Cape Town on your own time. We leave for the field during the third week. For the next two weeks, we will excavate a newly discovered fossil locality (a series of paleo-hyena dens) that might date to the Middle Pleistocene. This locality is packed with faunal remains; it might even contain hominin remains (Homo heidelbergensis)! You will have ample opportunity to excavate and put into practice your newly acquired faunal identification skills! While in the field, we will live in a spacious house in the seaside village of Strandfontein. During the evenings, you will be expected to assist with the curation of the day's excavated finds and also to attend occasional lectures by staff and visitors.

Agenda

May 21-22:  Arrive in Cape Town

May 23-June 3:  Faunal lectures at the Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town

June 4-18:  Fieldwork at Cliff Point on the west coast of South Africa

June 19:  Program ends

Coursework

Students will receive 6 credits of ASM 338: Anthropological Field Sessions for participation in this program. 

Application Process

(Deadline to apply is April 1, 2011; decision made by April 22, 2011.)

Step 1
Students must submit their application, along with a 1-page, double-spaced statement explaining their academic background/goals, their research interests and why they are interested in participating in this fieldwork experience; they must also turn in an unofficial transcript (available through MyASU). Click here to download the application.

Step 2
Admitted students will be notified whether or not they are accepted into the internship by April 22. Once admitted, students will be required to sign up for the internship program through the Study Abroad office and pay a $100 application fee, which will go towards student health insurance while abroad.

Step 3
Students will sign up for 6 credits of ASM 338 Anthropological Field Sessions and attend a pre-departure orientation.

All materials should be handed to Lexi Shulla, the study abroad program assistant, in SHESC 233. Questions should be directed to shesc.global@asu.edu.

Costs

Below is a list of expected costs.

Program Time	32 Days
Application Deposit and Health Insurance	$120
Required # of Credit Hours	6
ASU In-State Tuition* ASU Out-of-State Tuition (6 credits)*	$2,665 OR $4,741
Health Insurance	Included
Passport	$130
Airfare	~$1,800
Program Fee (includes all accommodations, food while in the field, transportation to internship activities, laboratory supplies and training materials). This will be payable upon arrival at Cape Town.	$1,267
Recommended Allowance for Food while in Cape Town	$400
Recommended Allowance for Other Expenses (laundry, Internet, souvenirs and extra spending)	$400

*Based on 2009-2010 tuition, subject to change. Please check the tuition and fees schedule for the most up-to-date tution prices.

Call for applications opens soon. Places in the program are awarded in the order of application, so early application is always advised to be sure of securing a space. 

LEXI SHULLA

Study Abroad Program Coordinator

School of Human Evolution and Social Change

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Arizona State University | P.O. Box 872402 | Tempe, Arizona 85287-2402

480.965.1366 Fax: 480.965.7671 | e-mail: SHESC.Global@asu.edu

ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change — Prepare to make a difference

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The Prospects for Peace and Democracy in Russia

I'm guessing that none of us is going to be in Toronto next week, but thought some of you might find this interesting -- a bridging of the social capital literature, democratic revolutions (of recent decades and as we speak), peace and justice organizations, and new communication technologies.  Book title link takes you to a talk and video.

---

Metta Spencer

Thursday March 31st

Dept of Sociology, U of Toronto, 725 Spadina Avenue, 1200-1:30

"The Prospects for Peace and Democracy in Russia"

Metta Spencer's new book, The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, is based mainly on hundreds of interviews between 1982 and 2010 that she conducted in Russia and Eastern Europe. It reflects not only the stories of leading members of Gorbachev's advisers, but also intellectuals and dissidents. Focusing on the remarkable interactions between Russian and foreign elites, especially during the Gorbachev years, it shows how markedly his democratic and peaceable political, foreign, and military policies came from Western peace workers. Because those transnational civil society organizations were obviously "bridging" groups (in Putnam's terminology) they were especially conductive to democracy. For twenty years, however, such associations have diminished-largely because Putin, to prevent a Russian color revolution, has blocked international political projects. For the sake of democratization, Spencer proposes that the new media (e.g. Skype) now be used to proliferate thousands of sustained transnational dialogues at the grassroots level.

DataONE Summer Internship Program: Open for Applications

The Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) is a virtual organization dedicated to providing open, persistent, robust, and secure access to biodiversity and environmental data, supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. DataONE is pleased to announce the availability of summer research internships for undergraduates, graduate students and recent postgraduates.

Program Structure

Up to eight interns will be accepted in 2011, each paired with one primary mentor and, in some cases, secondary mentors. Interns need not necessarily be at the same location or institution as their mentor(s). Interns and mentors are expected to have a face-to-face meeting at the beginning of the summer, and interns are encouraged to attend the DataONE All-Hands Meeting in the fall to present the results of their work. DataONE will pay all necessary travel expenses.

Schedule

• March 15 - Application period opens
• April 8 - Deadline for receipt of applications at midnight Pacific time
• April 15 - Notification of acceptance. Scheduling of face-to-face kickoff meetings based on availability of interns and mentors
• May 23 - Program begins*
• June 27 - Midterm evaluations
• July 29 - Program concludes
• October 18-20 - DataONE All-Hands-Meeting, New Mexico (attendance encouraged)

* Allowance will be made for students who are unavailable during these date due to their school calendar.

Eligibility

The program is open to all undergraduate students, graduate students, and postgraduates who have received their masters or doctorate within the past five years. Given the broad range of projects, there are no restrictions on academic backgrounds or field of study. Interns must be at least 18 years of age by the program start date, must be currently enrolled or employed at a university or other research institution and must currently reside in, and be eligible to work in, the United States. Interns are expected to be available approximately 40 hours/week during the internship period (noted below) with significant availability during the normal business hours. Interns from previous years are eligible to participate.

Financial Support

Interns will receive a stipend of $4,500 for participation, paid in two installments (one at the midterm and one at the conclusion of the program). In addition, required travel expenses will be borne by DataONE. Participation in the program after the mid-term is contingent on satisfactory performance. The University of New Mexico will administer funds. Interns will need to supply their own computing equipment and Internet connection. For students who are not US citizens or permanent residents, complete visa information will be required, and it may be necessary for the funds to be paid through the student?s university or research institution. In such cases, the student will need to provide the necessary contact information for their organization.

Paid Internship for One with Top Quant Skills

CrowdFlower, a venture-funded startup specializing in enterprise crowdsourcing, seeks a data quality intern for summer 2011. This person will work with our engineering and product teams to improve CrowdFlower's core platform by analyzing a large dataset. Candidates should be comfortable with basic programming, statistics, and ideally SQL.

Candidates will be expected to work 30-40 hours a week on site at CrowdFlower's office in San Francisco's Mission District. Intern positions are paid.

Projects may be similar to:

• Running analysis to identify metrics that are predictive of worker quality
• Running experiments on user interface changes
• Running analysis to understand how the price paid to workers changes cost, accuracy and throughput

Contact Lukas Bergstrom at bergstrom@crowdflower.com with questions.

Strange Bedfellows: Anti-Pornography Feminists and Conservatives

MONDAY March 7th   

BLUMER ROOM – 402 BARROWS HALL

2:00-3:30pm

TODAY

The Berkeley Sociology Colloquium Series

Spring 2011 Presents:

Strange Bedfellows: Anti-Pornography Feminists, Conservatives, and Social Movement Coalitions

Nancy Whittier

Department of Sociology

Smith College

The politics of sex and sexual violence are a site of interaction between unlikely allies, including feminists, conservative activists, and policy-makers.  In this paper, I focus primarily on one instance of these interactions: opposition to pornography.  Scholars of social movements puzzle over a putative coalition between anti-pornography feminists and conservatives, which appears to be an exception to the rule that coalitions require a basic level of ideological congruence.  I use this case to argue that we need to think about coalitions and their consequences both more broadly and more precisely.  I show how opposed groups with a shared similar goal interact with each other, distinguish between themselves and their opponent, influence each other, and disparately influence outcome depending on power, bureaucratic routines, and meaning-construction within the state.  I argue, first, that movement representatives engaged in interaction only within state contexts, where outcomes were the product of complex meaning-making processes in which the parties are unequal in power.  Second, the appearance of coalition with one’s enemies is politically risky and has substantial consequences for internal movement coalitions.  In this case, the conflicts between feminists over pornography shaped later activism against violence against women.  Finally, the case suggests a model of coalitions that distinguishes between rhetorical overlap and shared collective action, and between movements’ goals and the compromised outcomes they achieve. 

Nancy Whittier is Professor of Sociology at Smith College and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.  She is the author of The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse: Emotion, Social Movements, and the State and Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Radical Women’s Movement.  This paper is drawn from a larger project on activism against sexual violence in the U.S. since 1980, focusing on interactions between feminists and conservatives, the gender and racial politics of sex crime policy, and the construction of meaning by activists within state contexts.

Five Tips for Getting a Job with your Social Science Degree

Carol Ellick and Joe Watkins,
Five Tips for Getting a Job with your Social Science Degree
Informal brownbag lunch talk
Monday, March 7, 12:30-1:30

TODAY
Mills Hall 135 

Two applied anthropologists, Carol Ellick, President of the consulting firm Archaeological and Cultural Education Consultants, and Joe Watkins, Chair of Native American Studies at University of Oklahoma, will be at Mills for this informal brownbag lunch talk next Monday. Ellick and Watkins are authors of The Anthropology Graduate’s Guide, to be published this month by Left Coast Press, Inc. Their talk should be of interest not just to anthropology majors, but to all those graduating with social science and related degrees. Come with your questions. For more information Mitch Allen, Anthropology/Sociology, mallen@mills.edu

Panel Discussion at Hastings: Wikileaks and Open Government

SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION SAN FRANCISCO BAY REGION CHAPTER &
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES

Present

Sunshine Week Local Wikileaks Panel and 2011 National Webcast : The Road Forward on Open Government

Where: UC Hastings College of the Law
Classroom B
198 McAllister, San Francisco, CA 94102
Directions: http://www.uchastings.edu/about/directions/index.html

When: Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. The Special Libraries Association, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter and the Northern California Association of Law Libraries will present the Sunshine Week 2011 National Webcast and a local Wikileaks panel.

The SLA/NOCALL sponsored event will feature a local panel of speakers discussing WikiLeaks as it relates to (and provides an alternative to) our current concepts of Open Government, as well as the bigger picture impact of WikiLeaks on the ways we access information. Confirmed panelists include:

• Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent for CNET, award-winning journalist, and frequent writer and speaker about technology, law, and politics. From 1998 to 2002, Declan was Wired's Washington bureau chief.
• Rainey Reitman, Electronic Frontier Foundation’s activism lead. Her work focuses on WikiLeaks and the intersection between personal privacy and technology, particularly social networking privacy, locational privacy and online data brokers. She serves as a steering committee member for the Bradley Manning Support Network.
• James Jacobs, Government Documents Librarian at Stanford and one of the founders of the Free Government Information blog (http://freegovinfo.info/).

The 2011 Sunshine Week National Webcast, The Road Forward on Open Government, will focus on the Obama Administration's commitment "to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government" by examining how this commitment is being put into practice -- from both a policy and a technical standpoint -- and what more the Administration can and should be expected to do to meet its goal.

The first panel will cover the policy aspects of the Administration's Open Government Initiative. Panelists include:

• David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States (confirmed)
• Gary Bass, Executive Director, OMB Watch (confirmed)
• Steven P. Croley, Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy, White House Domestic Policy Council

The second panel will discuss the effect technology has on the way people get and use information, how the government is trying to fill that need, and the strengths and limitations of the Administration's approach. Panelists include:

• Jennifer LaFleur, Director of Computer-Assisted Reporting at ProPublica (confirmed)
• Tom Lee, Director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation (confirmed)
• Sheila Krumholz, Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics (confirmed)
• Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Agenda:

5:30—6:00        Registration and Networking
6:00—7:00        Local Wikileaks Panel
7:00—8:30        National Webcast

Menu: Assorted sandwiches, cookies, and salad. Please indicate if you prefer a vegetarian or vegan meal.

Cost: $20 for SLA and NOCALL members, $25 for non-members and guests, and $15 for students, retired, and unemployed.

DEADLINE: Please register online or mail your check by March 22, 2011

Online registration: http://units.sla.org/chapter/csfo/calendar/regform_2011_sunshine.html

(Note: You do not need a PayPal account to register through this PayPal-administered site.)

Prosocial Preferences and the Social Science of Sophomores

Did We Overestimate the Role of Social Preferences? The Case of Self-Selected Student Samples

Abstract:

Social preference research has received considerable attention among economists in recent years. However, the empirical foundation of social preferences is largely based on laboratory experiments with self-selected students as participants. This is potentially problematic as students participating in experiments may behave systematically different than non-participating students or non-students. In this paper we empirically investigate whether laboratory experiments with student samples misrepresent the importance of social preferences. Our first study shows that students who exhibit stronger prosocial inclinations in an unrelated field donation are not more likely to participate in experiments. This suggests that self-selection of more prosocial students into experiments is not a major issue. Our second study compares behavior of students and the general population in a trust experiment. We find very similar behavioral patterns for the two groups. If anything, the level of reciprocation seems higher among non-students suggesting that results from student samples might be seen as a lower bound for the importance of prosocial behavior.

Source: Institute for the Study of Labor

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Thanks to Tricia at Resource Connection

Gender and Social Networking, Part 7b

from The New York Times
Keeping Women Safe Through Social Networking

By JOE SHARKEY Published: February 28, 2011

EVERY female business traveler I know concedes that she has experienced at least some kind of sexual harassment on the road. Usually it’s verbal, though sometimes it’s physical.

But rarely is it reported — not to the authorities and not at the office, where a woman who talks about harassment on a business trip may worry about being marked as a problem traveler.

Now, though, something new and aggressive is being done to publicly address street harassment of women. It’s a movement driven by young women in the United States and abroad who are using social networking and crowd sourcing to shine a light on the issue and organize support for doing something about it.

Street harassment of women has been around “probably since the advent of streets,” said Emily May, 29, the co-founder of Ihollaback.org, a Web site that encourages women to share stories and provide data about harassment so they can map locations where it occurred.  READ MORE