Conference: April 23-25, 2009

Reconsidering American Power

A conference organized by the workshop on Science, Technology, Society & the State

SCHEDULE

(See individual sessions for panel locations.)

Thursday April 23rd
6:30 PM

Orienting Remarks
(Wilder House)
Chair: Evalyn Tennant, Center for International Studies, University of Chicago
John Kelly, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Self-Determination and the World of Pax Americana

Friday April 24th
Disciplines and Deployments: American Academics and American Power
8:45 AM – 10:15 AM

Emergent Problems in the New American Century
(International House, Assembly Hall)
Chair: Jeff Bennett, Department of Sociology, University of Missouri Kansas City
Jeremy Walton, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Good Muslim World, Bad Muslim World Anne Harrington, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago
U.S. Nuclear Policy and the Fetishism of Force Matthew Sparke, Department of Geography, University of Washington
From Bombs to Bonds to Vaccine Bonds: Bad Geographies of Global Health in the New American Century

10:30 AM – 12:15 PM

Reconceptualizing the Question: Intervention Strategies
(International House, Assembly Hall)
Chair: John Kelly, Department of Anthropology University of Chicago
Roger Myerson, Department of Economics, University of Chicago
A Field Manual for the Cradle of Civilization Marshall Sahlins, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago On the Anthropology of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual

1:45 PM – 3:15 PM

Uses and Abuses of Social Sciences: Disciplines of and for What? Part I
(Stuart Hall, Room 102)
Chair: Sean Mitchell, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame
Kurt Jacobsen, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago
American Power and the New Mandarins Redux: Hegemony, Orthodoxy and International Relations Studies David Price, Department of Anthropology, St. Martin’s University
On the Impossibilities of Counterinsurgent Anthropological Theory: or, by the Time You Are Relying On Counterinsurgency you've Already Lost Dustin Wax, Women's Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Are We Ready Yet for Action Anthropology?

3:45 PM – 5:30 PM

Uses and Abuses of Social Sciences: Disciplines of and for What? Part II
(Stuart Hall, Room 102)
Chair: Bruce Lincoln, Divinity School, University of Chicago
Catherine Lutz, Department of Anthropology and the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
Anthropology of and Anthropology for the Military Robert Vitalis, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
The Noble Science of Imperial Administration and its Laws of Race Development Manan Ahmed, Department of History, University of Chicago
Locating Pakistan in South Asian Studies: A View from the US Academy Hugh Gusterson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University
Military Uses and Abuses of Anthropology

Saturday, April 25th
Is There a New World Order?
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Practices and Projections of American Power
(Haskell Hall, Room 315)
Chair: Amahl Bishara, Department of Anthropology, Tufts University
Greg Beckett, Harper-Schmidt Fellow, University of Chicago
The End(s) of Occupation Kevin Caffrey, Public Anthropologist in Residence, Department of Anthropology, American University
Events of Fear and Error in Modern ‘Empires’ Andy Graan, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
“Public” Diplomacy and the Politics of Carrots and Sticks: “International Community” Press Conferences in Post-Conflict Macedonia Marston Morgan, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
The Golden Bough at Bretton Woods: Anticipating a Decline and Fall from World Power

10:45 AM – 12:45 PM

Cultures of the Military, Cultures for the Military
(Haskell Hall, Room 315)
Chair: Joe Masco, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Rochelle Davis, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Using 1950s Anthropological Concepts of Culture in a 21st Century War Roberto Gonzalez, Department of Anthropology, San Jose State University
“Tribal Engagement” and American Power Bea Jauregui, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Military Communitas? Re-centering the Citizen-Soldier Interface at the Army Experience Center Keith Brown, The Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
Threatening Civilians: Order, Obedience and Otherness in America's Three-block Wars

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Roundtable: Bretton Woods, Bandung and Beyond…What is to be Done?
(Haskell Hall, Room 315)
Chair: Chris Nelson, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina