An urban studies anthropologist will discuss local activism and how it can impact people and their neighborhoods at the Department of Anthropology's Annual Spring Conference on community issues Friday, April 25, at the University of Rochester.
Remarks by Judith Goode, professor of anthropology and urban studies at Temple University, will wrap up an afternoon of presentations by students who have researched community programs that deal with reducing violence, revitalizing neighborhoods, and promoting service. At 4:30 p.m., Goode will present a talk on "The Limits of Local Activism: How Helping Institutions Can Disrupt Local Organizing." All events are free and open to the public.
Research results by seven anthropology students will open the conference at 1:30 p.m. in the Welles-Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library on the River Campus. They will summarize their work and take questions from the audience as part of the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference in the College. After the student section of the program, Goode will lecture on her research with its emphasis on poverty, class, and racism in urban America.
Goode is the founder of the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology and the Society for the Anthropology of North America. She has directed several research projects in Philadelphia that explore the intersection of race and class in local neighborhoods. Her latest book, The New Poverty Studies (New York University Press, 2001), focuses on power, politics and impoverished people in the United States.
The annual anthropology spring conference promotes original student research and seeks to create partnerships within Rochester. Ayala Emmett, associate professor of anthropology and Challenges to Communities conference planner, is director of the Rochester Center for Ethnographic Studies.
This year's program is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Hewlett Grant Foundation. For more information, contact the department at (585) 275-8614.