An Evening with the 2017 Praxis Awardees

An Evening with the 2017 Praxis Awardees

This past fall, WAPA took the unusual step of awarding five Praxis Awards (one overall winner and four honorable mentions), which demonstrates both the excellent work being done in the field and also the recognition that the Praxis Award is a competitive, recognized, and respected honor. Join us on April 10 as we hear from three of the awardees (all honorable mentions). Read more about the 2017 Praxis Award on this site at https://wapadc.org/2017-Praxis-Award-Recipients.

Joining us will be David Montgomery, the director of program development for CEDAR (Communities Engaging with Difference and Religion), who will speak about their winning application, "Learning to Live with Difference: Taking Anthropology Out of the Classroom and into the World." 

"CEDAR is a global educational network that runs fortnightly programs enabling members of disparate communities to recognize and accept their differences as they work toward a civil society. We combine a unique anthropologically informed pedagogy of cognitive learning (lectures), experiential learning (site visits), and affective learning (group work) to build communities that respect difference rather than emphasize sameness. This structure, together with an international and diverse body of fellows, provides a powerful experience that forces participants to challenge their taken for granted assumptions about the self, the other, and the terms of interaction, therein creating a space for living together differently."

Also joining us will be Thurka Sangaramoorthy,  Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, U Maryland, who will speak about her team's winning project, "Marcellus Shale Public Health Study."

"In 2011, former governor Martin O’Malley established the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative to assist state policymakers and regulators in determining whether and how unconventional natural gas development and production (i.e., fracking) from the Marcellus Shale in Maryland can be accomplished without unacceptable risks to the environment and the populace. This initiative required research assessing the impacts of drilling on the environment, the economy, and health. A state-wide public health impact assessment of fracking, the first of its kind, was commissioned and conducted by a team of interdisciplinary researchers with input from residents and a variety of other stakeholders."

In addition, a third awardee, LTG Associates, who presented their project "A Video Ethnographic Study: Raising Healthy Children in Poverty and Examples of Excellence in Addressing Childhood Wellness,"  at a fall 2017 WAPA meeting, will briefly recap their program for anyone unable to attend the previous meeting.

"The LTG Associates team of anthropologists and a videographer developed two, one-hour long video ethnographies for the California Department of Health Care Services focused on healthy families and communities. They were designed to bring the faces and voices of participants and their worlds into direct relationship with policy makers, program developers, and legislative staff and legislators for the State and have been used for briefings, trainings, and policy and program development. The videos were co-created with community leaders engaged in innovative community health projects and parents in poor conditions working to raise healthy children drawn from across the State."

Pre-meeting get together: Join the speakers for dinner or snacks from 5:30-6:45 pm, at  the Edgar Bar and Kitchen, Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington DC.

Meeting:  Charles Sumner School, corner of 17th St and M St NW, Washington, DC