December 2005 - Welcome to the BARA website! We have just redesigned our website to make it more informative and personable. It is our desire that our Friends of BARA (FOBs) and the interested public have ready access to our mission, our approach, and our program activities. Although ensconced within academic walls, BARA prides itself in its community engagement, its expertise and record in empirical research, and its major contribution to the rapidly-expanding profession of applied anthropology. As we set to close out the books on this year and embark on the next, I wanted to share a few of the highlights and insights that reflect the dynamics of our unit.
Applied Research and Outreach: BARA’s breadth and depth of coverage, both topical and geographic, continues to expand. From celestial navigation in Fiji to Native American self-determination in Montana to vulnerability mapping in Brazil to fighting famine in Niger, BARA faculty and students have displayed the remarkable applicability of anthropology to major issues of contemporary society. When Hurricane Katrina assailed the coast of southern Louisiana, it devastated local communities where BARA has been studying the impacts of off-shore oil drilling. BARA faculty have returned to these communities to work closely with them on reconstruction efforts—a partnership only made possible by BARA’s sustained community development approach. When drought and a plague of locusts threatened millions with starvation in the West African country of Niger, BARA—based on past experience in the region—created a program of private relief for villages that had fallen through the safety net of the international organizations. These examples and others demonstrate the invaluable benefits that emerge from the focused interaction of applied research and outreach.
The 2006 Cohort of Graduate Students: We anxiously await the pool of applications for the graduate program in the Department of Anthropology. Every year more applicants to the Department cite their interests in applied anthropology and their desire to work in BARA. There is no better re-affirmation of the value of the partnership between BARA and the Department of Anthropology in offering one of the premiere programs in applied anthropology in the country. Many of these applicants will become critical participants in our research projects and will gain important insights into the essential interrelationship between theory and practice. These are the students who will fulfill the vision of a professional anthropology at the service of society.
So, I invite you to explore the new website and discover the many facets of an anthropology in practice. We look forward to a year of new friends, interesting opportunities, and useful achievements. Our mission is to advance knowledge in problem-solving contexts, and I am sure that many new challenges lie ahead. If you wish further information on BARA, please don’t hesitate to contact me at finan@u.arizona.edu.
Happy holidays to all of BARA’s family and friends, present and future.
Tim Finan, Director
