Friday, April 7 at 5 pm in Library CC 105A: special guest speakers presentation about Applied Social Science and the Chicago Cultural Community.

I think their presentation will be of interest to many on campus and in the community, especially to those interested in using the methods and knowledge base ethnography/anthropology, sociology, and cultural geography to assist communities and organizations in achieving their own goals.

Josh Ostergaard and Mario Longoni of the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History present a talk about the Urban Research Curriculum Transformation Institute, the Mexican Immigrant Assets project, and the anthropology-based education program "Cultural Connections"

Mario and Josh will be speaking about working with multiple community partners and utilizing anthropological methodology in a broad spectrum of professional applications. In addition, they will discuss applied anthropological work that is ongoing in Chicago, and how this work has resulted in many successful collaborations. Following this informative presentation, we will have a question and answer period, and refreshments and pizza will be served. Please join us at 5:00 pm until about 7 pm, LCC 105 AB.

More specifically, Josh will talk about the Urban Research Curriculum Transformation

Institute (soon to launch a website as a resource for participatory action

research), and the Mexican Immigrant Assets (MIA) project, a collaborative

effort between Dr. Alaka Wali and the CCUC and Dr. Noshir Contractor and

U of I at Champaign. Mario will just be getting back from presenting at

SfAA (Society for Applied Anthropology) about working with multiple community partners on an anthropologically based education program (Cultural Connections). He said he'd be happy to share the conference PowerPoint with us as example of applied work and also talk a about his seven year history of doing applied anthro as well as his sense of the range of work people do in Chicago based on his CAPA and CCUC participation.

For a sample of this kind of applied community study, see a paper written by an IUN anthropology student, Cara Spicer:

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/ccuc/Perspectives_III/7_Spicer_Rivera.pdf

Biographical material:

Originally from Kansas, Josh Ostergaard has lived in the city of Chicago for six years. Josh began volunteering at the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change in 2001 while working on his Master’s degree in cultural anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He began working with CCUC full time in early 2003 as a research assistant, and gradually moved on to his current position as Urban Research Programs Coordinator. Recent projects have included the Urban Research and Curriculum Transformation Institute, and a short-term collaborative study of the artistic, cultural and social networking assets of recent Mexican immigrants to Chicago.

Mario Longoni grew up in Tucson Arizona where his interest in studying culture was first piqued by dioramas reconstructing Hohokam life. In 1998 volunteer work in Archaeology at the Field Museum led him into an internship with The Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) in urban ethnographic research. Following a return to school to get his Masters Degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Mario rejoined CCUC as an ethnographer, participating in studies of the arts in community building and the risk perceptions of anglers. He’s been with CCUC’s Cultural Connections Program for three years and currently serves as the Program Coordinator, shepherding the collaboration of over 20 cultural organizations in bringing cultural diversity education to teachers, parents of school aged children, college students, and the general public.

view their photos on the IUN Anthropology events website: http://www.iun.edu/%7Eanthronw/EVENTS.htm