Anthropology Department

Ethics Colloquia

The Anthropology Department has devised an Ethical Review Form for Proposed Research which can be downloaded as a PDF file. Submission of this form is required of all student research, undergraduate as well as graduate, whose results will be available in public fora; i.e. either published, delivered orally to a public meeting, presented as a poster session at a public meeting, or otherwise disseminated to a public audience. The purpose behind use of the form is not just procedural, but is intended as a spur to the consideration and integration of ethical issues when constructing, proposing and carrying out research.

Ethics Colloquia

The Department of Anthropology has begun an on-going and wide ranging ethics discussion. We wish to engage our faculty and students, both graduate and undergraduate, in considerations of ethical issues which arise primarily in the course of research but also in other areas of our work and study. To this end, we will be having a series of occasional and open-ended discussions. These meetings will be continuing in the Fall semester of 2008. We wish to invite all Anthropology students as well as interested members of the College community to these colloquia. In conjunction with these events, we are asking those who participate to prepare themselves in part by reading a variety of ethical policy and position statements.

As an underlying foundation, we are first proposing the American Anthropological Association's Ethics Policy, which can be found here.

All colloquia will be held at 12:00 noon in Room 101, Washington Hall.

Last semester's discussions included:

Oct 10. Dr. Barbara King "Ethics in Research with Animals"

Dr. King has submitted the following ethics statements:
American Society of Primatologists, 'Principles for the Ethical Treatment of Non-Human Primates'
International Primatological Society, 'Policy Statement'

Oct. 17 Dr. Sally Price  "Anthropology in the War on Terror – Where Do We Stand?"


Dr. Price has submitted the following background material, and recommends the Gusterson and Price article and the Rohde article as the most immediately relevant. Some of these links may require you to navigate to reach the intended article:
Code of Ethics of the American Anthropological Association (current, adopted 1998)
Hugh Gusterson and David Price, “Spies in Our Midst” Anthropology News, September 2005
David Rohde, “Army Enlists Anthropology In War Zones” New York Times, October 5 2007
Roberto J. Gonzalez, “Standing Up Against Torture and War” Anthropology News, March 2007
Brian R. Selmeski, “Who Are the Security Anthropologists?” Anthropology News, May 2007
Roberto J. Gonzalez, “Towards Mercenary Anthropology?” Anthropology Today, June 2007
David Kilcullen, “Ethics, Politics, and Non-State Warfare” (response to Gonzalez 2007) Anthropology Today, June 2007

An hour-long radio program on the Diane Rehm show (October 10) entitled “Anthropologists and War,” in which five guests (an anthropological critic, a NYT journalist, and three people, including the head anthropologist, involved in military programs that employ anthropologists) discuss Human Terrain Teams and other involvements by anthropologists in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Go to http://wamu.org/programs/dr/ and scroll down the page; you will find this program in the left column under "Wednesday, Oct. 10".

Oct. 24 Dr. Danielle Moretti-Langholtz  "Ethics and NAGPRA"