nwac final thoughts...
I'm back at work today, and thinking over the successes, and non-successes of the 58th Annual Northwest Anthropological Conference.
This yearly conference converged in Spokane this year, at the Ridpath hotel. The hotel was nice enough, but some of the "set up" wasn't completely thought through. Mostly, I think this was just a sign of some disorganization on the part of the host university, Eastern Washington. We could have done a bit better, but let's face it, academics don't plan well, and forget things, because they are often pulled several different directions at once. Also, because funding is always an issue in Academia, organizing events like this on little or no budget is challenging, to say the least.
The successes were many, while the non-successes were few, which is always a happy outcome. Some of the non-successes, in my opinion, were expected, while others were simply out of the control of the host university. The Book Room (the place where vendors set up stuff to sell), was too far away, off to the side, and mostly out of view of the conference attendees. This caused a bit of consternation among the vendors, who obviously came to the conference to not only sell their wares, but to gain more exposure for their organizations. Dropping off CD's to the check in desk was draped in loads of good intentions, but somehow I think it could have been done better, been less rife with possible problems, and easier on the minds of the individuals who were leaving their only copy in the hands of people who they didn't know. While this process did in fact weed out two or three Power Point presentations that were flawed, it also had the potential for loss, due to the constant movement of equipment and discs. Loading the presentations on host university computers beforehand, however, worked well, when discs weren't temporarily lost, which happened on the last day (Sat.). Overall, I think the participants were pleased with this part of the conference, the part that I was directly in contact with, since I was one of the two AV Technical Assistants. The equipment itself, had few problems as well.
On a personal note, the only negative part of the entire Conference, was the banquet on Friday evening. I attended only at the request of my colleagues, but wasn't happy with where I sat. I sat at probably the only table in the entire room containing two Bushies. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but the speaker for the evening spoke on who was ruling Iraq after the election. His talk, while mildly interesting, was nothing I hadn't heard before, and I found it odd the things he was telling a room full of Anthropologists. However, the Bushies at my table were muttering during his speech about everything wrong he was saying. These two guys, Marines, had just returned some months ago from Iraq, and had seen more than the speaker had, to be sure, but through the lens of military propaganda. While we know that both the political left and the political right bombard us with propaganda, we also know that the military has it's own brand of propaganda that it disseminates to its troops. The discussion after the speech was of a marginally civil tone, yet laced with typical right wing analogies and examples and left wing examples as well (from the others at the table).
Finally, to end the discussion, that was going nowhere, I forced a change in subject to what the men had seen of looting, what the military was doing to prevent looting, and what strategies could be put in place to change the mindset of the Iraqi people toward looting. It was my opinion that somehow, the Iraqi people need to understand that while it is true that artifacts looted will bring high dollar amounts on the black market, they will be even more valuable in situ later on. The real problem is that Iraqi needs need to be met right now, not later. Perhaps Bush will divert some of the money for the military for financial aid for the Iraqi people, thereby causing looting to become less attractive an option. But until something happens, the looting will continue.
This line of discussion was acceptable to all at the table, and kept us from descending into more left right rhetoric. Nothing disturbs me more than to hear right wingers discuss how wonderful Bush is, when he clearly is not. Their belief is strong, their convictions deep, and nothing changes their minds. Ann Coulter wrote the book "How to Speak to a Liberal, if you must." I would tell my fellow liberals, that if they find themselves in a situation where they find they are speaking to a conservative, simply don't speak, for nothing you say will change their minds.
Nevertheless, the conference was full of many, many well presented papers and talks. The open panel discussion about Native American artifacts was important and lengthy, and some awesome papers about theory were presented as well as ethnography and archaeology. All in all it was a highly successful conference.
Next year the conference will be in Seattle. Not sure if I'm going to go or not, but one thing is for sure, if I DO go, it will be to present a paper, and NOT to work with AV stuff!
