Anthropology conference to focus on rethinking race, politics, policy

The IU Anthropology Department wants people to consider the concept of race as politically driven, rather than biologically driven, said Eduardo Brondizio, Anthropology Department chair and associate anthropology professor.\nIn celebration of the Anthropology Department’s 60th anniversary, which was last year, the department will be hosting a free conference, called “Rethinking Race in the Americas: Anthropology, Politics and Policy.” The event will start at 5 p.m. today in the IU Law School Moot Court Room and end at 6 p.m. Friday with a reception in the Indiana Memorial Union. \nThe event is expected to bring in eight different anthropologists, said Beverly Stoeltje, anthropology professor. \nStoeltje said the topic of race was chosen to go along with the American Anthropological Association’s recent research on how race plays a role in anthropology. Stoeltje said racial categories have no significant biological basis.\n“Many people in the world still believe in the concept of race,” Stoeltje said, which has a more biological than political basis. “When people believe in the concept of race, they often treat people with inequality.”\nThe Anthropology Department started to look at the topic and began considering which researchers they would have come talk about race, Stoeltje said. \nToday’s scheduled speakers are University of California-Riverside anthropology professor Yolanda Moses and Jeffrey Long, a professor in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan Medical School, according to the conference’s Web site.\nOn Friday, the scheduled speakers include University of Arizona Regents Professor of Anthropology Jane Hill, National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Associate Professor of Anthropology Ricardo Santos and Johns Hopkins University Professor of Anthropology Deborah Poole.\nBrondizio said one of the guest speakers he is most looking forward to is Santos. Santos is expected to talk about how Brazil has recently implemented laws that are similar to affirmative action, even though Brazilians have previously not had distinguishable races, Brondizio said. \nHill is one of the speakers Stoeltje said she is looking forward to hearing. \nSteoeltje said she is interested in hearing Hill’s perspective on the current uses of race by some “far right political groups.”\nAt the end of all of the lectures, there will be a reception to conclude the conference in the Georgian Room of the IMU, Steoltje said. \nBrondizio said he wants all students to attend the conference to have a better understanding of the concept of race through an anthropologist’s perspective. \n“Race continues to be such an important topic,” Brondizio said.