Teaching Ethnographic Methods for Cultural Anthropology: Current Practices and Needed Innovation

Historically, ethnographic methods were learned by cultural anthropology students in individual research projects. This approach creates challenges for teaching in ways that respond to the next generation’s calls to decenter anthropology’s White, heteropatriarchal voices and engage in collaborative community-based research. Analyzing syllabi from 107 ethnographic methods training courses from the United States, we find the tradition of the “lone researcher” persists and is the basis of ethnographic training for the next generation. There is little evidence of either active reflection or team-based pedagogy, both identified as necessary to meet career opportunities and diversification goals for the wider field of cultural anthropology. However, we also find that, by centering the completion of largely individual research projects, most ethnographic methods courses otherwise adhere to best practices in regard to experiential and active learning. Based on the analysis of syllabi in combination with current pedagogical literature, we suggest how cultural anthropologists can revise their ethnographic methods courses to incorporate pedagogy that promotes methodologies and skills to align with the needs of today’s students and communities

Innovative Finance for Sustaining Peace in the Middle East and Beyond: Lessons from Public Health for the Millennium Development Goals

Presented as the Keynote presentation on April 25, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. in the Bill Moore Student Success Center, Clary Theatre.Pardis Mahdavi, PhD is currently Acting Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Her research interests include academic freedom, diversity and inclusion in higher education, gendered labor, human trafficking, migration, sexuality, human rights, youth culture, transnational feminism and public health in the context of changing global and political structures.Runtime: 63:39 minutesThis presentation introduces the concept of innovative finance as a pathway to create sustainable resources to address the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Innovative finance involves adapting existing finance tools as well as creating new tools that can build a fund for sustainable peace. The approach borrows from the successes of public health: that prevention is more affordable and more effective than treatment. Today, there is a staggering investment deficit in the prevention of violent conflict. Spending on responses to violent conflict in 2016 totaled over $30 billion. According to the UN-World Bank, targeting resources toward just four countries at high risk of conflict each year could prevent$34 billion in losses. This project makes the case for why peace through prevention of violent conflict is a valuable investment in the MDGs. This presentation introduces innovative finance tools such as diaspora bonds, innovative taxes, crowd funding, and the use of artificial intelligence through mechanisms like Blockchain technology, showing how these new tools could create a sustainable fund for peace

Pardis Mahdavi Interview - Open Access to Undergraduate Scholarship

Pardis Mahdavi is the Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology; Dean of Women; Director, the Pacific Basin Institute; Coordinator of Gender and Women\u27s Studies at Pomona College. Professor Mahdavi was interviewed about the importance and benefits in sharing undergraduate research online. This video is one in a series asking participants to talk about their experience with supporting online undergraduate research so that faculty and students at the colleges understand the opportunities and benefits of open access to these works

The efficacy and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines around the world: a mini-review and meta-analysis

Abstract Objectives This meta-analysis evaluated the Efficacy and Effectiveness of several COVID-19 vaccines, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Bharat, and Johnson & Johnson, to better estimate their immunogenicity, benefits, or side effects. Methods Studies reporting the Efficacy and Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines from November 2020 to April 2022 were included. The pooled Effectiveness/Efficacy with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) with Metaprop order was calculated. The results were presented in forest plots. Predefined subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were also performed. Results A total of twenty articles were included in this meta-analysis. After the first dose of the vaccine, the total effectiveness of all COVID-19 vaccines in our study was 71% (95% CI 0.65, 0.78). The total effectiveness of vaccines after the second dose was 91% (95% CI 0.88, 0.94)). The total efficacy of vaccines after the first and second doses was 81% (95% CI 0.70, 0.91) and 71% (95% CI 0.62, 0.79), respectively. The effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine after the first and second dose was the highest among other studied vaccines ((74% (95% CI, 0.65, 0.83) and 93% (95% CI, 0.89, 0.97), respectively). The highest first dose overall effectiveness of the studied vaccines was against the Gamma variant (74% (95% CI, 0.73, 0.75)), and the highest effectiveness after the second dose was observed against the Beta variant (96% (95% CI, 0.96, 0.96)). The Efficacy for AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines after the first dose was 78% (95% CI, 0.62, 0.95) and 84% (95% CI, 0.77, 0.92), respectively. The second dose Efficacy for AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Bharat was 67% (95% CI, 0.54, 0.80), 93% (95% CI, 0.85, 1.00), and 71% (95% CI, 0.61, 0.82), respectively. The overall efficacy of first and second dose vaccination against the Alfa variant was 84% (95% CI, 0.84, 0.84) and 77% (95% CI, 0.57, 0.97), respectively, the highest among other variants. Conclusion mRNA-based vaccines against COVID-19 showed the highest total efficacy and effectiveness than other vaccines. In general, administering the second dose produced a more reliable response and higher effectiveness than a single dose