Project lead Sara Shneiderman, Associate Professor in UBC’s Department of Anthropology and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, organized and participated in two discussion forums on earthquake aftermaths.
The first event is a public roundtable discussion on Earthquake and Tsunami Aftermaths, held at the UBC on November 21. This roundtable integrates diverse approaches to understanding the social elements of disaster aftermaths – with an eye towards producing useable knowledge in the present as we prepare for future disasters. The speakers will share their anthropological research in India, Sri Lanka, and Japan, followed by a response focused on Vancouver from the city’s lead seismic policy planner. A pre-event tour of the exhibit Shake Up: Preserving What We Value at the Museum of Anthropology gives participants an added perspective on Indigenous earthquake knowledge along the Northwest Coast, as well as the museum’s own earthquake preparations. The event is supported by the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Arts, the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, the Department of Anthropology, the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Museum of Anthropology.
The second is a panel presentation with several of the same speakers, called “Earthquake and Tsunami Aftermaths: Temporality and Transformation“. This panel was held in Vancouver, Canada on November 23 during the joint conference of the American Anthropological Association and the Canadian Anthropology Society. In addition to organizing the panel, Dr. Shneiderman gave a presentation titled “Deadlining: Restructuring, Reconstruction, and Transformation in Nepal,” which draws on the research conducted through the ‘Expertise, Labour and Mobility’ project.
For more information, additional interviews, and a video of the roundtable at UBC, please follow this link.
