Anthropology Beyond the Academy Panel Discussion
4-6 p.m., Friday, October 28
Eliot Chapel 

Sponsored by the anthropology department and career services, Anthropology Beyond the Academy is a panel discussion of Reed anthropology alumni that explores their many interesting career paths.

Joining the panel are Daniel Denvir, '05; Christine Lewis, '07; Paul Manson, '01; Amanda Ufheil-Somers, '08; and Gwendolyn White, '08. 

Daniel Denvir, '05, wrote his thesis on the social and cultural transformations wrought by neoliberal globalization on the border city of Ciudad, Juarez, Mexico (under the patient tutelage of Professor Charlene Makley). After graduation, he worked two years as an organizer with the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC), which advocates for labor and immigrant rights and opposes U.S. intervention in Latin America. He then moved to Ecuador where he started to pretend he was a journalist. Denvir is now a staff writer at the Philadelphia City Paper, a contributing writer at Salon.com, and a frequent contributor to The Guardian. His long-time girlfriend is, like many of his friends from Reed, a Ph.D. student. Links to his work can be found at http://www.danieldenvir.com

Christine Lewis, '07, has been engaged in public interest advocacy and elections at the local, state, and national level since getting involved as a student. A graduate of Reed College, Lewis has held positions with Our Oceans/Pew Environment Group, SEIU Local 503, and numerous progressive ballot measures and candidate campaigns. She volunteers her legislative, fundraising, and campaign expertise to a number of organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Grand Aspirations, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, and The Oregon Zoo Foundation. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time outdoors, supporting Portland’s performing arts, reading, and preparing her West Linn home for the dog she hopes to adopt sometime in the future. 

Paul Manson, '01, is a PhD student in the Public Affairs and Policy program in the Hatfield School of Government. He is also a trainee in the NSF funded Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) on Ecosystem Services for Urbanizing Regions (ESUR).

As a policy researcher Paul has been developing participatory decision support tools and methods that combine and synthesize expert opinion and community preferences. Recent efforts include spatially assisted public participation tools for ecosystem services planning in Nevada. This effort supports a local government policy for “no-net loss” of ecosystem services. Other research includes Bayesian inferential modeling for marine ecosystem service functions through a National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) funded project in partnership with Oregon State University. This project is developing a methodology to manage uncertainty in science, and divergent stakeholder opinions. He recently co-authored a Transportation Research Board report on the development of ecosystem service based crediting methods to better inform transportation decisions and measure progress. Paul has a BA in Anthropology from Reed College, and an MPA from PSU. For his undergraduate work, Paul conducted ethnological fieldwork in Arctic Alaska with two Iñupiat communities. This research was an examination of the landscape based semiotics in developing cultural narratives and social identities, and their role in present day governance. His graduate work included a broad set of studies across geography and economics along with public administration to include marine policy issues and ecosystem services into his MPA.

As an ESUR IGERT trainee, Paul seeks to explore the methods and tools communities can engage to better manage shared conflicted resources and to discover dependencies to resources not currently part of decisions. The focus of this research is around marine spatial planning and the management of coastal and marine systems. One of the challenges in this work is properly connecting terrestrial, estuarine, coastal and marine processes and functions to ecosystem services and policy.

Paul also researches the ways policy makers and individuals mediate their relationships with the environment through policies or social action. Problems include managing collective action problems around common or pool resources, and transfer of impacts or benefits across landscapes and communities. 

Amanda Ufheil-Somers, '08, has worked in a variety of nonprofit organizations engaged in advocacy, direct services, and public education. While in Portland, she was involved with immigrant rights campaigns through the Center for Intercultural Organizing. After a one-year research fellowship with Professor Tamara Metz, she spent two years teaching social studies, research skills, and computer literacy in after-school and summer programs for under-served youth in Washington, D.C. She is currently assistant editor of the quarterly magazine, Middle East Report, where her thesis research sometimes comes in handy. Amanda lives in the District of Columbia.

Gwendolyn (Gwen) White, '08, works for IRCO (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization), coordinating a school based program (SUN Community School) that combines academics, recreation, skill-building, and community events for high school age youth and their families. Gwen's job is to coordinate partnerships between the school, IRCO and other agencies, and the larger community in ways that benefit students and families, particularly those with barriers to mainstream educational engagement and success (low income, limited English speaking, etc.). She has been interested in public education, specifically the challenge of educational equity, for many years, and has worked and volunteered in local schools since her freshman year at Reed. Gwen's work with IRCO provides her with an on-the-ground education in working with diverse populations that complements and builds on her undergraduate background in cultural anthropology.