Dr. Barbara Rose Johnston, Adjunct faculty member, was selected to deliver the Michael Kearney Memorial Lecture at the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) this past spring (2016). The SfAA honors the memory of Michael Kearney by selecting an outstanding contemporary scholar to present on a topic relevant to the three themes central in his work: migration, human rights, and transnationalism. Dr. Johnston delivered the distinguished lecture titled, “Climate Change, Migration, and Biocultural Diversity – Emerging Trends, D/volutionary Tipping Points?” Dr. Johnston was also recognized by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) at the annual meeting this past November as co-winner of the 2015 Anthropology in Public Policy Award (with Dr. Ted Hamann). Dr. Johnston’s AAA presentation was titled, “Doing environment, health & human rights work: “Familiar struggles to define & assert anthropological perspectives/ Strange occasions of ‘success’ in public policy.” In it, Dr. Johnston discussed her work documenting human and environmental rights abuses and advocating for reparation and the right to remedy resulting from nuclear militarism in the Marshall Islands and World Bank funded hydrodevelopment in Guatemala. The AAA remarked about Dr. Johnston’s work:
“Her study documenting the consequential damages of the Chixoy Dam helped inform a reparations negotiation process, encouraged US restrictions on World Bank and other IFI financing in Guatemala, and led to the historic adoption of a formal reparation mechanism that explicitly addresses the varied injuries and immense impoverishment resulting from internationally-financed hydroelectric dam development. Other recent work includes educating global leaders about the key role of water in sustaining biocultural diversity and the environment and human rights implications of nuclear militarism in the Marshall Islands, work that has helped shape and encouraged the implementation of internationally recognized United Nations policies.” (Read the full press release here.)
Dr. Johnston receiving the 2015 Public Policy Award. (Photo credit: Barbara Rylko-Bauer)