Departmental Self Review - UCLA Academic Senate

strong program in language socialization but also as the subject of potentially greatinterest for our faculty and students who study cultural contact and change. There arepossible connections here with all other subfields:• The politics and ideology of language use with special emphasis on nation-building,transmigration, and marginalization. An example of this type of work is the expandingfield of research on the effects of the "balkanization" of European countries on languagepractices and language ideologies. This is an area that would continue to build theexisting connections between linguistic anthropology and sociocultural anthropology.• Language and communicative practices in relation to cognition, emotion, humandevelopment, illness and health. This is an area that would further expand our currentconnection with the psycho-cultural/medical faculty in the department.Sociocultural anthropology: There is consensus within the sociocultural anthropology subfieldthat acquiring a scholar with research and theoretical interests pertaining to:• The anthropology of violence would significantly complement and further develop anumber of existing strengths in the sub-field and in the department as a whole.Expertise on the topic of violence (broadly configured) could include issues of socialsuffering, trauma, and health disparities; colonialism and the politics of memory;torture, genocide, human rights, and remedies (e.g., truth and reconciliationcommissions); structural violence and the state; agency, power, and resistance. Whiletheoretical and geographical areas of specialization are open, the preferred candidate'sresearch would speak to issues of gender'and violence and/or ethnicity, race, andviolence, and would be based in Latin America.Other research areas of interest in sociocultural anthropology include:• An open-level position for a scholar pursuing science and technology issues orenvironmental anthropology. Possible topics could include bioscience; the reformulationof "nature" through genetic engineering inagriculture, materials science, and medicine;high-tech issues connected to infomatics, nanotechnology, mobile computing, and otheremerging technologies; the social uses of science and technology in everyday life;technological interventions in public health and global disease vectors; the impact onpopulations of environmental problems, such as global warming, soil erosion, risingocean levels, water shortages, and industrial pollution; and the conflicts overdisplacement and development caused by large technological projects such as dams,nuclear power stations, and highways. We are looking for scholars who are opening·new theoretical directions while doing rigorous empirical research.27