We invite you to join us for the next event in our American history series—as well as a special webinar on a controversial issue in anthropology and archeology!

Our next two webinars are:

Join NAS this Thursday, January 20th, at 2 pm ET, as we discuss "1929: The Great Depression."

At the beginning of the 1930s, the collapse of the stock market led to a severe economic depression that lasted through most of the decade. Unemployment hit record highs, GDP dropped precipitously, and many industries ground to a halt.

What made the Great Depression such a difficult slump to climb out of? How did the Great Depression shape the character of those who lived through it? What effects did this have on political and economic life in the forthcoming decades?

This webinar will feature Alexander J. Field, Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University; Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression.

To learn more about the event, click here. 

Join NAS next week on Thursday, January 27th, at 6:30 pm ET, as we discuss "The Repatriation Debate: What Is It?"

Over 30 years ago, in 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was passed. NAGPRA is a federal law that mandates the return of human remains and cultural items to modern American Indian tribes. This push for repatriation occurs even if the remains or items are thousands of years old with little evidence to connect the artifacts with the present-day tribes.

NAGPRA, and other similar state repatriation laws, have ignited a debate—which human remains and artifacts should be repatriated and reburied and which should be preserved and studied? What information, such as DNA, historical accounts, or oral traditions, should be treated as evidence? Which evidence should take precedence? And how closely related do remains and artifacts need to be for repatriation to occur?

Rather than work on these issues and the many other repatriation issues, pro-repatriation anthropologists and archaeologists have painted those who are skeptical of repatriation as insensitive to the heritage of present-day tribes, and at worst racists. Furthermore, repatriation ideology has developed into a post-modernist and decolonization movement working to control anthropological researchers by handing control of scientific inquiry to contemporary American Indian communities and their allies.

This webinar will feature Elizabeth Weiss, Professor of Anthropology at San Jose State University; Bruce Bourque, Chief Archaeologist and Curator of Ethnography at the Maine State Museum; and Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars.

To learn more about the event, click here. 

If you can't attend the events live, you can still register to watch the recordings. All registrants will receive a follow-up email with a link to the recording shortly after each event.

If you have missed any of our past events or webinars, you may find all of our recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/user/NAScholars/videos.

I look forward to seeing you in the virtual audience!
 

Best,
Chance Layton
Director of Communications
National Association of Scholars