“The program recruited the human flotsam and jetsam of the discipline and pretended it was recruiting the best. Treating taxpayer money as if it were water, it paid under-qualified 20-something anthropologists more than even Harvard professors. And it treated our ethics code as a nuisance to be ignored.”
— Hugh Gusterson, an anthropology professor said to USA Today about the Human Terrain System program which sends in civilian scientists to locations overseas so that soldiers will have better interactions with locals. Gusterson has studied the program and its impact on anthropology.
“They get reminded each and every day anytime their models don’t prove to be correct. For them, the whole notion of projecting what the climate will be 30, 50, a hundred years from now, they’ve got a fairly high degree of skepticism”
— Ed Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication said to NPR about meteorologists’ opinions on climate change.
“Clearly, you don’t want to introduce a kindergartner to slaves being shackled on a boat. But you do introduce them to Harriet Tubman [and similar black American icons]…The greatest challenge for our instructors is to know they have to have those difficult conversations and find age-appropriate ways to have those discussions.”
— Wendi N. Manuel-Scott, director of African and African American Studies, said to the Fairfax Times, emphasizing the importance of timing and content for children learning about African-American history.
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