Masterclass objectives:
Advancements in both anthropology and science followed their departures from the use of broad moral frames to understand information. 100 years after Boas developed the concept of historical particularism, anthropology has returned to moral language, moral debates, and moral models. The major goal of the class will be to develop our own working model for moralism in anthropology by examining a theoretical work and two recent anthropology studies of “first contact” with hunter-gatherers. We will then try to better understand what is gained and lost by recombining anthropology and moralism as a research method.

Dr. Yancey Orr is the inaugural United States Studies Centre – American Australian Association Fellow at the University of Sydney. He is also an associate professor of environmental science at Smith College. He is conducting comparative research on how Indigenous communities consult federal governments in Australia and the United States. As part of this project, he will be developing international workshops on Indigenous representation. He has conducted academic and applied fieldwork in The Philippines, Indonesia, Western New Guinea, Australia, and North America. This has included consulting for resource extraction industries including developing comparative analysis of Australia and the United States. He has published on topics such as Indigenous histories and environmental interaction, Southeast Asian terrorism, and film and television. The National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation have funded his research. He has held academic appointments in Canada, Australia, France and several institutions in the United States as well as serving as an associate editor of Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal. He has a PhD from the University of Arizona, an MA from UC Berkeley and an MA and BA from Yale.