Welcome to the Evaluation Anthropology Network:
A Virtual Community of Practitioners and Scholars!

Who We Are and Why We're Here
The Evaluation Anthropology Network is an independent virtual community of evaluators who use anthropological theory and methods. Our members are affiliated with a wide number of professional associations, companies, NGOs, universities and other institutions. What we share is an interest in promoting the use of anthropology in evaluation. Our network has been at the forefront of developing evaluation anthropology as a formal sub-field of both disciplines.

Our Accomplishments
Anthropologists have had an active presence in evaluation for several decades. However, in the last 10 years we have become more organized, creating formal topical interest groups and networks in several professional associations to advance the field. For the past seven years, several leaders in the subfield have organized papers and networking events at both the American Evaluation Anthropology and American Anthropology Associations. We operate a list serve that has become a forum intellectual exchange, mentoring as well as job and contract referrals. E-mail Mike Lieber at mdlieber[at]gmail.com to sign up for the EVALANTH listserv.

EvalAnth Network members also published the first-ever Evaluation Anthropology textbook (Creating Evaluation Anthropology, Mary O. Butler and Jackie Copeland-Carson), which is being used to teach the next generation of the field's practitioners and scholars.

Our Future
But we're not finished our work. To grow, we need to take our communication to another level, using all that the social
networking revolution has to offer.

The EvalAnth Network Blog was a first step in this new direction. But we have now incorporated the blog into this new social media site, hopefully providing a forum for even more timely and interactive interchange across our growing network. Our hope is that this tool is a better way to document our work, promote communication, strengthen our community, cultivate research, promote professional development to further develop our still emerging field.

How to Participate in the Community
For those of you not familiar with social networking, this new online community is not just a website. Instead it combines the best of a blog with a sort of online chat function--like Facebook or LinkedIn--where you can have conversations. create and share your professional profile. You can even link your EvalAnth page to your LinkedIn or Facebook profile.

To ensure the integrity of the site and protect your data, this is a by invitation only site. There are no membership fees to join--just an earnest interest in using anthropology in evaluation or "the anthropology of evaluation," that is, the comparative and historical study of how different cultures and societies determine and assess value in various power contexts.

There are two ways to join the site. Just click on "Sign Up" on this welcome page. We will review your request and you should receive a note when it is accepted. Also, you can send an invitation request to epinsker@uic.edu (put EVALANTH NING REQUEST in subject header, and mark urguent or priority). We will send you an e-mail with an invitation to the community. Once you've created your EvalAnthNet profile, you are ready to participate.

Please feel free to post conference and meeting notices, comments, session ideas, employment, consulting, mentoring opportunities, or any other pertinent information or requests for help here and someone in our network will get back to you.
 
Thank you for your interest in this exciting and growing field. We look forward to your being a part of the community!

Jackie Copeland-Carson
 Evaluation Anthropology Network Founding Sponsor

Eve C. Pinsker

Evaluation Anthropology Interest Group Chair, NAPA

epinsker@uic.edu, 773-802-4802