Shawn Thompson (Assistant Professor of Journalism at Thompson Rivers University) has issued a call for anthropologists to be interviewed for a news article about the risks of fieldwork. The article will focus on the case of anthropologist David Scheffel who is currently being held in Slovakian prison. Professor Johnson is hoping to situate this case in the broader context of anthropological fieldwork. Professor Johnson's request below is in English only, but anyone interested in being interviewed may contact him at: prof.shawnthompson@outlook. com
CASCA is circulating this call with the permission of Dr. Scheffel's family. Please see CASCA's statement regarding this case:
https://www.cas-sca.ca/images/pdfs/CASCAs_Statement_in_regards_to_Professor_David_Scheffel.pdf
Thank you,
Pamela Downe
President, Canadian Anthropology Society/Société canadienne d'anthropologie
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Shawn Thompson (professeur associé de journalisme à l'Université Thompson Rivers) cherche des anthropologues qui lui accorderaient une entrevue pour un article d'actualités sur les risques du travail de terrain. Il concentrera son article sur le cas de l'anthropologue David Scheffel qui est actuellement détenu dans un prison slovaque. Le professeur Johnson voudrait mettre ce cas dans son contexte plus large du travail de terrain anthropologique. Sa demande en bas est en anglais seulement mais tout anthropologue qui souhaite lui parler peut le joindre à prof.shawnthompson@outlook.com
CASCA fait circuler cet appel avec la permission de la famille du professeur Scheffel. Veuillez lire la prise de position de la CASCA sur ce cas:
https://www.cas-sca.ca/images/pdfs/Declaration_de_la_CASCA_au_sujet_du_Pr_David_Scheffel.pdf
Merci,
Pamela Downe
Présidente, Canadian Anthropology Society/Société canadienne d'anthropologie
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I am seeking anthropologists willing to be interviewed by me for a mainstream article about the physical, social and political perils of being an anthropologist.
The centre of my article is the 63-year-old Canadian anthropologist, Professor David Scheffel, being held in prison in Slovakia without bail awaiting trial on charges related to his research, the child sex trade in the marginalized and segregated ethnic group of gypsies in Slovakia.
Scheffel says that he has been charged with sexual assault, possessing and distributing child pornography and a weapons charge from having his father's old 22-calibre rifle without a permit. Scheffel has been in jail since Nov. 12, 2017. I am attempting to reach his lawyer in Slovakia to verify the charges.
The Canadian Anthropological Society has issued a statement of support for Scheffel. https://www.cas-sca.ca/images/pdfs/CASCAs_Statement_in_regards_to_Professor_David_Scheffel.pdf
Here is the URL link to Scheffel's online posting about his situation: http://prod-admin1.glacier.atex.cniweb.net:8080/fileserver/file/1200762/filename/scheffel.pdf
My article will examine the Scheffel case in the larger context of the increasing risks that anthropologists are taking to conduct meaningful research in troubled areas of the world, including problems of public perception and public backlash when investigating taboo subjects like Scheffel. A Canadian example of the perils of being an anthropologist is Homa Hoodfar, the Canadian anthropologist imprisoned in Iran for 112 days. There is interesting ligature on this issue, such as Surviving Fieldwork by Canadian anthropologist Nancy Howell, Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival and Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror.
For background, Dr. David Scheffel is a long-time, tenured associate professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia who has been researching the gypsies of Slovakia in a particular community since 1993 when he took Canadian anthropology students there on a field trip there. In addition to writing articles on the subject, he wrote a book first published in 2005 and then reprinted in 2010 by Toronto University Press about a divided town in Slovakia where gypsies were segregated and mistreated. Unable to stay detached, Scheffel wanted to help the gypsy community in Slovakia, so he encouraged his employer, Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops to become involved by applying for two Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) grants totalling half a million dollars to conduct an idealistic project to improve living conditions in the Slovakian community. Scheffel's work with gypsies in Slovakia and the improvement project was the subject of a documentary film under Canada's National Film Board. In recognition of his work in Slovakia, Scheffel was given an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Presov in Slovakia in 2012. Scheffel was born in the former state of Czechoslovakia, but is now a Dutch citizen with permanent resident status in Canada.
In my article, I won't speculate on the guilt or innocence of Scheffel. There are not enough known facts on the case to argue guilt or innocence, although the issue of getting justice in a foreign court is worth pursing at another time.
My attention was brought to this case because Scheffel teaches at the same university that I do, although we have had only occasional contact on campus and no social contact off campus.
If anyone has experience relevant to my topic and would be is interested in talking to me, please contact me by email at prof.shawnthompson@outlook. com
My background is that I have been teaching journalism at a university in Canada for 20 years, after working as a newspaper journalist for 17 ½ years on various different beats, such as police, crime, court and prisons. Among the books I have published is a book about federal prisoners in Canada and the United States called Letters From Prison: Felons Write About the Struggle for Life and Sanity Behind Bars. To write that book, I created a correspondence network with prisoners in prisons in the two countries. My last book took me to the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra to interview primatologists. That book is called The Intimate Ape: Orangutans and the Secret Life of a Vanishing Species. That book and associated activities resulted in me becoming an expert witness for an apes' rights trial in Argentina to free an orangutan from a Buenos Aires zoo.
In my interviewing and writing my ethical procedure is: to give full disclosure of the topic and context at the beginning; not to allow a subject to read and edit the final article but, if requested, to read back quotes from a subject, give the context of the quotes, and give the facts as they are understood; notify a subject whenever possible if there is a significant change in the facts or context after the interview. If the interview is conducted by email, the subject agrees before the interview to waive copyright of the written material by sending the email and no further permission is required in order to use the material.
Prof. Shawn Thompson
