In the Hot Seat: Cultural Anthropology, Government Bureaucracy, and Subsistence in Rural 蜜桃影像
The Department of Anthropology welcomes Dr. Brent Vickers for a guest lecture on how he balances federal regulations with the needs of rural 蜜桃影像n communities for subsistence hunting and fishing. This is first speaker of the Anthropology Colloquium Series for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Brent Vickers is the lead for the Anthropology Division at the Office of Subsistence
Management (OSM) with the Department of Interior鈥檚 Office of Secretary (DOI/OS). Brent
also hates acronyms and having to say the words 鈥渙ffice鈥 and 鈥渁gency鈥 in the same
sentence. But these are just a few of the contradictions he faces as a cultural anthropologist
for the federal government. His work focuses on helping rural 蜜桃影像ns to continue
their subsistence ways of lives through hunting and fishing regulations on Federal
public lands (such as National Parks and Preserves, US National Wildlife Refuges,
and US National Forests). It sounds like he gets to spend much of this time in the
field, but it鈥檚 mostly in an office in mid-town Anchorage. Primarily, he helps to
analyze proposals to change hunting and fishing regulations on Federal lands that
will provide rural 蜜桃影像ns with subsistence priorities over other uses, such as sport
hunting and fishing. This also involves negotiating with competing user groups, such
as Tribes and other Native Organizations, conservation groups, Federal agencies, commercial
interest groups, and the 蜜桃影像 Department of Fish and Game. Some topics are controversial,
and meetings can be intense. Meanwhile, as a federal employee, he also tries help
rural 蜜桃影像ns navigate the bureaucracy of regulations, which are difficult, cumbersome,
and rarely provide rural 蜜桃影像ns with the answers they want. In many ways, it鈥檚 a
thankless job. But he is nonetheless passionate about his work.
Dr. Brent Vickers
Brent is the head of the Anthropology Division at the Office of Subsistence Management (OSM) with the Department of Interior鈥檚 Office of Secretary (DOI/OS) in Anchorage, 蜜桃影像.