Richard P. Horwitz is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Iowa and an independent
consultant. He holds a
Ph.D. (1975) in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania
where he studied interdisciplinary approaches to the United States,
emphasizing cultural anthropology and history. His work centers on the interpretation of everyday life in the U.S. – institutions,
routines, and folkways on the job, in neighborhoods, at home and abroad. It remains both scholarly and applied, particularly in regard to environmental management, agriculture, interdisciplinariy education, and
international affairs. He has worked extensively in more than a dozen
African, Asian, and European nations to contribute to the development of his
field and cross-cultural understanding more generally. These visits have been
sponsored by universities, non-governmental organizations, and national as
well as international agencies, including two Distinguished Senior Fulbright
Awards.
Although retired from regular university employment, he continues to work as a
researcher, writer, and consultant on cultural issues in environmental
affairs – analyzing and assisting communication and cooperation among policymakers,
scientists, first responders, and the public. With funding from a USDA grant to the six New England states he is working to help improve response to animal disease outbreaks, such as "bird flu" (HPAI) in small-farm states. From 2010 to 2018, his main job was as Principal Investigator for federally funded projects to research
and develop ways to improve the sustainability of dairy farms, to coordinate the Secure Milk Supply Project in New England, and to improve response to livestock disease emergencies in the U.S. as a whole. From 2002 to 2009, he
produced and maintained state plans for dealing with all environmental and agricultural
emergencies.
Major publications include five books: two anthologies – The
American Studies Anthology (an international, interdisciplinary
introduction to the sources of interest in the U.S.) and Exporting America (about American Studies around the world, with contributions from eleven
countries) – and three original volumes – Anthropology Toward History (about interdisciplinarity, applied toward
understanding workaday life in an industrializing New England town), The
Strip (about highway-oriented commerce, making beds, burgers, cash, and
community along a modern Midwestern roadside) and Hog Ties (about the
implications of modern agriculture and medical science for the quality of
life in America). This last work draws on his experience moonlighting as a
hired hand on a 2000-acre hog/grain/cattle farm for 20 years. He has also
served as a researcher, writer, photographer, consultant, and public
presenter for the Smithsonian Institution (e.g., for the Festival of American Folklife) and several state and national science,
arts, education, humanities, and public policy agencies. His public-sector
projects include documentary fieldwork among diverse groups, especially
producers and consumers ("stakeholders") of environmental
information (e.g., about emergencies, climate change, public health and
safety, agriculture and wildlife management). Awards include prizes
for life-time achievement in mentoring students and for the outstanding
article of the year in American Studies.
Recent planning, research and outreach activities include:
For the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) and the
six-state New England States Animal Agricultural Security Alliance (NESAASA)
- Analyze and develop strategies to improve the use of Secure Food Supply Plans, as they affect small-farm states in livestock-disease emergencies
- Review and analyze New England's
fluid milk marketing pattern for development of a Secure Milk Supply (SMS) Plan
- Integrate the regional New
England risk analysis into Foreign Animal Disease (FAD) Continuity of
Business planning.
- New England Secure Milk Supply Plan and Training and Exercise Materials
- Foot-and-Mouth
Disease (FMD) as a Hazard for New England Dairies (Comprehensive vulnerability assessment)
- Communicating with Dairy Consumers About FMD. (Guide to risk
communication in an emergency)
- New England Secure Milk Supply Project (Regional analysis,
reports, recommendations, and outreach materials
- New England as a Jurisdiction for Supporting Continuity of Dairy Operations: A Reassment
- Assessing Farm Readiness for Emergency Milk Movement in New England
- New York Suppliers, Routes, and Strategies for Continuity of Dairy Commerce in New England
- Dairy Farms That Touch the Public and Plans for Coping with FMD in New England
For the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the state of Vermont
- Evaluate the applicability of a Readiness Rating developed for permitting milk movement during a highly contagious livestock disease outbreak
- Facilitate a New England regional emergency exercise utilizing the tool
- Readiness Rating for Continuity of Dairy Operations in a FMD Control Area
For the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) and the state of Rhode Island
- Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and foreign animal disease (FAD) assessments for biosecurity and implementation of continuity of business plans
- Provide highly contagious animal disease preparedness and response expertise support to USDA-APHIS-VS
For Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, Office of Emergency Management
- Coordinate the development of outreach and education, on-line and video resources to improve emergency preparedness
at Virginia Tech
- Guides to emergency hazards, preparedenss, response, and recovery and Be Hokie Ready training and certification
For the Rhode Island
Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM)
- Emergency-response plans for all environmental hazards.
- Public information and on-line
resources for the Office of
Emergency Response and the Division of
Agriculture
- Emergency Response Plan (Comprehensive, for all of DEM and all environmental hazards)
- Agricultural Emergency
Response Plan (Comprehensive, for all plant, pet, and livestock hazards)
- Protocols and Public Information
for BART (Bay Assessment and Response Team)
- Public Advice and Information
on Animal Care in Disasters
- Help for RI Cities and
Towns in Preparing for Emergency Animal Care
- Development, training,
coordination, and public information for the RI Disaster Animal
Response Team (RIDART)
- Exercises of DEM emergency
response capacity (Oil Spill, Hurricane, AI
Epidemic, Animal Sheltering and Rescue)
For RI DEM and the RI
Emergency Management Administration (RI EMA)
- State Emergency Operations
Plan for ESF #10 (Hazardous Materials and
Environmental Protection)
- State Emergency Operations
Plan for ESF #16) (Animal Care)
- Exercises of State and Federal
Emergency Response (Oil Spill, Epidemic, Radiation, Hurricane)
For the University of Maine
- External evaluator for NSF-funded NRT program on One Health and the Environment: Integrating Social and Biological Sciences in an Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program (OH&E)
- External evaluator for the NSF-funded IGERT project on Adaptation to Abrupt Climate Change (A2C2)
For the University of Rhode Island
- External evaluator for the NSF-funded Coastal Institute IGERT Project (CIIP) on Assessing Change in Coastal Ecosystems: Integrating Natural and Social Sciences
- Consultant, Scientific Support of Enviornmental Emergency
Response (SSEER)
For American Studies
- International, interdisciplinary
education about the United States
- On-line Resources for Students and
Teachers of American Studies
- Consulting in Austria, China, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland,
Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, and Taiwan.
Five Books:
- Hog Ties: What Pigs Tell Us
about America (University of Minnesota Press, 2002);
and as Hog Ties: Pigs,
Manure, and Mortality in American Culture (Palgrave Macmillan/St.
Martin's, 1998).
- (Editor and Contributor), The
American Studies Anthology (SR Books, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2001).
- (Editor and Contributor) Exporting America: Essays on American Studies Abroad (Garland Publishing,
1993).
- The Strip: An American Place,
with photographs by Karin E. Becker (University of Nebraska Press, 1985).
- Anthropology Toward History:
Culture and Work in a 19th Century Maine Town (Wesleyan University Press,
1978).
Plus dozens of book chapters, journal articles, and book reviews in American Anthropologist, American Quarterly, American
Studies, Ethnohistory, Great Plains
Quarterly, Annals of Iowa, Journal of American History, Journal of
Social History, Journal of the Society for the Humanities and
Technology, and Winterthur Portfolio as well as contributions to
series published in Europe and Asia.
E-mail: Richard-Horwitz@uiowa.edu
WWWeb:
http://myweb.uiowa.edu/rhorwitz
Resume:
http://myweb.uiowa.edu/rhorwitz/vita.htm |
