This four day planning workshop brings together social scientists, scholars in the humanities, artists, and leaders from minority communities for constructive dialogue on contentious cross-cultural issues involving research practice. The workshop participants will examine existing codes of conduct and consider what guidelines and methods further ethical practice in the social sciences and humanities, particularly with respect to research with vulnerable populations. They will look for ways to further what has become a difficult and challenging dialogue in the social sciences and humanities, which in many cases has led to stalemate or conflict between researchers and human populations, in order to create an atmosphere of collaborative inquiry which transcends the particularities of regions, cultures or disciplines. The planning workshop will focus on identifying key issues, questions, concerns and goals and on setting priorities and planning future activities to carry out the identified goals. Topics to be considered include the nature of ethical communication; multiple identities, representation and cultural appropriation; the role of mass media in communicating or miscommunicating across cultures; the nature and effectiveness of codes of conduct governing relations between scholars and first peoples. The workshop is sponsored by the Western Washington University (WWU) Center for Canadian-American Studies and co-sponsored by the International Arctic Social Science Association (IASSA). It will include a two-hour public videoconference using distance learning facilities at WWU and Northwest Indian College (NWIC), to help participants reach, and collaborate with, the target audience. The workshop will lead to the development of a panel to examine codes of conduct and draft a research agenda on issues in research practice for the International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (May 2001). Participants will also be invited to submit essays on workshop topics for publication in a collection of essays accessible to general readers, edited by the principal investigator. The project will further IASSA's development of guidelines for scientific practice which acknowledge rapid cultural and social change in the circumpolar north, and intercultural work by WWU and NWIC.
