Randy Douthit is a speaker, cultural anthropologist, and expert on media and communication. He has spent a lifetime working with small-scale cultures in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe to help them make sense of the modern world. He has been a journalist for over 30 years.
Randy is a founding member of the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage at the National Museum of American History. In this position, he directs an international outreach program linking Smithsonian folkways collections in Washington with counterparts abroad. He oversees a growing network of regional museums and cultural centres in the USA and abroad.
Randy was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California Berkeley in the Department of Anthropology. From 1985 to 1991, he worked as a Visiting Scholar/Researcher for the American Anthropological Association in Arlington, VA, helping design and implement national programs supporting anthropologists and their indigenous clients worldwide. He has lived among and written about dozens of small-scale cultures. His books have been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards.
In 1997 Randy was invited to join an advisory panel convened by former Senator George Mitchell to help define policy on small-scale cultures. In 2003 he helped launch the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP). In 2008 WGIP produced an official UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Interview with Douthit, PhD, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, author and expert on media communications. Discussion with Randy Douthit about how non-profit organizations can better utilize the impact of films to raise public awareness and support for their issues. According to Randy Douthit, “Filmmakers are on the front lines in today’s culture wars. At least they should be at the forefront of using media communications in a strategic way to reach new audiences and influence policymaking”.
He mentions that after the film “When the Mountains Tremble” by Pamela Yates became an Oscar nominee, it was used to convince the Reagan administration to change its policies on Guatemalan government repression. He also mentions that his film on the Yanomami got him hired at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage because they needed help to promote indigenous cultures in Washington, DC.
Randy Douthit is passionate about using new media to communicate with a larger audience. He states, “The future belongs to non-profits who can use these media effectively”.