Interview with Brad Trainor, May 22, 2015

Interview Summary

Trainor talks about how his interest in foreign cultures led him to teach English in China for several years. Trainor discusses returning to the United States and completing graduate programs in diplomacy and cultural anthropology at the University of Kentucky and Wayne State University. Trainor talks about working in program and policy evaluation for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) for one year.
Trainor talks about working as a social scientist for the Human Terrain System (HTS) in different parts of Afghanistan for two one-year periods. He discusses the goals and structure of the organization and his typical duties and responsibilities, which included conducting street interviews and working on needs assessments for the local populace. Trainor discusses one of the projects that he believes was his most successful: helping impoverished Kuchis (Kochis) nomads gain access to water. He explains the problems that a large village in the Arghandab River Valley was experiencing and the ways that he tried to help them, particularly by getting them an emergency school. He discusses the training that he received from the U.S. military, the minimal level of repertoire that he was able to develop with locals, and the protections that he received from the troops. Trainor talks about the reasons that he believes some anthropologists have problems with practicing anthropologists working with the military and other types of fieldwork.
Trainor talks about the dangers that he encountered while working for the Human Terrain System (HTS) while in Afghanistan. He also talks about the importance of ethics in anthropological training and the important ways that anthropologists can improve the places that they are working at in war zones.

Interview Keyword

Human Terrain System (HTS) Mexico, Gulf of. Oil well drilling rigs. Veterans' hospitals. Taliban.

Interview LC Subject

Anthropology. Anthropologists. Anthropologists' writings. Applied anthropology. Anthropology students University of Kentucky Wayne State University United States. Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Afghanistan. US military forces Kandah?r (Afghanistan) Ghazn? (Afghanistan) Social scientists. Arghandab River Valley (Afghanistan) Anthropology research and developments Anthropology--Fieldwork. Anthropology--Philosophy.

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.