Through the labyrinth to Brand New. Records. FAYE V HARRISON. 2007 EXECUTIVE PROGRAM CHAIR. 106th AAA Annual Meeting. Marriot Wardman Park ...
February 2008 • Anthropology News
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Program Chair Report Through the Labyrinth to Brand New Records Faye V Harrison 2007 Executive Program Chair 106th AAA Annual Meeting Marriot Wardman Park Hotel and Omni Shoreham Hotel Nov 28–Dec 2, 2007 Registrants: 5,147 Papers: 3,162 Scheduled Sessions: 561 Exhibitors: 91 Poster Sessions: 23 Employers: 80 Special Sessions: 278 Breaking New Records Attendance at the 2007 AAA Annual Meeting reached its highest point since the 2000 meeting in San Francisco, attracting 5,147 registrants. There were also more sessions and special events than ever before in the history of AAA meetings, exceeding the previous record by 55 sessions and 63 special events. Some members did have difficulties attending sessions, particularly because of the labyrinth that is the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. However, although the scale of the meeting led to complications with scheduling—including the concurrent scheduling of the AAA Business Meeting and other events—the meeting’s problems appear minor when considering its successes, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Program Committee Meeting The traditional Friday afternoon meeting of the AAA Program Committee slightly overlapped with the AAA Business Meeting, and program committee members left the latter to quickly shift their focus to the demands of the 2008 meeting program. Before the orientation for the 2008 meeting, discussion focused on the prob-
lems encountered during 2007 and on how the challenges posed by the meeting’s increasing size can be best addressed in the future. Several section editors expressed frustrations that their sessions had not been distributed across the entire five-day span of the meeting, particularly during the days and time slots most likely to attract larger audiences. The 2008 AAA Program Chair, Noel Chrisman, along with the AAA Meetings Department staff, Lucille Horn and Khara Minter, face a difficult scheduling challenge in the coming year. They have already begun to consider a more effective approach. Members can facilitate this process by carefully noting the deadlines for 2008 AAA Annual Meeting submissions.
Internationalizing Our Discourse and Practice To a certain extent, the goal to increase the program’s internationalization was accomplished. A presidential session organized by representatives of the World Council of Anthropology Associations shed light on inequalities among national anthropologies that privilege US anthropology and the AAA. The newly appointed Commission on World Anthropologies held its inaugural meeting to begin brainstorming about its charge. An executive session on international public feminisms brought together women originally from four continents to discuss the significance of the gift economy and social mothering as goals for activism. Three of the session’s participants traveled from Italy, South Africa and Ireland to be a part of the session, which along with several other sessions
Remarkable Quality of Experience Although the audiences for some sessions and events were smaller than had been hoped for, many sessions— including those scheduled at early hours—drew good numbers of people whose lively and committed participation Nearly 100 exhibitors participated in the 2007 meeting. Photo courtesy Sarah was clear evidence of and a Walker contribution to the meeting’s intellectual vitality. On Saturday night, for examrevealed the diversity of perspectives and perple, the “Capers” performance by solo artist Anu sons that make feminism what it is today. Yadav was not as well attended as hoped, but the A special event publicized the 2008 two dozen people who sacrificed a night socializInternational Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological ing with colleagues in Washington DC to attend Sciences (IUAES). A delegation traveled from the show produced wonderful synergy that made Beijing for this event and to meet with the performance and after-performance discusPresident Alan Goodman to discuss future sion lively and thought provoking, extending cooperation with AAA. They were happy to the contours of our discursive practice. have been invited to the annual meeting and look forward to welcoming US anthropologists to Kunming in July. Celebrating Accomplishments One of the highlights of the meeting was the AAA Awards Ceremony and Presidential Address. The association continued its tradition of honoring its most talented teachers, authors, public intellectuals and graduate students. Presidential Awards were conferred on Yolanda Moses and Peggy Overbey for their leadership in the Understanding Race and Human Variability public education initiative. The decade-
Beijing anthropological delegation meets with Faye Harrison and Alan Goodman. Photo courtesy Zhang Xioamin
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Anthropology News • February 2008
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Executive Board Actions Nov 28 and Dec 1, 2007
long project resulted in a website and museum exhibit “Race: Are We So Different?” Both of these public education products have won national awards. Many of us found a more playful and aerobic means of celebrating our collective achievements at the Saturday night fête. There was an excellent turnout and the night was full of energetic dancing to
Faye Harrison and Alan Goodman with Zhou Mingfu (center) of the Beijing delegation. Photo courtesy Zhang Xioamin
the Image Band’s repertoire of Caribbean music. The evening’s dancing and socializing proved to be a nice balance to the intellectually demanding program; we worked out on the dance floor as intensively as we worked through our common intellectual agenda focused on understanding difference, (in)equality and justice to the best of our abilities as anthropologists.
Amanda Concha-Holmes celebrates at the Saturday night dance. Photo courtesy Faye Harrison
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Public Policy • Received and agreed to post on the AAA website for public commentary the Report of the AAA Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and Intelligence Communities. • Authorized AAA becoming a supporting institutional member in the US Committee of the Blue Shield. Finance and Awards • Endorsed a plan for a seven-year investment of funds to upgrade the Association Management System. • Adopted the FY2008 budget. • Authorized awarding the 2007 AAA/SfAA Margaret Mead Award to João Biehl. • Changed the name of the AAA/McGraw Hill Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology to the AAA/Oxford University Press Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology. Governance • Selected the AAA slate of candidates for the 2008 spring ballot. • Reauthorized the Committee on Scientific Communication. • Reauthorized for three years the following interest groups: Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy, Sexuality Studies and Anthropology Interest Group, and Scholarly Communications Interest Group. • Established the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists section. • Authorized submission to the AAA membership a bylaws amendment to place motions adopted at the Annual Business Meeting where a quorum is present to an electronic vote of the membership in a timely manor. • Adopted means for facilitating greater section participation in AAA governance by requesting: a) the section assembly review and comment on any new section or interest group application prior to it being reviewed by the executive board, b) the section assembly review and comment on recommendations from committees, commissions, task forces, working groups and the annual business meeting as determined appropriate by the AAA president and section assembly convenor, and c) the section assembly convenor identify items from the annual reports for discussion by the section assembly. • Agreed to invite the AAA Section Assembly Convenor-Elect to attend executive board meetings as a guest. • Authorized submission of bylaws changes to the membership to implement a portion of the Commission on Governance Report that exempts those sections representing historically underrepresented groups whose membership falls below 250 from the requirement to maintain this minimum. Specific sections recommended for this exemption are: Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists, Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, Association of Black Anthropologists, Association of Senior Anthropologists, Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges and Association of Indigenous Anthropologists. • Authorized a review of the bylaws to remove all references to “mail” balloting so as to allow electronic balloting. Publishing • Agreed to share with those sections covered by the Wiley-Blackwell agreement the report of the consultant hired to develop information and analysis on a formula for allocating journal revenue for 2008. • Selected Tom Boellstorff as editor of American Anthropologist. • Recommended that the Committee on the Future of Print and Electronic Publishing participate in future project planning for AnthroSource. • Outlined a process by which the Committee on Scientific Communication would evaluate proposed publications from presidential task forces, commissions and AAA sponsored museum exhibitions to determine eligibility for AAA sponsorship. • Agreed to exchange display ads and articles in Anthropology Now, and to accept discount subscriptions to Anthropology Now for AAA members.
