American Anthropology: a conference at UC Irvine
Friday, January 27, 2012
Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway (SBSG) 1517
Attendance is free, no RSVP needed
Graduate student opportunity for publication in AA!
GENERAL INFORMATION
This one-day conference celebrates Tom Boellstorff’s more than five years (June 2007–August 2012) as Editor-in-Chief of American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association. During his tenure, Boellstorff has initiated a number of new practices at American Anthropologist, each of which speaks to transformations in the discipline and to the “national tradition” of American anthropology. He expanded the Editorial Board to include an Associate Editor for Public Anthropology and the journal now contains a new a Public Anthropology Review section; he internationalized the Editorial Board, began publishing non-English abstracts, and facilitated transnational collaboration; and he added “Year in Review” articles, a “Vital Topics Forum,” and virtual issues. He also engaged in a series of “behind-the-scenes” innovations in the journal (such as an online submissions system) which reduced the typical time for review to 1–3 months. From 2008 to 2009 alone, these transformations resulted in a 36% increase in American Anthropologist’s “5-year impact factor,” a 61% increase in its “immediacy index” (how quickly articles are cited), and a 50.9% increase in “article influence.”
A series of speakers will present papers and engage in discussions on topics that speak to the state of anthropology today, including the following:
– The work of editorship is often ignored or relegated to the sidelines, particularly when editors are construed solely in terms of gatekeeping. How can we rethink the subject position of “editor” in regard to anthropological knowledge production? How does the editor role interface with that of ethnographer, author, advisor, theorist, teacher, advocate, and colleague?
– What new configurations do we see in regard to the disciplining and un-disciplining of anthropology, within and beyond the academy? What are the consequences of these configurations for ethnographic and theoretical collaboration beyond “anthropology” proper, and for fieldwork methods more generally?
– How can we recuperate a destabilized and critical notion of the “American” in contemporary anthropology? What are the “American” legacies and trajectories of American anthropology and American Anthropologist?
– What might be new roles for the article genre in anthropological knowledge production?
– How can we critically engage with the political economy and epistemology of journal publishing in the context of fundamental transformations in knowledge production and dissemination? What role do metrics like impact factors and relative rankings play in these debates and struggles?
SCHEDULE
9:00–10:00 breakfast reception
10:00–10:30 keynote: “Editorship, Value, and American Anthropology”
Tom Boellstorff
10:30–11:30 15-minute responses to the keynote by members of the Editorial Board
Alessandro Duranti, Agustín Fuentes, Barbara R. Johnston, Michael Silverstein
11:30–noon general discussion
noon–1:00 lunch
1:00–2:00 American Anthropologist in practice: a roundtable
Lilith Mahmud (Book Review Editor, American Anthropologist)
Neha Vora, Yoon Choi, Allison Fish, Erin Moran
(current and former Editorial Assistants, American Anthropologist)
2:00–2:30 general discussion
2:30–3:00 coffee break
3:00–4:30 the future of publishing: venues, genres, digital horizons
3:00–3:15: opening comments by Tom Boellstorff
3:15–3:30: opening comments by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Editor, The Journal of Asian Studies
3:30–4:30 general discussion
4:30–5:30 closing reception
GRADUATE STUDENTS-GET PUBLISHED IN AA!
In conjunction with this workshop, there is an opportunity for graduate students to be published in American Anthropologist! Graduate students from any discipline and department are eligible and do not need to be from UC Irvine. To be considered, you need to attend the workshop (and ideally, most if not all of the workshop). Then, write a short (500 words maximum) piece under the theme “Reflections on American Anthropology.” This could be a commentary on one of the workshop panels, or some issue or debate that showed up across multiple panels. The goal should not be a summary of the workshop as a whole, but some original reflection on anthropology, publishing, and knowledge production that is clearly linked to the workshop in some fashion. When you have written your piece, submit it to American Anthropologist on the journal’s website (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aman) by February 15, 2012. When asked to categorize your piece by the online system, choose “commentary” (not “research article”). At the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief, a select number of these pieces will be published in American Anthropologist as a collective piece with the working title “Reflections on American Anthropology.” This should be an enjoyable way to interact with the workshop and also develop your own thinking about issues raised at the workshop.
For more information, contact aaeditor@uci.edu