November 2010 • Anthropology NewsA S S O C I A T I O N B U S I N E S S

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the 2010 Annual Meeting

#AAA2010

New for 2011, the Section

waiver process will be

expanded to include

international scholars.

Contact

Communications about the program theme should

be addressed to Program Chair Monica Heller at

aaaprogramchair@gmail.com. Please refer all other

annual meeting questions to Jason G Watkins or

Carla Fernandez of the AAA & SectionsMeeting

Department at aaameetings@aaanet.org or

703/528-1902.

A S S O C I A T I O N B U S I N E S S

Rachel Breunlin U New Orleans

Helen A Regis Louisiana State U

Matt Sakakeeny Tulane U

In September 2009, three anthropologists from New Orleans proposed to AAA a series of events for the 2010 Annual Meeting that we called “Engaging New Orleans.” In this column, we tell the story of that initiative in the hopes that others may borrow from it—no doubt revising and improving on it—and carry it forward at future meetings.

In a letter to meeting program chair Monica Heller, we made the case for opening up the AAA meetings at the conference hotel to participants who would not otherwise be there, through the creation of mixed panels of both anthropologists and non-anthropologists whose work in the city bridges research, activism and public engagement. In our view, the exclusivity of the conference site is no longer commensurate with the discourse of inclu-sion now commonplace within AAA membership. As we put it in the initial proposal:

In a letter to the AAA justifying New Orleans as the chosen conference site, the sitting president wrote that by “leverag[ing] the economic power of the AAA” the conference offered a “singular opportunity to show more than symbolic support for the under-

served population of New Orleans.” Expanding this economic commitment into the domains of profes-sional interaction, dialogue, and research would help strengthen AAA’s commitment to inclusion, collab-oration, and engagement.

At the 2009 Annual Meeting, we met with Monica, Virginia Dominguez, and other members of the Executive Program Committee to discuss the possi-bilities for a collaborative initiative. Understanding that fee waivers are the necessary material condi-tion that makes a broader conversation possible, they agreed to grant 12 waivers to non-anthropolo-gist, community participants for three inter-linked roundtables that would bring different voices, visions and positionalities to the conference. We are also grateful to SUNTA (especially Don Nonini and the SUNTA program committee) for cosponsoring our roundtables.

The Engaging New Orleans roundtables are scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons. In the first roundtable, “Public Health, Housing and Education in New Orleans: Confronting Reconstruction through the Academy and the Grassroots,” anthropologists and activists evaluate the radical transformation of three public institutions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. On Thursday, a musician, curator, writer, social club president and anthropologist discuss the tension between local black culture as a form of activism and as a resource for diverse communities and insti-tutions in a roundtable entitled “Culture, Activism, and Infrastructure in Contemporary New Orleans.”

The final roundtable, “Public/Art, Reworking the City,” brings together artists, curators and anthropol-ogists to reflect on how they view the social struc-ture of public art in New Orleans and elsewhere, and how they have strategized in the face of struc-tural violence, social divides and institutional inertia about where to go from here.

Topically, these sessions take an expansive view of activist strategies in a city that has become an ambitious laboratory for neoliberal America. Institutionally, they are intended to further dismantle the artificial barriers that typically segregate the subjects and objects of anthropological research in our meetings.

Our modest proposal includes a larger program to bring AAA members offsite through a series of gatherings, tours and forums that build on and invite publicly engaged research and partnerships. There is more to be done and we look forward to seeing what emerges at future meetings.

Because of all that has happened in New Orleans since 2005, the city makes a particularly compel-ling case for expanding the conference program and the range of activities both inside and outside the confines of the hotel. But every city has something to teach us. And in every city, there are networks like these where anthropology and scholar-activist circles can be linked to expand the conversa-tion during our meetings. We know many AAA members are passionate about making those links. This was demonstrated during the events sched-uled around 2009’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, the energy members put into creating proposals for 2010 that created more democratic forums and the enthusiastic response to the call for “Inno-vents.” We suggest that expanding the availability of fee waivers and creating a more transparent structure for accessing those waivers is the first step to disman-tling the quasi-gated community of the AAA confer-ence hotel. This step can be a meaningful way forward if we want to work toward crafting a more publicly engaged and visible anthropology.

We invite you to participate in a community second line parade sponsored by the Nine Times Social Aid and Pleasure Club in the Ninth Ward neighborhood on Sunday afternoon (12:00 pm–4:00 pm). Check www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org for more details.

Engaging New OrleansFostering Publics within and beyond the Meeting Hotels

CIRCULATION | 109th AAA Annual Meeting | November 17–21, 2010 | New Orleans, LA

Online Meeting Resources

for Registered Attendees

n Searchable online program

n See up-to-date session and event locations

n Create a personalized itinerary

n Browse the full program by day

n View full abstracts

n Find hotel and travel information

n Learn about the new Inno-vents

www.aaanet.org/meetings