aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Letter from Katherine Verdery to Anthropologists of the former Sovietbloc: Panels needed for the AAASS meetings (fwd)

[M T Znayenko <znayenko@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

From: Verdery, Katherine M
verdery@rsage.org


Anthropologists of the former Soviet bloc: Panels needed for the AAASS
meetings

Katherine Verdery

       Since 1989, opportunities have greatly increased for fieldwork in the
countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  Indeed, as other
areas of the world have been shutting down, this region is the main "growth
area" for anthropology.  The resulting work has been of excellent quality -
so much so that three past presidents of the American Association for the
Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), considering our research in the
region to be the most interesting of that in any field, have changed the
dates of the  AAASS meetings so they no longer conflict with the AAA
convention.  They also nominated an anthropologist (me) to run for the AAASS
presidency; my election a year ago makes me the first anthropologist to hold
this office.

            In December 2005, the AAASS convention will feature
anthropology, starting with the presidential address.  I am very eager to
have a program full of anthropology panels, covering a wide spectrum of
topics.  My goal is to show people in other fields the benefits an
anthropological perspective can bring to the study of this region: how it
enriches our understanding of the "sacred trinity" of research topics that
have emerged so far (privatization, democratization, marketization) and
broadens people's sense of the potentially interesting phenomena available
for investigation.  It would be wonderful to have sessions ranging from
Central Asia eastward to the new EU member states (Hungary, Poland, etc.),
on topics ranging from the "sacred trinity" to consumption, religion and
ritual, governmentality, personhood, transformations of time and space, EU
accession, the forms neoliberalism is taking in this region, or whatever
else anyone is working on.

The convention will be held in Salt Lake City, an unusually beautiful
setting.  The standard format for AAASS panels is a chair, 3 papers, and 1-2
discussants; the paper-giving slot is 20 minutes.  Ordinarily the program
committee considers only pre-formed panels, not single submissions (we are
working on changing that, but the change might not be in place for 2005).
Panel submissions are due in early January. I would request that anyone
thinking of submitting a panel let me know ahead of time at
verdery@rsage.org (please put "AAASS panel" in the subject line) so I can be
sure something will be happening and perhaps coordinate.

Here is an opportunity to have real substantive exchange with other
anthropologists working in our area, while engaging fellow area specialists
in dialogue as well (something we can't do at Soyuz meetings).  Please grasp
it!