The Society for Cultural Anthropology

The Society for Cultural Anthropology was created in 1983 in an effort to broaden the conversation between anthropology and the related humanities and social sciences. With the community of cultural anthropologists expanding and pressure mounting on existing publication venues, the founders sought to create space for the border-crossing work of the day to breathe and circulate. SCA now includes nearly 1,500 of AAA’s 10,000 members and boasts the largest contingent of graduate student members after the National Association of Student Anthropologists. But over the years, SCA has remained true to its mission: holding small biannual meetings in untraditional locations, encouraging broad participation by keeping our fees low, and spotlighting our student members. SCA is still AAA’s interdisciplinary program for scholarly dialogue in the cultural wing, promoting work that is theoretically rich, ethnographically grounded, and openly experimental. Today’s SCA continues to take anthropology into new terrain within academia and beyond.

SCA’s flagship remains its pocket-sized journal, Cultural Anthropology, inaugurated by George Marcus in 1986. Under the stewardship of Fred Myers, Dan Segal, Ann Anagnost, Kim and Mike Fortun, and the current editors, Anne Allison and Charles Piot, the journal showcases essays that bring together theory and ethnography in daring ways. The journal offers an expanded website with supplemental materials on each issue. The print version now features a book review section in which anthropologists and other scholars respond to each other’s work. A Public Advisory Board explores ways for the journal to speak to contemporary policy debates. In recent years, Cultural Anthropology has been recognized for having the highest impact factor of any AAA journal. In 2008, the Association of American Publishers extended an Honorable Mention for a PROSE Award to Cultural Anthropology in the category of Best Journal Design.

SCA’s large contingent of graduate student members plays an important role in moving the section into the future. Cultural Anthropology student interns have worked alongside leaders in the field in developing content for the website and virtual editions on emerging topics. To recognize work that members consider emblematic of where the discipline should be headed, a jury of doctoral students selects the winner of the Cultural Horizons Prize, which goes to the best essay appearing in Cultural Anthropology in the previous year. Jessica Cattelino (UCLA) won this year’s prize for “The Double Bind of American Indian Need-Based Sovereignty.”

Interlocutors from outside of anthropology serve on the jury of the Bateson Book Prize, which rewards disciplinarily expansive work. One of anthropology’s most distinguished experimental thinkers, Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) and his diverse body of work have long been emblematic of what SCA was founded to promote: rich ethnographic analysis that engages the most current thinking across the arts and sciences. Last year's winner was Karen Strassler (CUNY), for Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity In Java, published by Duke University Press.

SCA comes to life in person at its biannual Spring Meetings, which feature workshops, films, and plenary speakers around a theme, along with a larger number of volunteered panels. SCA extends travel stipends to students and independent scholars to create a broad mix of participants. The conferences are intentionally small, housed in older, comfortable hotels, and unfold over two days at a relaxed pace. Our next meeting, organized by Jennifer Cole (U Chicago), Peter Redfield (UNC), and Danilyn Rutherford (UCSC) will be held May 11-12, 2012 at the historic Providence Biltmore in Providence, Rhode Island. The theme is Life and Death: A Conversation.

At the AAA proper, SCA’s signature event is Culture at Large. In this author-meets-critics forum, we have hosted interlocutors from outside the discipline ranging from Michael Warner to Isabelle Stengers to Susan Buck-Morss to Michael Hardt. This year in Montreal, our guest was science writer, Dorion Sanger, speaking on the human in more than the human. In Montreal, SCA again held student/faculty roundtables on set themes.

SCA departs from most other sections in the handling of its AAA paper and panel submissions by not accepting proposals for invited sessions in advance of the general AAA deadline. This gives us a chance to welcome the best of what comes in, where theory, ethnography, and experiment come together in the most productive ways.

You can find out more about SCA events any time by joining the SCA Listserv for free. This server is moderated to keep email flow at a minimum, and includes updates on the contents of Cultural Anthropology, as well as news of SCA spring conferences and public events at the AAA. SCA encourages all its members to take advantage of the AAA's Bulletin Board for circulating calls for papers and for making panel proposals.

SCA has an excellent board, including Anne Allison, Jessica Cattelino, Jennifer Cole, Grant Otzuki, John Hartigan, Cori Hayden, Brian Larkin, Charlie Piot, Peter Redfield, Deborah Thomas, and Kath Weston. If you run into us, please say hello, and let us know about your work. The goal is for all who belong to SCA to see themselves as members as well as subscribers.

--Brad Weiss, SCA President
December 2011