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Society for Linguistic Anthropology Anthropology News • January 2007 SECTION NEWS reached a decision on the future of the SOLGAN. In its place, we are planning several projects ship, Anthrosource has reduced incentives for One underlying current that seemed to thread in 2006–07 that will improve communication members to pay for multiple memberships.” its way through many section meetings and dis- and outreach to SOLGA members. We are look- The most obvious way to prevent this from cussions was change: the way we communicate, ing for volunteers—that means YOU—to help becoming a problem for SLA—as it already has how we access content and how we provide with these activities. Will you help plan “men- for some other AAA affiliates—is to provide content. The SOLGAN is no exception, and after toring activities” for undergraduate and gradu- member-only benefits beyond the journal. a careful deliberation, we have realized that it is ate students during the annual meetings or cre- Many recommendations centered on creat- time to make a change. Please see the detailed ate a “syllabus project”? We will enhance the ing members-only web-based content to assist report below from Bill Leap. information and services provided through the teaching and research, including a corpus of SOLGA website (perhaps redesigning to include syllabi, samples of successfully funded grants, Benedict and Payne Prize Winners blog or wiki functions, or a list of members and a file of dissertation abstracts, online discussion SOLGA proudly announced this year’s prize win- their research interests). Everyone is encour- forums on various topics and consolidated lists ners at the business meeting. The Benedict Prize aged to submit material for the column in AN. of job and funding opportunities. goes to Tanya Erzen at Ohio State University We also welcome commentary on the SOLGA There was widespread enthusiasm among for “Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian listserv. SOLGA will work too with AAA staff members for a video and audio archive that Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement.” The in 2006–07 to determine ways in which our faculty could use in their teaching. But many Payne prize saw both a winning essay and an hon- section can retain a presence in AnthroSource, acknowledged that IRB restrictions would dra- orable mention, pointing to both the quality of given the retirement of the SOLGAN. matically reduce the number of items they the scholarship as well as the increased amount In the light of all these plans, participants at could share with colleagues. of LGBTQ work. This year’s winner is Lucinda the 2006 SOLGA business meeting have recom- As the list of ideas mounted, some members Ramberg of Cornell University for “Medicalizing mended a change in the bylaws: that the cur- became concerned at the idea of an exclusion- the Sacred Body: Subaltern Religiosity and rent board position SOLGAN editor (rendered ary members-only approach. “This kind of shar- Postcolonial Reform in South India.” Honorable obsolete with the retirement of the newsletter) ing of our expertise is what we should be doing mention goes to Natasha Sandraya Wilson be replaced with a new board position, commu- as openly as possible,” said Jack DuBois. for “A Queer Situation: Poverty, Prisons and nications editor. With help from our members, Kuipers said he’d be willing to try an open- Performances of Infidelity and Instability in the the communications editor’s duties will be to content approach to see if it worked, but he New Orleans Lesbian Anthem.” Our congratula- oversee SOLGA’s communication and outreach reminded the group that the goal was to retain tions go to these authors for their effort. projects. An email ballot to vote on the pro- and recruit members. posed change in the bylaws will be coming to He also cautioned that the success of such Membership SOLGA members shortly. ventures would depend entirely on the work of SOLGA currently has about 237 members: we For more information about these projects, volunteers to create and maintain them. The can increase this number. One of the member or to join in the work of one of them, please SLA agreed to create a new webmaster position “bennies” is a sense of community, something contact Bill Leap at [email protected], who on the executive board to oversee these efforts. strongly reinforced in conversations with others continues to serve in the SOLGAN editor posi- There was general agreement that the SLA at the business meeting. The AAA meeting and tion until the change in bylaws is decided. should offer another membership benefit: round- SOLGA’s part in it provide an important venue tables on such topics as grant writing, research for us to come together, but many emerging Join us. SOLGA wants you! Visit www.solga. technologies, teaching linguistic anthropology. scholars are not fully aware of this opportunity, org—news, mentors, listserv and more. Please send The success of the SLA budget is largely due despite their awareness of the possibilities of any comments, suggestions, ideas for new columns to the fact that income from membership dues LGBTQ scholarship. This can change; you can or just say “hi” to David Houston at dlrh+an@ is supplemented by royalties from the multiple- help. Find ways to connect with emerging uvm.edu. authored Key Terms in Language and Culture LGBTQ scholars. Tell them about SOLGA and (2001), edited by Alessandro Duranti. encourage them to join. They may know about The SLA’s primary expense is its journal, edit- the AAA, but think of your first annual meeting. Society for Linguistic ed by Asif Agha, which is suffering the effects of Did you know? Were you out? its virtues. As the sixth most frequently accessed Anthropology journal on Anthrosource, with a turnaround Looking Ahead time of 2.5 months, the journal has seen sub- The theme for next year’s AAA meeting is MARK ALLEN PETERSON AND JAMES STANLAW, missions rise by 73 percent. This greater volume, “Difference, (In)equality & Justice,” providing CONTRIBUTING EDITORS combined with an acceptance rate of 32 percent, many choice opportunities for SOLGA members. has unfortunately created a queue so that papers Consider building a panel or presenting a paper. see print a full year after acceptance. Look for calls for participation over the next few SLA Thriving—and Aims to Continue No SLA student prize was given this year because months. It is easy to lose track of time—don’t get The value of being an SLA member—and ways there were too few submissions and the quality of caught with your pants down on this one. to increase that value—dominated discussions the submissions was uneven. “It’s hard to evaluate at the board meeting Friday, Nov 20, 2006. papers when they range from five-page papers to SOLGAN Retirement Initiates Changes By objective measures, the SLA is doing well. term papers to theses,” Kuipers said. Membership has remained relatively steady, the But members rejected his suggestion that the By William Leap (American U) budget shows a modest surplus and the journal prize be changed into an award for best disserta- For years, the SOLGAN (SOLGA’s newsletter) has remains strong. Even this column remains the tions in linguistic anthropology. Instead, the board been a primary source for news, information most visited of section news features in the AN’s was urged to more tightly define the parameters of exchange, and dish related to LGBTQ anthro- online edition. the prize and work to better publicize it. pologists and to LGBTQ-related anthropology. But with an eye toward the future, the execu- The Sapir Prize for the monograph making With the listserv, email and web technologies, tive board called for suggestions on keeping the most significant contribution to linguistic printed newsletters are now obsolete. Following membership levels robust. anthropology went to Richard Bauman and a careful deliberation, it is the recommenda- “The problem is Anthrosource,” SLA president Charles Briggs for their book Voices of Modernity: tion of those attending the roundtable during Joel Kuipers said, referring to the new AAA web Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality this year’s AAA meetings in San José that the resource. “By making all journals available to (2003). “It began over a beer,” said Bauman, SOLGAN cease publication. every member for the price of a single member- “We came up with the idea of thinking about 62 SECTION NEWS January 2007 • Anthropology News the intellectual history of what we all do. Lock (McGill U) for Twice Dead: Organ Transplants (1999). The Most Notable Recent Fourteen years later, here we are.” and the Reinvention of Death (2001). Collection Award went to Carrie Kuipers said the experience of reading and The Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, for excel- Douglass, editor for Barren States: The evaluating the 22 books submitted for the prize lence in research on gender and health, was Population Implosion in Europe (2005). was tremendous. awarded to Michelle Rivkin-Fish (UNC Chapel This year, two winners will share the “We were really impressed by what our field Hill) for Women’s Health in Post-Soviet Russia: The Graduate Student Paper Award. They are Heide has become,” he said. “There is such energy and Politics of Intervention (2005). Castaneda (U Arizona) for “Pregnancy, Race vitality in our field it was humbling.” The Steven Polgar Prize for the best paper pub- and Citizenship: Undocumented Migrant lished in the SMA’s journal Medical Anthropology Women in Berlin, Germany” and Elise Andaya Please send your comments, contributions, news Quarterly during the most recent complete vol- (NYU) for “Reproducing the Revolution: Local and announcements to SLA contributing editors ume year has been awarded to Vincanne Adams Practices and Global Politics in Prenatal Care in Mark Allen Peterson ([email protected]) or Jim (UCSF) and co-authors Suellen Miller, Sienna Havana, Cuba”.
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