Society for the Anthropology of Europe Annual Report, 2001-2002

Society for the Anthropology of Europe
Annual Report, 2001-2002
Submitted by
Susan Parman, Outgoing President

The SAE remains an active and financially viable organization. As its activities and financial commitments have increased, its balance has declined, from $14,829 on 1/1/01 to $11,090 on 1/1/02. Although this decline is intentional (commitments were made to projects such as the annual funding of the CES/SAE Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, Student Paper Prizes, and the Journal for the Society for the Anthropology of Europe), the society decided to raise dues last year by $5 (the student rate will remain the same) to slow the decline and plan for future projects. Revenues as of August 30, 2002 were $9,351, and Expenses were $8,210, resulting in a fund balance of $12,230 at the end of August 30, 2002.

Paid membership in the SAE fluctuated between 511 and 539 between October 1 2001 and September 1 2002. The expectation that we would see a rise with publication of the Journal for the Society of the Anthropology of Europe (which replaced the SAE Bulletin as of March 2001) has not yet been justified, but as the journal expands its scope and reputation, we expect more interest and participation. Plans to increase membership include efforts to form closer ties with EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists). The SAE web site moderated by Tony Galt plays a major role in advertising and promoting SAE activities, but perhaps more can be done in coming years to send regular bulletin-like newsletters to members through the AAA email service (which supports mass mailing to section membership for up to two times a year).

Several new officers were elected or assumed office in 2002 and include:
President-Elect (2002-04, President 04-06): Robert Hayden
Secretary-Elect (2002-03, Secretary 2003-04): Kate Donahue
Treasurer (2002-04): Barbara West
Program Chair Elect (2002-03, Program Chair 2003-04): Eva Huseby-Darvas [Note: the Program Chair for this year, Daphne Berdahl, had to resign; Eva Huseby-Darvas has volunteered to step into this role, and a new Program-Chair Elect will be elected immediately]
Publications/Projects Chair (2002-04): Elizabeth Dunn
Membership and Public Relations (2002-04): Jeff Cole
Member at Large (2002-04): Steven Sampson
Student Representative (2002-03): Brian A. Schwegler

The second-year Member-at-Large, who serves as the Nominations Chair, has started the process of identifying individuals who can be placed on the slate for the election of new officers during 2003: Secretary-Elect, Program Chair-Elect, and Student Representative.

The SAE attempts to address the needs of the diversity of its members, from distinguished lectures to workshops relevant to graduate students. In 2002 the SAE sponsored the William A. Douglass Distinguished Lecture by Johannes Fabian titled "History, Memory and Remembering," and provided venues for meetings of 5 sub-groups with European foci: the French and Francophone Cultures Network, the Anthropology of German Studies Network, The Hungarianist Research Group, and the East European Anthropology Group, as well as a new subgroup, The Anthropology of Europe Network for Eurasian Crossroads. Two invited sessions were held, co-sponsored with the Society for Humanistic Anthropology, "Translation and/as Ethnographic Practice," and "Bringing the Past into the Present: Family Narratives of Holocaust and Exile." The topic of the invited panel, "Translation and/as Ethnographic Practice," indicates the degree to which SAE is on the cutting edge of anthropological issues, as Problems of Translation is next year's AAA meeting theme.

AAA received 3362 paper proposals and 441 session proposals and rejected 120 sessions and 694 papers due to time constraints. SAE did much better than the norm. Of the 10 session abstracts, 19 paper abstracts, and 1 poster abstract that were placed into 3 volunteered sessions, two of the volunteered sessions and one of the organized sessions was rejected. The sessions included:

* Beyond the "Woman Question": Articulations of Gender in a Post-Socialist Era"
* Boundaries and Integration in Europe: Internal/External Perspectives
* Debating Europe: Questioning Culture, Place and History in the New Century
* Gender and Ethnicity in the Western Balkans
* Identity Issues in the European Union
* Ireland in the Anthropological Imagination
* Living Tradition, Analyzing Continuity, Emplacing the Past
The SAE sponsored an invited poster session, "Intersections off the Map in Europe" and co-sponsored a special event with the Council for the Anthropology of Jews and Judaism on David Kertzer's book (The Pope Against the Jews: A Conversation and Reception).

The SAE also sponsored five luncheon roundtables:
1. Elizabeth Dunn, "Corruption and Informality: East and West"
2. Don Kulick, "Prostitution in Europe"
3. John Bowen, "Islam and Integration in Europe"
4. Carol Silverman, "Alternative European Modernities"
5. Emily McEwan-Fujita, "Graduate Student Reflections on Fieldwork in Europe"

The SAE sponsors two annual competitions: 1) In collaboration with the Council of European Studies, the SAE awards one Pre-Dissertation Fellowship to an anthropologist preparing to do research in Europe; and 2) Student Paper prizes. This year the CES/SAE Pre-Dissertation Fellowship was awarded to Karie L. Morgan for her project called "Public Apologies and Collective Memory: Namibian Hereros' Requests of Germany." No student prizes were awarded this year.

The William A. Douglass Endowment supported the second year of the annual SAE Distinguished Lecture as well as funds for the first William A. Douglass Book Prize of $500 for a book in English on the anthropology of Europe. The Distinguished Lecturer for 2002 was Johannes Fabian, speaking on "History, Memory and Remembering," and the book prize was awarded to Marilyn Silverman for her book An Irish Working Class: Explorations in Political Economy and Hegemony, 1800-1950.

The Journal for the Society of the Anthropology of Europe, edited by Kelli Ann Costa, is in its second year, and represents a significant shift in direction for SAE from the previous Bulletin. It increased its number of subscribers from 6 in October 2001 to 7 in September 2002. Two issues were published in 2002: the spring issue came out in April/May with three articles and several book reviews (published by a new printer who printed the cover in "EU Blue"); the second issue, an ambitious Translations issue guest-edited by Sharon Roseman, came out in December with five translated articles as well as five book reviews. Costs for producing and shipping each issue are around $2,000. The issue for Spring 2003 is full, and submissions are being solicited for Fall 2003. The journal is now listed in the Buyer's Guide to Scientific, Medical, and Scholarly Journals, the British Museum, and Anthropological Literature at Harvard's Tozzer Library, and discussions are being held to include the journal in EbscoHost.

Following up on the plans to produce a special volume of translated papers in the Journal for the Society of the Anthropology of Europe, Sharon Roseman served as guest editor for the inaugural issue, published in December. Sharon Roseman also initiated discussions with Marion Berghahn of Berghahn Books to develop a new book series of translated works.

The SAE electronic list and website is still among the best in the AAA and under the highly competent direction of Anthony Galt (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay), both have flourished and continue to grow. With the bulletin no longer being published, the list has become the main means for communicating timely issues to the membership. More than 785 subscribers currently use the H-SAE list. H-SAE provides information about the history of the SAE, its bylaws, publications, student competitions; list of Distinguished Lecturers, roundtables, and program chairs; information about the SAE's East European Book Drive; slide project sampler; links with other scholarly networks and organizations; and information about how to join SAE.

Both the Executive Board and the Business Meeting discussed fund-raising ideas, with the hopes that some day a second CES/SAE Pre-Dissertation Fellowship could be awarded, more financial support could be provided for the journal (for example, to hire a professional designer, or to hire AAA to do in-house editing, printing, and distribution), and other projects.

Officers, 2001-2002:
Susan Parman, President (sparman@fullerton.edu)
David Kideckel, President-elect (kideckel@ccsu.edu)
Deb Cahalen, Secretary (dcahalen@binghamton.edu)
Lynn Maners, Secretary-elect ((lmaners@dakotacom.net)
Roland Moore, Treasurer (rolandmo@pacbell.net)
Joan Gross, Program Committee Chair (jgross@orst.edu)
Daphne Berdahl, Program Committee Chair-elect (berda004@TC.UMN.edu)
Sharon Roseman, Publications and Project Committee Chair (Sroseman@Morgan.ucs.mun.ca)
Jeff Cole, Membership and Public Relations Committee Chair (colej@dowling.edu)
Pamela Ballinger and Janine Wedel, Committee Members at Large (pballing@bowdoin.edu and jwedel@gwo.edu)
Emily McEwan-Fujita, Student Representative (e-mcewan@uchicago.edu)
Kelli Ann Costa, SAE Journal editor (costaka@earthlink.net)
Tony Galt, H-SAE Editor (galta@uwgb.edu)

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