2003 APLA Annual Report

Annual Report of the
Association for Political and Legal Anthropology

Submitted by Jan Hoffman French, APLA Treasurer
January 1, 2004 (For the Period Nov. 25, 2002 to November 23, 2003)

During the reporting period, the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) published two issues of its journal, the Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR). APLA held its annual student paper prize competition, welcomed four new Board members and a new President-elect, sponsored a distinguished speaker, Mahmood Mamdani, sponsored important sessions at the AAA meeting in Chicago, and published columns in the Anthropology Newsletter. APLA's business meeting in November was well attended, with lively participation by the membership. APLA remains in sound financial standing and continues to advance political and legal anthropology both within and beyond the American Anthropological Association. Membership has remained stable with a slight increase from 435 to 437 (of which 130 are students as of August 31, 2003). As of August 31, 2003, APLA's Revenues to Date were $14,000. At the same time last year APLA's Revenues to Date were about $13,500 so there has been a slight increase in incoming funds.

PoLAR
Annelise Riles of Cornell University spent her first year as Editor and increased the circulation of the journal. She was able to attract new subscriptions by law school libraries and continued pursuing the possibility of including PoLAR on Lexis. Two issues of PoLAR were published in May and November 2003. With the coming of AnthroSource, Riles was able to convince University of California Press to put PoLAR on Lexis, thus achieving a goal of APLA for a number of years. Riles is planning symposia issues on "Ethnography in the Realm of the Pragmatic" and "Human Rights." The journal has a new cover and a new look. The section is very pleased that PoLAR will be going on line with AnthroSource in 2005, although it would prefer that the journal be included in the 2004 list of journals.

Elections and Officers
APLA's Nominations Committee, chaired by Michelle Bigenho, ran the election process in the Spring 2003 for two new Board members at large, a secretary, treasurer, and president-elect. Rebecca Torstrick and Rosa DeJorio were elected as members-at-large to the Board. John Bowen was elected President-elect, Liz Faier was elected Secretary, and Jan French was elected Treasurer. These new officers are outstanding scholars and represent the quality and expertise that APLA attracts to its ranks. They join June Nash, President, and Maria Teresa Sierra and Daniel Goldstein who will continue to serve for one more year on the Board. Special thanks are due to Michelle Bigenho and Tom Biolsi as out-going Board members for their hard work and considerable energy to the success of APLA's activities. Outgoing board members, President Barbara Yngvesson and Secretary/Treasurer Jan French were thanked for their hard work. Goldstein, as new chair of the Nominations Committee, will be organizing the nomination of two candidates each for the two members-at-large positions. June Nash has just begun her two-year term as President.

Program
Jeanne Guillemin, APLA Program Coordinator, organized sessions for the 2003 Annual Meeting of the AAA and has graciously agreed to continue as Program Co-Coordinator for the 2004 meeting. She has identified another member to take over as Program Coordinator, Jan Newberry, but she will continue to work on program this coming year to ease the transition.

Student Paper Prize
Harry West ran APLA's annual student paper contest in 2003. Other members of the evaluating committee were Adam Reed, Doug Holmes (both members of PoLAR editorial board) and Conerly Case (a past APLA paper prize winner). Eighteen papers were received (up approximately 50% over the past two years) . The prize was awarded to Christopher Colvin for his paper entitled, "Constructing the Past, Imagining the Future: Pursuing the Political Through Traumatic Storytelling," based on fieldwork in South Africa. The paper will be published in PoLAR. A new student paper prize committee is currently being constituted.

AN Column
Michelle Bigenho and Daniel Goldstein took over as Anthropology Newsletter coordinators in June 2003 from Bill Maurer and kindly have agreed to continue in that role through 2004. The column has provided a key source of information about issues of interest to political and legal anthropology, and under their consistent and diligent coordination, has encouraged junior scholars to place into the public sphere descriptions of work in progress.

APLA Website and Communications
Tom Mason, Communications Liaison improved and maintained the APLA List serve during 2003. The website and list serve are cost-effective and efficient methods of communication that APLA intends to continue using regularly. Thanks to Tom for keeping the website up-to-date and a fine resource for members and those interested in becoming members.

Continuing Activities into 2004
During 2004, APLA will continue to publish PoLAR, conduct its student paper prize competition, organize sessions for the AAA, publish columns in the Anthropology Newsletter, and maintain its website and list serve. Members will elect two new Board members. There was much discussion at the Business Meeting about building the identity of APLA through graduate student workshops, informal events at the meetings, pre-meeting conferences, and thinking about how the "political" is defined in the context of the "legal." Through these and other activities, APLA remains a strong, healthy, and lively section of the AAA.

Names and Email Address of Officers During the Reporting Period

Barbara Yngvesson, President byngvesson@hampshire.edu
June Nash, President-Elect junenash@earthlink.net
Jan French, Secretary/Treasurer jan.french@duke.edu
Michelle Bigenho, Board Member mbigenho@hampshire.edu
Tom Biolsi, Board Member biolsit@pdx.edu
Maria Teresa Sierra, Board Member tsierra@juarez.ciesas.edu.mx
Daniel Goldstein, Board Member dgoldstein@holycross.edu

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