2003 SAR Annual Report

Society for the Anthropology of Religion Annual Report 2003

Membership
As of the November, 2003 report from AAA, SAR has 361 regular and 198 student members, for a total of 550. As numbers fluctuate throughout the year, this represents a levelling off of the membership since December 2002, when our total was 574.

Elections
In the spring elections, Kathryn Geurts was elected treasurer; Susan Sered and Joel Robbins were re-elected, and Rosalind Shaw was elected to the Executive Committee, all for two year terms. Simon Coleman has been appointed by the Executive Committee to fill a vacancy on the board until the next elections in 2004.

AAA Annual Meetings
At the AAA Meetings in Chicago, the section's invited and reviewed sessions were:

(1) "Global Ideologies, Local Transformations: Religion(s) as Catalysts and Vehicles of Change." (Invited)
(2) "Contesting Islam: Tradition, Authenticity and Identity in the West." (Invited, with Central States Anthropological Society)
(3) "Secularism and Modernity" (Invited, with AES)
(4) "Negotiating Religious Tradition."
(5) "Why Body? Embodiment, Discipline, and Symbolism in Gender and Religion in Asia."
(6) "Spiritual Transformation and Healing Process: (Near) Universal Aspects?"
(7) Poster Session: "Religion and Ritual in Contexts of Change."
(8) "Ritual and Spirit Possession in Post Renovation Vietnam."
(9) "Representing Religion: Discourses of Transnational Religious Faith and Practice in Africa, Asia, and the Americas."
(10) "Performing Difference: Possession, Identity and Otherness."
(11) "Religion and Visions of Progress."
(12) "Local Religious Identity: Interpretation, Conflict, Cohabitation."
(13) "Contemporary Conversion and Context."

The Executive Committee was pleased that last year's problems with paper acceptances at the AAA meetings seem to have been resolved.

Book Series
The SAR sponsored book series in the anthropology of religion, published by Palgrave Macmillan, entitled "Contemporary Anthropology of Religion," edited by Robert Hefner, published its third volume in 2003, by Andrew Buckser. In the spring 2003 elections the bylaw amendment making the book series editor a permanent ex-officio non-voting member of the SAR Executive Committee was passed.

Spring Meetings
The society convened a 2003 spring meeting in Providence RI, on April 24-26 jointly with the annual meeting of the American Ethnological Society. SAR's Roy A. Rappaport Distinguished Lecture in the Anthropology of Religion was delivered by John D. Y. Peel (SOAS, London), with commentary by Miriam Rabelo (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil). Plenary sessions included "The 'New Fundamentalisms': Disenchantment, Re-enchantment, or the Next 'Order o f Things?'," and "Spiritual Truths, Material Consequences: Dilemmas of Religion in Century 21." The presidential address was delivered by Janice Boddy. Members of the organizing committee were: Susan Sered, Joel Robbins, Jill Dubisch, and Janice Boddy (AES liason).

Despite the expense of the Providence meetings coming so soon after the spring 2002 meetings in Providence, SAR has a healthy blance sheet, with net assets at the end of October, 2003 of $14,815.13.

We have now resumed our normal pattern of biennial spring meetings. The next of these is planned for April 2005, with venues currently being investigated.

Future Undertakings
The Executive Committee will consider how to improve the SAR web site and facilities for intra-societal communication in conjunction with the new AnthroSource initiatives of the AAA. We also plan to provide a limited number of grants to graduate students for travel to present a paper at the SAR spring meetings, to be awarded on a competitive basis.

Anthropology of Religion Section Officers 2002-03

Janice Boddy, President boddy@utsc.utoronto.ca
Michael Lambek, President-Elect lambek@utsc.utoronto.ca
Rebecca Lester, Secretary rjlester@artsci.wustl.edu
Andrew Buckser, Treasurer bucksera@sri.soc.purdue.edu

Executive Committee 2002-03

Tanya Luhrmann tluhrman@midway.uchicago.edu
Bruce Knauft knauft@learnlink.emory.edu
Joel Robbins jrobbins@weber.ucsd.edu
Susan Sered ssered@hds.harvard.edu
Marina Roseman mroseman@pacifica.edu
Susan Kenyon kenyon@butler.edu
Adeline Masquelier amasquel@tulane.edu
Vimal Bhatnagar vmb5@po.cwru.edu (student representative)

Editor for AN column
Simon Coleman s.m.coleman@durham.ac.uk

Web site Coordinator
Deborah Shepherd sheph005@tc.umn.edu

AAA 2003-04 Program Editor
Susan Kenyon kenyon@butler.edu

SAR 2003 Spring Meeting Program Committee
Susan Sered ssered@hds.harvard.edu (chair)
Joel Robbins jrobbins@weber.ucsd.edu
Jill Dubisch jill.dubisch@nau.edu
Janice Boddy boddy@utsc.utoronto.ca (AES liaison)

SAR 2005 Spring Meeting Program Committee
Michael Lambek lambek@utsc.utoronto.ca
JaniceBoddy boddy@utsc.utoronto.ca

John Barker barker@interchange.ubc.ca (liason)

Book Series Editor
Robert Hefner rhefner@bu.edu

Nominations Committee, 2004 Elections
Rosalind Shaw rosalind.shaw@tufts.edu
Adeline Masquelier amasquel@tulane.edu
Bruce Knauft knauft@LearnLink.Emory.edu

Janice Boddy,
President 2001-2003
Society for the Anthropology of Religion

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