Association for Political and Legal Anthropology

Submitted by John Bowen, APLA President, January 31, 2005 (For the Period Nov. 25, 2003 to November 23, 2004).

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, and published columns in the Anthropology Newsletter. Our sponsored panels for the AAA meetings were canceled due to the move of the meetings. APLA remains in sound financial standing and continues to advance political and legal anthropology both within and beyond the American Anthropological Association. However, the financial condition requires monitoring, as our revenues decreased and costs increased as a result of the separation of the PoLar budget, the one-time cost of backwards-conversion for PoLar, and the new charges for PoLar Marketing, Administration, and Production Coordination that had formerly been met as in-kind contributions by Cornell University. Membership has increased from 450 to 482, largely due to an increase in student memberships. As of September 30, 2004, APLA's Revenues to Date were $11,652, down $2,348 from the previous year, and Net Assets were at $25,500, but FY 2005 is projected to bring a deficit of $7,700. Unless the revenues from AnthroSource turn sharply up, PoLar would be projected to go out of business within two years.

PoLAR Annelise Riles of Cornell University served as Editor for her second year, and increased subscriptions by 11% over the preceding year, entirely by adding institutional subscriptions. Two issues of PoLAR were published in May and November 2003, with special issues on human rights in Latin America, human rights administration, and environmental issues scheduled for 2005 and 2006. PoLar is indexed by a number of important services; we urge UCal Press to push negotiations with the Lexis-Nexis data base for AnthroSource inclusion. Submissions increased by 11 but remain low. In any case, with move to AnthroSource our challenge becomes attracting members to APLA, and encouraging use of the PoLar portion of AnthroSource. We plan to focus on those two issues over the coming year, and place a high priority on increasing graduate student memberships. We remain concerned about (1) the equity of levying the retroconversion charge against PoLar and other second-wave and later journals that was not born by the first-wave journals, and (2) the uncertainty of future AnthroSource revenues, and we encourage the AA to address both issues soon.

Elections and Officers June Nash began the year as President but resigned in the Fall, and was succeeded by President-elect John Bowen. Board members Daniel Goldstein and Maria Teresa Sierra, elected in 2002, served through November. Rebecca Torstrick and Rosa DeJorio continue through 2005 on the Board. Daniel also ran the Nominations Committee and Rebecca the Student Prize Committee. Liz Faier continues to serve as Secretary through 2005 and Jan Hoffman French as Treasurer. Jan Newberry coordinated the APLA contributions to the AAA meetings and has agreed to continue to do so for 2005. Michelle Bigenho and Daniel Goldstein served as editors of the APLA column in the AN and will continue to do so. Jason Cross and Amy Levine have been coordinating graduate student activities, and planned a superb mentoring session for the 2004 AAA meetings, which they will revive for 2005; Amy also serves as Communications Liaison.

Student Paper Prize Gregory Beckett won APLA's annual student paper contest in 2004, and will be invited to the 2005 AAA meetings. The paper will be published in PoLAR.

AN Column Michelle Bigenho and Daniel Goldstein continue to serve as editors of the Anthropology Newsletter column.

APLA Website and Communications Amy Levine has been working with Annelise Riles to improve the APLA List serve and to create APLA members services through AnthroSource and PoLar. Our challenge will be to add important services, particularly for graduate students, which will allow us to grow APLA, while attracting a larger readership and "downloadership" to PoLar, which will allow us to receive a goodly portion of the revenue allocation. This challenge will occupy us through much of 2005. Amy and Jason Cross will be creating a new Graduate Student Leadership Network and grooming their successors as they prepare for their own fieldwork.

Continuing Activities into 2005 Our major challenges for 2005 are developing plans to (1) achieve fiscal stability after the hefty increase in PoLar production charges, (2) grow our membership and readership, especially among graduate students, and (3) create an important APLA members-only web segment. We will rethink the definition of our section, particularly concerning the "political", seek ways to co-meet with other professional organizations, and turn graduate student needs into APLA services.

Names and Email Address of Officers During the Reporting Period
John Bowen, President (Oct-Nov; through 2007), jbowen@wustl.edu
June Nash, President (Nov-Oct), junenash@earthlink.net
Jan Hoffman French, Treasurer, jan.french@duke.edu
Elizabeth Faier, Secretary, efaier@richmond.edu
Maria Teresa Sierra, Board Member, tsierra@juarez.ciesas.edu.mx
Daniel Goldstein, Board Member, dgoldstein@holycross.edu
Rebecca Torstrick, Board Member, rtorstri@iusb.edu
Rosa Dejorio, Board Member, rdejorio@unf.edu