ByMartha Radice and Pamela Downe

We are pleased to announce that we are making great progress in organizing the joint CASCA-AAA conference that will take place from November 20 to 24, 2019. The lands on which we will gather are the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

As co-chairs of CASCA’s program committee, we have worked with the co-chair of the AAA program committee Nicole D. Peterson (University of North Carolina – Charlotte) to develop a theme that we consider most stimulating: Changing Climates: Struggle, Collaboration, and Justice. You can read the call for papers on this theme below.

This theme is the result of collaboration by an executive program committee composed of members from both associations, CASCA and the AAA. We are inspired not only by the promise of stimulating discussions and debates on this theme, but also by the spirit of cooperation and collegiality that represents a monumental first for our associations. Although we share many disciplinary similarities, the historical trajectories of anthropological research and engagement in Canada and the United States are also distinct in many respects. We are delighted to lay the groundwork for future collaborations.

We are carefully considering how to ensure the conference’s bilingualism and to recognize Indigenous languages – especially given that UNESCO has proclaimed 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages.

We invite all CASCA members to consider sessions and presentations to propose for the conference, as well as to invite members of the AAA and research collaborators to participate. In particular, we invite you to propose Executive Sessions, full sessions closely related to the theme which will be evaluated by the conference Program Executive Committee. The CASCA members who sit on this committee are Natacha Gagné (U Laval), Charles Menzies (UBC) and Virginia Caputo (Carleton U), in addition to us, the two co-chairs.

Six enthusiastic and generous CASCA members who reside in Vancouver or the region have volunteered to form a Local Organizing Committee that will coordinate events taking place around the conference or addressing local issues. They are

David Geary, UBC Okanagan, Nicola Mooney, University of the Fraser Valley, Julia Murphy, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Susan Rowley, UBC (Museum of Anthropology and Department of Anthropology), Pamela Stern, Simon Fraser University and Jaime Yard, Douglas College. Please write to them if you can offer or recommend local activities or discussion topics for the conference.

On a practical level:

• CASCA members will be able to pay the conference registration fees through our usual system and by using their CASCA membership. This means that CASCA members will not be required to become members of the AAA to participate in the conference.
• After paying conference registration and CASCA membership fees, CASCA members will submit abstracts, sessions, events, etc. for review via the AAA portal.
• CASCA will be one of the "sections" to which participants can submit their abstracts and sessions for review, but CASCA members may also submit their sessions or abstracts to other sections.
• Any session or presentation proposal for any section may be submitted and evaluated in French. The AAA and CASCA are committed to providing resources to sections in order to be able to evaluate proposals in French.

Watch our website for more details as we finalize the conference details and deadlines. Send questions or comments to membership@anthropologica.ca.

Conference theme

Changing Climates: Struggle, Collaboration, and Justice / Changing Climates: Struggle, Collaboration, and Justice

"Changing Climates": For the first time in 2019, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) are collaborating to hold a joint conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The program steering committee invites anthropologists and their collaborators to examine how we work with communities grappling with issues related to changing eras, notably in connection with climate change, in order to design and build a more equitable future. In this sense, the main part of the theme, "changing climates," refers to changes affecting the contexts in which we work – whether environmental, social, or political – as well as those affecting research and teaching environments, and also spaces of inclusion and equity. This component of the theme also refers to the holistic approach in anthropology, which makes it possible to highlight shifting relationships among the various elements of these contexts, as well as the conflicts and possibilities that underlie them.

The "Struggle, Collaboration, and Justice" component reflects the milieu, dynamics, and outcomes we aim for through our work. We invite reflection on "struggle," aware of the complex nature of change that often underlies challenges, conflicts, misunderstandings, as well as various forms of resistance and resilience. Struggle can also be idealized even as it helps reaffirm existing power relations. These are facets of our work to consider in order to identify the sources, but also the productive outcomes of tensions.

"Collaboration" emphasizes the ways in which anthropologists engage with diverse communities, both locally and internationally, to develop research questions, design approaches, and make recommendations. Local experiences and perspectives at the heart of anthropological practice provide us with a set of theoretical and methodological tools useful for building relationships with communities, which can lead to genuine co-production of new knowledge. You are invited to invite your collaborators to participate, at the conference, in discussion about how these relationships develop and evolve. Collaborators can be the people from whom you learn, those with whom you conduct research, or those who learn from you. Participants who do not have collaborators can take the opportunity to consider establishing relationships based on reciprocity, trust, and fruitful collaboration.

Finally, we invite you to think about "justice" in order to highlight how these collaborations can contribute to reconciliation, self-determination, decolonization, redistribution, and other means of redressing power inequalities. Through its commitment to long-term research as well as to integrative theory and methods, anthropology offers a unique perspective on how prehistoric, historical, and current events contribute to enduring subjugations and inequalities, and on how to conceive collaborative projects likely to generate fairer possibilities that can make a difference.

As we will gather in Vancouver, on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, we want this event to provide opportunities to underscore the links between anthropology and Indigenous communities. These ties are formed and strengthened both through active collaboration and through struggles to confront the implications of the anthropological discipline in coloniality, an ongoing reality.

Important information

CONFERENCE DATES

From Wednesday, November 20 to Sunday, November 24, 2019

Be sure to read the participation rules carefully before submitting your proposals.

TYPES OF SESSIONS AND EVENTS

For more detailed information on the different submission types, visit this site (in English).

Executive Sessions

• Oral presentation sessions
• Roundtables
• Flash presentations

Deadline: 3:00 PM EST (20:00 GMT) on February 6

General call for papers

• Oral presentation sessions
• Roundtables
• Individual presentations
• Collective gallery sessions
• Individual galleries
• Installations
• Workshops
• Mentoring sessions

Deadline: 3:00 PM EST (20:00 GMT) on April 10

Special events

• Board or committee meetings
• Business meetings
• Organizational or working meetings
• Receptions

Deadline: 3:00 PM EST (20:00 GMT) on May 15

Last-minute sessions

• Oral presentation sessions
• Roundtables
• Individual galleries

Deadline: 3:00 PM EST on September 11

REGISTRATION DEADLINE

Because of the collaboration between the two associations this year, people wishing to submit a proposal to an executive session or to the general call for papers must absolutely register for the conference before 3:00 PM EST (20:00 GMT) on April 5.