The Treasurer is the financial officer of the association and has ex-officio status on the editorial board of the journal Anthropologica. S/he is responsible for several vital financial tasks for CASCA that are accomplished in conjunction with a professional accountant. Working in close collaboration with the President, the Editor-in-Chief of Anthropologica and other members of the executive, the Treasurer is responsible for disbursing all funds on behalf of the Society. S/he prepares an Annual Report for distribution at the Annual General Meeting, and works within well established guidelines to maintain transparent and accurate accounting procedures on behalf of the Society.

The term of Treasurer is for three years, the first of which will be as Treasurer-Elect. The position of Treasurer-Elect has been established to afford a one-year overlap between the outgoing Treasurer and the incoming Treasurer (the Treasurer-Elect). The Treasurer-Elect will assume all the responsibilities of the Treasurer when the term of the current Treasurer expires, usually at the Annual General Meeting of the Society held during the Annual Conference in May.

Please send all nominations, by March 5th 2010, to:

Evie Plaice, CASCA Secretary

Department of Anthropology

University of New Brunswick

Fredericton NB E3B 5A3

Tel: 506 452-6174

CASCA: A Brief History

In February 1974 at a meeting at Laval Université of a group of 120 anthropologists launched the CESCE, the Canadian Ethnology Society/société canadienne d’ethnologie (CESCE). Its founders included individuals such as Sally Weaver, Marc Adélard Tremblay, Michael Asch, Harvey Feit, Joan Ryan, Richard Preston and Adrian Tanner. They and their colleagues felt there was room for an association of anthropologists separate from the Sociology and Anthropology Association (CSAA), then the dominant professional organization to which many Canadian anthropologists belonged, a group largely dominated by sociologists.

The original constitution defined the organization’s mandate to be: to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among ethnologists. Its aims were to encourage formal and informal dissemination of knowledge through an annual conference and publications; promote relations with other academic and professional associations, aboriginal groups, and governments; and publicize ethnological research and activities to further understanding of ethnological practices.

Key founding members included individuals committed to fostering a tradition of socially and politically relevant anthropological work in Canada. They supported the idea that their professional association must be willing to take a position on issues of political and social importance, particularly those that directly affected the people with whom many of these researchers worked, Canadian Aboriginal people. Additionally, they never assumed a complete separation of the anthropological domains of the museum and the academy, even though few of them had any direct connection to the world of museum anthropological research.

The proceedings of the society's first conference were published by the National Museum of Man in its Mercury Series of publications, and the society established a bilingual newsletter "Le Bricoleur", which changed name in 1976 to the "Bulletin". The society also founded a scholarly journal titled "Culture" whose first volume appeared in 1981. During the early years, the society often held joint meetings with the Society of Applied Anthropology in Canada. The society changed its name in 1988 to the Canadian Anthropology Society to clarify its identity and emphasize its role as an anthropology association.

In 1997 the society negotiated the merger of its journal "Culture" with the independent journal "Anthropologica". The new "Anthropologica" became its official journal in 1998. CASCA continues to hold annual meetings, with its first international meeting being held in 2005 in Merida, Yucatan in conjunction with the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan. In 2007, CASCA reclaimed “Culture” as the name of its new bulletin series. Culture is now online since the Spring issue of 2016.

 

CASCA: Today

CASCA has more than 500 members from across the country and the world. 

We are proud of the past successes of CASCA. CASCA priorities are:

1. to lobby funding agencies as necessary to ensure continuing financial support for anthropological research;
2. to commit to excellence in Canadian anthropology graduate programmes and in the teaching of undergraduate anthropology; and
3. to provide a platform to anthropologists practicing the discipline outside of academia.

One of the priorities that CASCA has identified is to engage more fully with SSHRC and CIHR in the unique positioning of anthropology in their bodies and to ensure anthropological study, methods and analysis are sufficiently represented in peer-review across the committees. As the association representing Canadian anthropologists, CASCA communicates to the federal government, to the provincial governments as well as the funding agencies the necessity of basic research in anthropology and the social sciences. We must strive to ensure that anthropology is not marginalized when funding is allocated and to do this we must explain clearly the contribution that anthropology makes to Canadian society.

Given the worldwide financial crisis and the looming government deficits, university funding is at risk and students will be asking themselves the age old question: "What job can I get as an anthropologist?" More than ever, CASCA must play a positive role in understanding where our graduates do end up working and how their anthropological training helps them in their careers. CASCA must represent the broad base of Canadian anthropologists across academies and practices, and the CASCA Executive is committed to working with all anthropologies to ensuring that our association meets the needs of the broadest spectrum of anthropologists working in Canada.

To do this, CASCA is working on developing new communication and networking tools to bring together anthropologists and to facilitate sharing of knowledge and communication. We will strive to ensure that our collective voice is heard.To do this, CASCA will continue to work closely with organizations such as the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the World Council of Anthropological Associations.

CASCA is and remains your association. We encourage you to become active in CASCA and to work with fellow members in promoting our discipline across the country and the world.

 

Fields and subfields of Anthropology:

Anthropology is the study of us, humans, both past and present. The word itself derived from the Greek “anthropos” (humans) and “logia” (study). Anthropologists study both our human species and our closest related species, the primates which include lemurs, monkeys and apes. Some of the fields and subfields of specialization within anthropology include:

• Social and cultural anthropology: the study of culture and societies from around the world;
  • Ethnography and ethnology: the study and analysis of peoples from around the world, through fieldwork and participant-observation;
• Archaeology: the study of human societies through their material remains;
• Physical or biological anthropology: the study of human evolution and human biology;
  • Paleoanthropology: the study of human and primate evolution, through the study of fossilized remains;
  • Primatology: the study of primates including gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys and lemurs;
  • Forensic anthropology: applying anthropological expertise to the study of human remains in a legal setting (ranging from the study of local criminal cases to international cases of war crimes through the excavation of the graves of victims);
• Linguistic: the study of human language with specialized methods developed to record and analyze languages worldwide and language use in everyday life;
• Applied: the use of anthropology applied to a variety of tasks in the public and private sector. Though recognized as a separate sub-discipline, all of anthropology can be applied, and Canadian anthropologists have a long tradition of working in partnership with communities.

Though CASCA is comprised primarily of social and cultural anthropologists, our association welcomes all anthropologists, both academic and practicing. 

Some of the features of anthropology:

• Holism: anthropologists study any component of humanity in relation to the larger cultural and social whole. This means that humans are seen as living in a web of culture and social relations whereby any belief or activity is tied inextricably to all others;
• Comparative study: at the outset, anthropology distinguished itself from the other social sciences (sociology, political science, philosophy, etc…) in that it studied the “Other” or cultures and societies far from Europe or indigenous societies in North America. However, disciplinary boundaries have blurred with many anthropologists studying at home in their own societies and cultures. Nonetheless, even those anthropologists studying locally will call upon expertise acquired by the discipline globally to better understand their own culture.

Anthropology as a Career:

Anthropologists work in federal, provincial and local governments, international agencies, healthcare centers, nonprofit associations, research institutes and the private sector. Many anthropologists work as consultants applying their expertise to conduct archaeological excavations and cultural resource management, to conduct impact or needs studies or to help develop policy for governmental or non-governmental organizations. One of the goals that CASCA has set for itself in coming years is to play a greater role in helping anthropologists both academics and those practicing their discipline outside of academia to network and to share expertise gained both in terms of methods and theory.

Promo Video: What is CASCA?  By Éric Gagnon Poulin, Université Laval 

Most of my life, during my degree or even as graduate student, I had never heard of CASCA. Still, I did all my schooling in anthropology, one part at UMontréal and the other at ULaval. It was not until 2014 that my research director, Jean Michaud, talked about the Canadian Anthropology Society. Intrigued, I wanted to know more. Like many PhD students, I aim for an academic career. Many are called, few are chosen. Being part of a network like CASCA is unquestionably an asset. I became a member and soon enough, I got involved in the executive committee as the francophone member at large. With my experience in documentary films, one of my first proposals was to make video to promote our association to our colleagues and other anthropologists. Today we present to you the result. We invite you to share this short video in your classes, on the page of your department and to your networks.

Be part of the adventure! Click here. 

 

 

Salisbury Award Committee

• Past President (Chair)
• Secretary 
• Member at Large (Francophone or Anglophone)

 Weaver-Tremblay Prize

• Previous Prize Recipient (Chair)
• President
• Member at Large (Francophone or Anglophone)
• Secretary

Committee for Teaching Awards

• The CATE Committee will be constituted by the President-Elect, President, the last recipient of the CATE (course instructor), the last recipient of the CATE (permanent faculty), and one CASCA member (preferably a member of the Critical Pedagogy Network) appointed by the CASCA Executive.

Resolutions Committee (More...)

• Bruce Miller
• Brian Noble
• Heather Howard

Co-Chairs of the Women's Network

• Pauline McKenzie Aucoin
• Heather Howard

Archivist

• Ian Puppe

Webmaster

• Communication Officer and Webmaster 

President: Monica Heller

Monica Heller is professor emerita at the University of Toronto. Her area of specialization is linguistic anthropology, with a focus on the role of language in the construction of social difference and social inequality, especially as tied to ideologies of the nation-state, and specifically to linguistic minority movements, principally in francophone Canada, but also in Europe. Her last two books are Language, Capitalism, Colonialism : Toward a Critical History (with Bonnie McElhinny; 2017, University of Toronto Press) and Critical Sociolinguistic Methods : How to Study Language Issues that Matter (with Sari Pietikäinen and Joan Pujolar; 2017, Routledge). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and chaired its Committee on Public Engagement from 2018-2021. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sociolingiistics 2017-2021. She was President-Elect of the American Anthropological Association 2011-2103 and President 2013-2015. She has been awarded two honorary doctorates, from Universität Bern (2017) and from l’Université de la Bretagne Orientale (2020).

cascapres(a)gmail.com

 

President-Elect: Bernard Perley

Kwey psiw te wen.  Liwiso Bernard Perley, Wolastokwi Nekwutkuk nik.  Hello everyone.  My name is Bernard Perley, I am from Tobique First Nation, New Brunswick.  I serve as the Director of the Institute for Critical Indigenous studies at the University of British Columbia.  I teach courses on Indigenous representations and cultural politics as well as Indigenous language revitalization and social justice.  I am completing my term as President of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology and look forward to working with the CASCA leadership in coming years.  My ongoing research explores the role humour and narrative play in mitigating and healing traumatic experiences.  My research draws from linguistic and cognitive sciences to embodiments of emergent social worlds. 

cascapreselectelu(a)gmail.com

 

Past-President: Emma Varley

Emma Varley is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brandon University, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan, and Adjunct Professor and Senior Advisor for Qualitative Research on Maternal and Newborn Health at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Global Public Health. As a medical anthropologist specializing in hospital ethnography, her research explores the contribution of medical mismanagement and malpractice to maternal injury and death, the impacts of conflict and natural disaster on obstetric services, and the use of medicine as a tactic of war. She has served as a technical expert and consultant on state and non-governmental interventions in South Asia in such areas as the Safe Motherhood and Global Polio Eradication Initiatives. 

cascapastpressort(a)gmail.com

   

Secretary: Daniel Salas

Daniel Salas is currently a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University. His research interests lie at the intersection of the anthropology of money and value, rural studies, imaginaries of solidarity, and the phenomenology of the state in Latin America. His current research explores the relationship between the monetary regime and everyday politics of value in rural Cuba. He has published advances of his dissertation in Dialectical Anthropology. Daniel holds a BA in journalism (University of Havana) and a MA in cultural studies (University of the Arts, Havana). He worked and taught in communication before relocating to Canada to pursue a career in anthropology.

seccascasec(a)gmail.com

 

Francophone Member at Large: Emmanuelle Bouchard-Bastien

Emmanuelle Bouchard-Bastien is an environmental anthropologist. She holds a master’s degree in environment (Sherbrooke University, 2011) and a PhD in anthropology (Laval University, 2023). She works in environmental health in Québec. His main files focus on the social dimensions of environmental change, social representations of nature and toxicological risks, conflicts and social acceptability. His research interests fall into two main areas, namely development projects (extraction of natural resources, industrial complexes) and disasters (technological and “natural”).

cascamembreactiffr(a)gmail.com

 

Anglophone Member at Large: Rine Vieth

Rine Vieth (they/iel) is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at McGill University. Their research interests lie in the intersections of law, society, and religion, with a particular attention to the sociohistorical processes surrounding encounters with legal regimes. Their doctoral project focuses on how asylum-seekers claiming status in the UK on the basis of religious belief are assessed by the UK Home Office and the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunals. An active member of their university community, they served on the committee to create McGill's first policy on sexual violence, created a campuswide campaign to advocate for mental health support, and coordinated numerous consultations involving both campus labour unions and student organizations. Away from anthropological work, they enjoy reading (and making!) comics, and growing as many plants as their apartment can fit.

cascaenmemberatlarge(a)gmail.com

 

Treasurer: Daniel Tubb

Daniel Tubb is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada and an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is author of the book Shifting Livelihoods Gold Mining and Subsistence in the Chocó, Colombia, and has ongoing research on oil palm plantations, agrarian change, and the impacts of war on nature in Colombia, and on the impacts of resource projects in their early phase in Canada.

cascatreas(a)gmail.com

 

Incoming-Treasurer: Jason Ellsworth

(start November 2023)
Jason Ellsworth is a doctoral candidate in social anthropology at Dalhousie University where he recently worked as a Research Fellow on a project examining the local food movement and foreign temporary workers within Nova Scotia. His doctoral research examines global Buddhism and the concept of value at play in the social enterprises of a transnational Buddhist community in PEI, Canada. His broader research interests include the Anthropology & Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food & Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, and Globalization.

 

 

Communication Officer and Webmaster: Sandrine Lambert

Sandrine Lambert is a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Université Laval. Her research questions the relationship between technology and democracy. Her thesis focuses on the socio-political potentialities of citizen participation in digital fabrication laboratories and in the maker culture in Barcelona. The themes of sociotechnical imaginaries, commons and techno-utopianism run through her doctoral research, which also addresses the links between craft, industrial and digital fabrication. Sandrine has given more than a dozen lectures in academic events but also for a wider audience. She has written two scientific articles based on her research, published book reviews and some popular pieces for the general public. She works as a research assistant on projects around the societal impacts and governance of artificial intelligence, from a social justice perspective. She has worked as a teaching assistant for various courses in anthropology at Laval University. Her master's degree in anthropology was completed at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and focused on the staging of politics in cultural events in Burkina Faso. Between her master's degree and her Ph.D., she worked in the cultural field as a project manager, event coordinator and then communications manager.

cascacomms(a)gmail.com