Events Calendar
Conferences / Workshops / Seminars / Institutes
Society for Economic Anthropology Annual Meeting
March 22-24, 2012
San Antonio, Texas
Theme: The Political Economy of Cities
Throughout
history the economic growth, decline, and resurgence of urban centers
has been variously affected by political developments. The morphology of
cities has followed ideological ideas about the role and function of
urban centers, often consciously put into place by local, state, and
colonial leaders. This annual meeting will explore the impacts of the
political economy underlying the growth and development of cities on the
lived experiences of urbanites. How do these policies affect the
ability of city residents to earn reasonable livings? How do they
facilitate or discourage the creation of local structures to create
meaningful lives? How does the environmental impact of dense urban
populations restrain or modulate city growth?
We
are especially interested in the ways that various political economies
encourage or discourage the movement of specific urban groups. In deep
history, political leaders increased urban populations by encouraging
artisans and traders to establish themselves locally and increasing
labor availability through practices like slavery. They created
neighborhoods with specific functions and purposes, many of which were
associated with particular ethnic groups. In more recent history,
governments created ghettos or ethnic enclaves within urban centers and
discouraged city growth through tools such as urban residence permits.
Today, political instruments such as zoning regulations, planned
development initiatives, and slum rehabilitation programs all constrain
or mediate economic activities and population movements into and within
urban centers.
These
topics have been studied in various ways by archaeologists,
socio-cultural anthropologists, and economists. Thus, economic
anthropology offers a valuable perspective to understand these issues as
the discipline is concerned with the interplay of urbanism, political
economy, cultural identity, social change, and development within past
and present local contexts.
Among the issues that this meeting hopes to address are the following:
Urban planning over time:
What specific tools and strategies have political leaders
used to encourage and discourage urban growth and economic activities in
different times and places?
In what ways have political leaders attempted to create
specific urban forms? To what extent do these forms facilitate the
integration or the separation of different urban groups (e.g.,
occupational groups, ethnic groups)?
To what extent have decision makers invoked the political
and economic explicitly? To what extent have they used religious,
ideological, or socio-cultural reasons?
How effective have these planning measures been? To what
extent have leaders faced unanticipated consequences, such as
environmental degradation or ethnic violence? To what extent have
ordinary urban residents attempted to create their own sense of meaning
and place, distinct from that of elites or leaders?
How have these forms of growth and planning affected the lives of urban residents?
Voluntary movement to/from and within cities:
What strategies have political leaders used to encourage
migration to or from urban enclaves/districts and the placement of
groups in particular neighborhoods – in different times and places?
These might include strategies such as: providing neighborhoods for
long-distance traders, resources and markets for artisans,
advertisements of jobs, gentrification.
To what extent have these strategies been effective in creating the kinds of urban centers envisaged by leaders?
To what extent have urbanites used voluntary movement to,
from, or within cities to create more meaningful lives and better living
standards?
To what extent have forms of voluntary movement within
cities led to greater integration and/or differentiation among different
urban groups? For example, to what extent do forms of voluntary
movement exacerbate or assuage local class or ethnic distinctions?
Forced movement to/from and within cities:
What strategies have been used to forcibly move populations
to, from, or within cities? These might include: bringing slaves to
newly formed urban centers, compelling certain ethnic groups to reside
in particular neighborhoods, zoning regulations that prohibit certain
occupations, urban renewal, development projects that require community
resettlement.
To what extent have these strategies been effective in creating the kinds of cities envisaged by leaders?
Much existing literature suggests that forced movement is
usually detrimental to those forced to resettle; their standards of
living decrease and their cultural lives are significantly disrupted.
Are forced movements of these kinds ever justified? If so, in what ways
can their impacts be made less disruptive?
What are the long-term political and socioeconomic
consequences of these kinds of moves on the descendants of these
resettled populations?
These
questions are especially important as the world's population of 6.7
billion is now on verge of becoming predominantly urban. Today, all the
continents have or soon will have 50% urban populations. Anthropology,
with its knowledge of both past and present forms of urban growth,
offers viable frameworks for understanding the enduring aspects of these
issues.
Please Send Abstracts:
The
Society for Economic Anthropology offers a unique opportunity to
discuss important issues through its focused program composed of plenary
sessions with dedicated discussion to each paper. Each presenter will
have 20-25 minutes to present a paper, which is followed immediately by
15-20 minutes of discussion.
We welcome abstracts of papers (approximately 200-250 words) on the conference topic.
An
equally important part of its annual conference is its engaging poster
session. In addition to posters on the conference theme, the SEA
welcomes posters on any topic related to economic anthropology. Students
and scholars whose work may not fit the central theme of the meeting
are encouraged to submit a poster. The inclusive poster session is a
major event of each year's SEA conference.
Please submit abstracts, for either paper or panel session, to the program chairs, Dolores Koenig (dkoenig@american.edu) and Ty Matejowsky (Ty.Matejowsky@ucf.edu) by October 31, 2011.
Meeting City:
The
meeting will be held at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas
with Richard Reed (Trinity University) serving as Local Arrangements
Coordinator. San Antonio, a historic North American city formed around
five 18th century missions, is now undergoing urban growth oriented
around mixed use development in the municipal core and the integration
of the contemporary city with the older missions. Thus, it is a great
place to have a meeting focused on the political economy of cities.
Moreover San Antonio will be fun, with great weather and amenities. The
hotel is next to the city's famous Riverwalk, with numerous shops, music
venues, restaurants, museums and art galleries.
The Archaeology of Slavery: Toward a Comparative Global Framework, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
March 30-31, 2012
28th Annual Visiting Scholar Conference, Center for Archaeological Investigations, SIUC
The goals of the 2012 Visiting Scholar Conference are (1) to develop an interregional and cross-temporal framework of the archaeological interpretation of slavery and (2) to promote a diachronic approach to the topic, extending from before the moment of capture to beyond emancipation.
This conference offers an opportunity for archaeologists studying slavery to begin building the broader interpretive toolbox necessary to confront the growing diversity of their field. The interregional and cross-temporal dialogue the conference promotes will help archaeologists develop strategies to confront basic methodological challenges, such as recognizing material signatures of slavery. Dialogue will also facilitate productive cross-fertilization between prehistoric and historical archaeologists interested in similar interpretive issues-for example, slave identity or slave owners' strategies of coercion. A diachronic approach to the study of slavery offers additional interpretive benefits. Most importantly, studies that focus on slaving or emancipation force archaeologists to analyze the instability of social boundaries and identities rather than to inadvertently naturalize slave status through inattention to the process of enslavement.
Prospective conference participants are encouraged to engage one or
more of the following four themes:
A. The challenges of a comparative interpretation approach, including
-
the diversity of social forms classified as"slavery";
-
the difficulty of recognizing slavery in prehistoric settings
through purely material means;
- the frequent discrepancies between archaeological, oral historical,
and documentary data about slavery;
- the risk of comparisons becoming overly general and insensitive to
the cultural circumstances in which slavery occurred.
B. The benefits of a comparative interpretive approach. We are
especially interested in case studies that connect their interpretive
approaches to slavery scholarship with other time periods and/or
geographic locales. Potentially productive topics to consider include
- identity creation in captivity;
- slave owners' strategies of coercion;
- landscape versus site approaches to analysis;
- the role of race and ethnicity in slave systems.
C. Slaving and enslavement. We are interested in exploring the
transition to enslavement, including what strategies individuals and
groups used to mitigate their vulnerability to slaving and how the
social identity "slave" was imposed on formerly free people.
D. Emancipation. The conference will explore how slavery continued to
shape the lives of formerly enslaved people and their descendants.
Our focus will encompass both ex-slaves in post-emancipation contexts
and self-emancipated Maroons or fugitive slaves living within
still-operative slave systems.
The conference will take place on March 30-31, 2012, in Carbondale, Illinois. Conference attendance is open to all who are interested and registration details will be available at www.cai.siuc.edu/vsprogram.
Participants will also be asked to submit detailed summaries of their papers prior to the conference, to allow discussion facilitators time to prepare their responses. Further details concerning these summaries will be forthcoming upon acceptance of abstracts.
Abstract submissions are due on December 5, 2011, and should be submitted via e-mail to the 2012 CAI Visiting Scholar, Dr. Lydia Wilson Marshall, at llw3r@virginia.edu. PDF files are preferred, but Microsoft Word files are also acceptable. Abstracts are limited to 250 words (excluding titles, authors, or funding information). Please do not include illustrations. Submissions that do not follow these criteria will not be reviewed. See the Abstract Guidelines at www.cai.siuc.edu/vspages/
Abstracts will be reviewed, and applicants will be informed of the decision in mid-January. All papers presented at this conference are eligible for inclusion in the peer-reviewed conference volume, which will be published by the Center for Archaeological Investigations as part of their Occasional Papers series www.cai.siuc.edu/
We look forward to your submissions, and hope that you will take the opportunity to join us in Carbondale for this exciting event.
SHUMLA's Pecos Experience: Art and Archeology of the Lower Pecos
26-30 March 2012 SHUMLA's Pecos Experience: Art and Archeology of the Lower Pecos
A WEEK IN WEST TEXAS
SHUMLA's
research team and Dr. Jim Keyser have launched a comparative study of
scratched and incised imagery evidenced in the rock art of the Lower
Pecos Canyonlands and the Columbia Plateau. This year, participants in
Pecos Experience have the unique opportunity to join these experts as
they investigate this promising new avenue of rock art research. This is
your chance to explore the canyons of the Lower Pecos, to expand your
vision of the meaning and function of rock art, and to experience the
excitement of making connections through discovery.
For more details, visit our Web-site http://www.SHUMLA.org/, contact the office at programs@SHUMLA.org or call (432) 292-4848.
Flyer (PDF)
Symposium: Barkerville and the Cariboo
June 7-8, 2012
A special symposium on material culture hosted by the Barkerville Historic Town and the University of Northern British Columbia June 7 -8, 2012
We are seeking participant interest from scholars and practitioners wanting to pursue 19th century and / or early 20th century research on Barkerville and who have already researched and written about material culture. We hope to attract scholars to raise the awareness of the Barkerville artefact and archival resources. Senior and junior scholars, graduate students and others will spend two days discussing the potential for research opportunities.
On the morning of the 7th (UNBC Campus, Prince George), we will take a bus to Barkerville for orientation to the holdings by Curator, Bill Quackenbush; and, to experience the rich heritage programming; engage in group and individual discussions on potential research themes; and, stay overnight on site, returning to Prince George the afternoon of the 8th. We are currently seeking funding for this symposium. Any support for symposium costs to participants is dependent upon receipt of such funding.
The goal is a lasting legacy focused on Barkerville's collections as an academic resource, leading to the development of the proposed Conservation and Learning Institute. Barkerville's collections are significant and diverse, illustrating the lives of those who came to mine, as well as the myriad of others who came from all over the world (including Great Britain, France, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Germany, China, Australia, United States, Mexico, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Caribbean, etc.).
Barkerville located in the narrow Williams Creek valley in the heart of the Cariboo Mountains, central British Columbia, grew around the claim Billy Barker staked in 1862. Fabulously wealthy, it attracted men like moths to a flame and marks the almost immediate transition from First Nations dominion to Crown law. Early histories depict this as an Anglo-Canadian take over, but in recent years the multi-cultural nature of the rush and subsequent development of British Columbia indicates a much broader base for the emerging culture. The 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush lead to the area of the'Mother Load' by the beginning of the 1860s and has been a centre for gold mining ever since. The gold seekers have remained a multi-cultural group of people from the beginning, ultimately forming the base of society for Western Canada. With them came all the trappings of civilization and often the latest in mining technology. However, little is understood about what was actually brought, where it came from, who made it and how, as well as specifics about transportation, economic ramifications of exchange, the development of legal and social interaction and internal and external ramifications of the search for gold. Research interests can range between the influences of the Cariboo on Broadway (David Belasco) to, quite literally, the kitchen sink.
Collections that complement the material culture (approx. 130,000 items): photographs approx 53,000 items; cartographic and art works; mining documentation; census, accounting, and weather records; literary collections; Chinese archival records. Museum collections strengths include domestic furnishings and early 20th century manufactured items and industrial artifacts. There are 187,000 objects. For a sample of how to search the artefact database see the following link and follow these instructions:
http://www.barkerville.ca/default.htm hit "collections and research" in the top header bar then hit "photos, archives and collections database" in left hand column; type "chair" in the search box; then hit "chair, child's" in the subject list; then hit the last description HERA objects record. Here you will see an object description and a link to the artefact photograph.
We ask that interested participants provide a bio and a description of their research interest. These research profiles will help us prepare for the program. Please provide your profile to Dr. Tracy Summerville summervi@unbc.ca by October 15, 2011.
5th Argentinian Historical Archaeology Conference Buenos Aires 2012
April 26-28, 2012
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
The organizing committee of the 5th Argentinian Historical Archaeology Conference is pleased to announce the first call for symposia, seminars, workshops, specialist courses, and student and poster sessions. The conference will be held in Buenos Aires on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of April 2012.
In keeping with the principles behind the four previous conferences, we invite participation from all professionals who are engaged in the study and preservation of material culture, whether associated with broadly defined societies or specific social groups of the recent past. Since this is such a broad research theme, it is hoped that the conference will prove conducive to promoting meetings, and exchange of knowledge, between different specialists and research teams. The planned schedule of activities includes tours to historical and archaeological sites, museums, archives, and excavations that are currently in progress. We are happy to explore presentation formats that offer alternatives to traditional panel discussions and symposia (and which can also offer the opportunity to debate subjects and problems). We would also welcome minisymposia of up to five speakers designed to explore specific issues, workshops with presentations, and indeed any dynamic presentation format that can help present information effectively while also allowing group reflection on the subject. Presentations or meetings based on precirculated interactive information will also be welcome, as these have been proven to be highly effective internationally.
Meeting Leaders
President: Dr. Alicia Tapia, aliciatapia@yahoo.com.ar
Secretary: Dr. Daniel Schávelzon, dschavelzon@fibertel.com.ar
Executive Secretaries: Dr. Ana Igareta, aigareta@gmail.com, and Ulises Camino ulisescamino@yahoo.com.ar
Permanent Organizing Committee
Ana María Rochietti, María Teresa Carrara, Carlos Baldassarre, Mariano Ramos, Facundo Gómez Romero, Daniel Schávelzon
Organizing Committee
Melina Bednarz, Sergio Bogan, Mónica Carminati, Federico Coloca, Patricia Frazzi, Carlos Landa, Laura Mari, Emanuel Montanari, Daniel Rampa, Carolina Rivet, Aniela Traba, Ricardo Orsini, Flavia Zorzi
Academic-Scientific Committee
Verónica Aldazábal, Fernando Brittez, María Teresa Carrara, Carlos Cerutti, Horacio Chiavazza, Emilio Eugenio, Javier Garcia Cano, Facundo Gómez Romero, Ana María Lorandi, Victoria Pedrotta, Mariano Ramos, Ana María Rocchietti, Mario Silveira, Mónica Valentini, Marcelo Weissel
Deadlines
Submission of abstracts: July 30, 2011
Papers: November 30, 2011
Submission of symposia and complete list of conference activities, with abstracts, papers, and reviews for publication: December 30, 2011
The conference intends to publish the proceedings in both hard copy and digital formats. Submissions will be accepted in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
2012 National Underground Railroad Conference "Escaping to Destinations South: The Underground Railroad, Cultural Identity, and Freedom along the Southern Borderlands"
The 2012 National Underground Railroad Conference "Escaping to Destinations South: The Underground Railroad, Cultural Identity, and Freedom along the Southern Borderlands" will be held June 20-23, 2012 in St. Augustine,
Florida. The Conference seeks a program that includes the full diversity of academic and grassroots research, documentation, and interpretation of the Underground Railroad. The Program Committee encourages a wide variety of forms of conversation. Please feel free to submit such nontraditional proposals as poster sessions; roundtables that home in on significant topics in Underground Railroad history; discussions around a single historical person, image, or archeological/historic site in Underground Railroad history; a series of sessions organized around a single thread that will run through the conference; working groups that tackle a common issue or challenge; workshops that develop professional skills in the documentation or education of Underground Railroad history; or multimedia representations, documentaries, and performances whose central topic is Underground Railroad history. Teaching sessions are also welcome, particularly those involving the audience as active participants or those that reflect collaborative partnerships and/or conversations among students, teachers, public historians, research scholars, and educators at
all levels and in varied settings.
As co-chair of the "Archeology and Material Culture" part of the program, I am encouraging papers that demonstrate the important role that archaeology can and does play in making significant contributions to the story.
Attached is the "Call for Papers" presentation proposal form. If submitting under the "Archeology and Material Culture" theme, prospective presenters should check "Archeology and Material Culture" on the form and email to me the completed form, including a title, 250-word abstract, and a NTE 250-word bio., no later than January 6, 2012. We will be compiling the submissions to be sent in as a package.
John Jameson
NPS/SEAC
(See attached file: UGRR Call for Papers Form, 2012.doc)
JOHN H. JAMESON
Senior Archeologist, Public Interpretation and Outreach Lead
NPS Interpretive Development Program (IDP) Curriculum
Coordinator/Certifier
NAI International Interpretation Section
International Committee on Interpretation and Presentation (ICIP),
ICOMOS
Board of Directors, Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation
Southeast Archeological Center
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
2035 E. Paul Dirac Drive
Johnson Building, Suite 120
Tallahassee, Florida 32310 USA
- - - - - - - - - -
Phone: 850-580-3011 extension 243; mobile: 850-322-5636
Fax: 850-580-2884
E-mail: john_jameson@nps.gov; jhjameson@yahoo.com
On the web: http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/
THE ASSOCIATION FOR GRAVESTONE STUDIES
2012 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Gravestone enthusiasts and researchers from around the nation and the world will be gathering at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey for the 35th Annual Association for Gravestone Studies Conference, June 19 - 24, 2012.
The Association for Gravestone Studies, based in Greenfield, Massachusetts,
is an organization of approximately 1000 members. Its mission is to
further the study and preservation of gravestones. More information
about the organization is available online at www.gravestonestudies.org.
The week-long conference will feature classroom sessions on gravestone
rubbing, photography, and foil impressions, and lectures by scholars
with diverse backgrounds including history, art history, archaeology,
and anthropology. There will also be a workshop in a historic graveyard
demonstrating proper gravestone conservation techniques. Highlights of
the conference will also include cemetery tours featuring New Jersey's
colonial, Victorian, and ethnic burial grounds.
Evening lectures will be presented by international researchers and
scholars, the lecture topics include stone carvers, gravestone art,
cemetery history, and the cultural significance of gravestones.
Members of the public and researchers in all related fields are welcome
to participate in the conference by registering in advance at http://www.gravestonestudies.org/conferences.htm. Members of the public may register to attend the entire conference or for certain days, only.
Proposals are also being solicited for scholarly papers, 20 minutes in
length, to be presented during the evening and daytime lecture sessions.
Please send your proposal and a 250-word abstract by February 1, 2012, to Lecture Programs Coordinators: Richard Veit, rveit@monmouth.edu and Mark Nonestied, mn1908@aol.com
Proposals are solicited for Participation/Class Sessions, of 50 minutes in length, to be presented Thursday, June 21 and Friday, June 22.
Please send your proposal and a 250-word abstract by February 1, 2012
to Participation/Class Sessions Coordinators, Robert Keeler robertk@clackamas.edu, and Judy Juntunen, rycraftjuntunen@aol.com
For further information please contact AGS at (413) 772-0836, info@gravestonestuies.org, Richard Veit rveit@monmouth.edu or Mark Nonestied mn1908@aol.com
Call for Abstracts
The organizing committee invites the submission of abstracts for sessions to be held in XII NTAG in Oulu, Finland, April 25th-28th, 2012. Abstracts should be up to 300 words. Please submit the abstracts at thelatest by August 25th, 2011 by e-mail to ntag@oulu.fi. The session organizers will be notified by e-mail of the acceptance of the abstracts by the end of September.
The XII NTAG - Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group is a recurrent Scandinavian conference that focuses on debating central theoretical questions and perspectives within archaeology. The conference brings together archaeologists and archaeology students in all branches of the discipline at Scandinavian universities, museums and other institutions concerned with the study of past.
For further information, please visit our web pages www.ntag.oulu.fi (which will be launched in the near future) or contact conference secretary at ntag@oulu.fi.
You can also find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177694368945004
GlobalPottery 1st International Congress on Historical Archaeology and Archaeometry for Societies in Contact
The conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain from January 25th-27th, 2012
For more informaton visit the website at: http://www.ub.edu/gracpe/arqub/GlobalPottery/
