Message from the SWAA President

I am delighted and honored to be the new president of SWAA, and looking forward to working with our new vice president Eric Canin and the SWAA Conference Planning Committee to create for you another exciting conference in beautiful downtown San José in 2013. I am a biological anthropologist with research background in human genetics, human biology, and primate behavior and systematics, and I teach a variety of courses in these areas plus archaeology and human sexuality at San José State University. But related to my other role as a long-standing activist in the California Faculty Association, the union that represents the 24,000 faculty in the 23-campus California State University system, the theme for our 84th annual conference will be: Work. Aspects of this topic can draw from all four fields of our discipline, continuing the SWAA tradition of being a comprehensive and inclusive anthropological association that is welcoming of scholarship, applied work, activism, and intellectual passions from across the anthropological spectrum.

Our 84th annual conference will be in one of San José‘s downtown hotels and will take place on April 18–20, 2013. Additional information about the conference will be in the quarterly SWAA Newsletter that is sent only to current members. If you‘re not a member, we urge you to join SWAA! Membership dues are an affordable $25/year for regular members and $20/year for student members. And if you join in 2012, you will pay reduced registration fees for the 2013 conference. You can join online or find a printable membership form on the Membership page

Please stay tuned for the Call for Papers in September, and start thinking about that paper, poster, film, or panel discussion you want to present next Spring.