President’s Column

Jennifer R. Wies

The 2024 Annual Meetings in Santa Fe represented the best of the SfAA- participants created an inclusive environment for dialogue about the many ways that the SfAA community members apply the social sciences to improve the quality of life for people worldwide. Congratulations to the members of the Program Committee and the Annual Meetings Chair, A.J. Faas!

Throughout the meetings, I focused my remarks on the many ways that members and participants are engaged with the SfAA and our mission. At the business meeting, we celebrated the leaders of the TIGs and committees alongside the dozens of student award winners. We thank everyone for their dedication and commitment to actively sharing their time and expertise with the Society. 

We also spent time delighting in the release of the first volumes of Human Organization and Practicing Anthropology with the SfAA’s new publishing partner, Routledge Taylor and Francis. With unwavering effort from Lisa Hardy and Lenore Manderson, the transition to the new vendor has been an overwhelming success. We anticipate that the new workflows will enable scholars and practitioners from all around the world to experience a more streamlined submission process, and that reviewing for Human Organization will be easier for those who provide service in that capacity.

As we look to the 2025 Annual Meetings in Portland, Oregon (Andrew Gardner, Program Chair), we are thrilled to welcome additional cosponsors, including the Northwest Anthropological Association/Northwest Anthropological Conference and the Society for Cross-Cultural Research. The SfAA welcomes Annual Meetings participants who are members, cosponsor members, and non-members.

To facilitate broader participation and engagement, the Board of Directors has affirmed guidelines for participation in the annual meetings:

It is the policy of the Society for Applied Anthropology to limit contributions to the annual meeting to "each role just once, up to two roles altogether." These two roles are presenter (paper, roundtable, film) and secondary (session chair, discussant, poster).

This policy expands the number of roles from previous policies (which limited participation to one role) while establishing clear expectations for all participants. We will ask everyone involved in the annual meetings to commit to these guidelines to ensure that all participants have the same level of access to the meetings program. 

At the SfAA, we embrace the challenge of working for a more just and inclusive world. We look forward to collaborating and connecting with ALL applied social scientists and others to address the urgent and important challenges that lasting change demands. Let us work together to make a just world. If you have time and expertise to share with the SfAA, please reach out to me and we will honor your contributions through a working group, committee, TIG, or other activity!