It is a privilege to bring greetings as the incoming president of the ABA. We have had a tremendous year, an enduring tribute to the exceptional leadership and dedicated efforts of our officers and members. Raymond Codrington, as our outgoing president, has done an excellent job in steering this great ship—casting vision, establishing goals, working diligently and checking on progress. Over the past year we have updated our website, launched a new membership initiative, awarded several prizes, continued a stellar AAA program lineup, extended our Legacy Scholars program, enhanced Transforming Anthropology (our flagship journal), and continued our mentoring program.
Certainly all of these efforts could not have been done without a team of dedicated ABA members and officers! I would like to thank our board for going above and beyond the call of duty: Willie McKether (secretary/treasurer); Dawn-Elissa Fischer (general editor); Aimee Cox and Dana-Ain Davis (co-editors, TA); Karen G Williams (contributing editor, ABA AN column); Oneka LaBennett (membership chair); Kimberly Eison Simmons (member-at-large and Legacy Scholars chair); Melanie EL Bush (John L Gwaltney scholarship chair); Aimee Cox (Vera Green Award chair); Riche Daniel Barnes (works in progress mentoring program chair) and Alisha Winn (archivist). It has been a pleasure to serve alongside you. Your tireless efforts have made this an amazing year. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The AAA meeting in San Francisco afforded us an opportunity to acknowledge important achievements, showcase critical research and build upon the legacy of the ABA. Continuing our efforts to support future generations of scholars, our very first Johnnetta B Cole student travel awardee was named, Vanessa Agard-Jones. In addition, Melanie A Medeiros received the John L Gwaltney Scholarship, dedicated to early career anthropologists whose scholarship bridges the divide between research and activism. Congratulations to these two young scholars! Our Legacy Scholars program, established as a means of honoring and gleaning wisdom from our elders, in 2012 affirmed the importance of the ABA through challenging and inspiring remarks by Johnnetta B Cole, Ira Harrison and Faye Harrison. In addition, an executive session entitled, Crossing Borders: The On-going Work and Legacy of Johnnetta Betsch Cole, organized by Riche Daniel Barnes, paid tribute to Cole as scholar, teacher, college president and mentor extraordinaire. Our entire lineup of panels included invited and volunteered sessions, which covered a range of critical topics from the prison industrial complex to Haitian Protestantism, gender and multi-raciality, archeology and emancipation, mapping, Black community research and youth performance in the African diaspora. Indeed, it was an incredible year for Crossing Borders! Thank you, again, Andrea Abrams, for your hard work in pulling together our 2012 AAA program.
On schedule and in exemplary fashion Transforming Anthropology published two issues in 2012. The first was Black Queer Anthropology (20[1]); and the second, Reading Race Now (20[2]). In addition, Transforming Anthropology established the use of online supplemental material as a way to distinguish this editorship. For example in volume 20(1) the supplemental material was a photo montage accompanying Winn’s article and the volume 20(2) issue, the supplemental material was a videotaped interview with the subject of the article by Charles Townsend. Dana-Ain Davis and Aimee Cox have done tremendous work as co-editors of TA and will complete two more issues, volume 21(1) slated for April publication and vo1ume 21 (2) slated for October 2013, before turning the reigns over to new editorship. Added to the publishing of TA, our column in AN has provided a wealth of up-to-date information and thoughtful commentary thanks to the consistent efforts of our column editor, Karen G Williams.
In addition to these accomplishments, we would like to thank Orisanmi Burton for all of his work in helping to revamp our ABA website and Oneka LaBennett for launching our membership drive. Please check out our swanky new look at www.aaanet.org/sections/aba. Thanks again to Raymond Codrington for spearheading this effort. These changes are all the more important as we look forward to watching our numbers grow under our innovative membership drive. ABA members stay tuned for more details on how you can help.
We anticipate the year ahead with excitement as new members join the board and help to advance the work of the ABA. David Simmons is our incoming, already-hard-at-work president-elect, Angela Howell is our phenomenally diligent secretary/treasurer, and the ever astute Michael Ralph will assume the editorship of Transforming Anthropology by year’s end. Joining his team as associate editors are two outstanding scholars in their own right, Elizabeth Chin and Laurence Ralph.
We would like to commend Carolyn Rouse for an exceptional AAA program in 2012. And, we extend congratulations to our very own Dana-Ain Davis for being selected as co-chair of the AAA’s 2013 program with Alaka Wali. Be sure to submit your proposals for Chicago under the theme “Current Engagements, Future Publics.” We also extend a hearty thank you to our AAA President (and ABA member) Leith Mullings for all that she does to make us better anthropologists, invested in rigorous scholarship and advancing the common good.
In the year ahead we look forward to building upon the great foundation that has already been laid in the ABA. To that end, we have some important initiatives underway, including an innovative mapping project and new efforts to bolster graduate student involvement. We also invite young scholars to apply for the Gwaltney, Green and Cole awards (seek guidelines and due dates online). For further updates and exciting news be sure to check us out on our website or join us via email and Facebook as we walk together into our bright future.
Marla Frederick is a professor of African and African American studies and of the study of religion at Harvard University. Contributions to this column can be sent to karen g williams (kwilliams2@gc.cuny.edu).
via Anthropology-News http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/02/01/letter-from-aba-president/
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