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SPA Board Message Regarding AAA & Biennial

Dear SPA Members,
 
We are aware that AAA sections and members are making determinations about whether or not to attend the 2024 AAA meeting in Tampa. As you probably know, some members and sections are boycotting the meeting over concerns about safety, and
there are broad concerns about Florida legislation and policies on gender, race, education, and immigration.


The SPA Board is not taking an official position on a boycott. We think that ethical and political decisions whether to attend the AAA meeting are best made by SPA members.

In light of an anticipated reduced in-person attendance for this meeting, we have modified plans for the SPA Business and Board Meetings. These will be conducted virtually to allow for broader attendance. The SPA will still review submissions for SPA sponsorship, including invited sessions, to be held on-site at the AAA. The AAA general call submission portal is scheduled to open on March 16th and close on April 24th.


Please note that four months after the AAA, we will have the Biennial Meeting of the SPA from April 3rd-6th, 2025. Besides a broad exchange of research across the field of psychological anthropology, this meeting affords us the time to be together with
colleagues and friends in a way that is much treasured by the SPA membership.


At the Biennial, our SPA Prizes will be awarded for the Stirling Award, the Boyer Prize for Contributions to Psychoanalytic Anthropology, the Condon Prize for Best Student Essay in Psychological Anthropology, and the SPA Lifetime Achievement Award. The Biennial will take place at the Santa Ana Pueblo’s Tamaya Hyatt Resort and Spa, New Mexico (owned by the Santa Ana Pueblo and managed by Hyatt). Some will recall that we convened our 2019 SPA Biennial Meeting at this location. The Tamaya Hyatt has beautiful views of the Santa Ana Pueblo landscape between the Sandia Mountains and the Rio Grande River, along with hiking trails, a horse rescue, a fitness center, and spa treatments.


Please feel free to contact Bridget Haas bmh7@case.edu or Janis Jenkins jhjenkins@ucsd.edu if you have any questions.


Best,


The SPA Board (Whitney Duncan, Yehuda Goodman, Bridget Haas, Janis H. Jenkins, Vincent Laliberté, Ted Lowe, Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, Aidan Seale-Feldman, C. Jason Throop, Jo Weaver, Hua [Miranda] Wu)

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Announcing the 2025 SPA Biennial Meeting

We are pleased to announce that the 2025 SPA Biennial Meeting will be convened at the Tamaya Resort, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.  Meeting dates are April 3rd-6th, 2025. All are warmly welcomed to attend and participate. More information will be available in coming months.   

Janis H. Jenkins, President, SPA

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Society for Psychological Anthropology + Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture Joint Conference

You may attend any sessions, regardless of which organization you registered through. Session codes indicate whether a session was submitted via SPA, SSPC, or jointly

SSPC_SPA 2023 Agenda with Rooms

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meetings spa-awards spa-funding spa-news

The Beatrice and John Whiting SPA Biennial Travel Grants 

2023 submissions have closed. There will be an announcement for 2025 Whiting Awards in early 2025.

The SPA announces the Beatrice and John Whiting SPA Biennial Travel Grants to facilitate participation in the SPA Biennial Meetings. The SPA Biennial Meetings represent one of the most important ways in which the SPA promotes and supports the continued growth of the field of psychological anthropology, and these travel grants provide financial assistance to individuals who might not otherwise be able to attend. 

Eligibility: 

1. Grants are open to undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows. 

2. All applicants must be making a presentation at the conference in the form of a paper, poster, photo essay or ethnographic film. 

3. Individuals who are participating solely as a session chair, discussant or workshop participant are not eligible. 

4. Awardees must attend at least two full days of the conference. 

5. Awardees need not be current members of the SPA. 

6. Individuals are not eligible to receive the award if they also are receiving any other funding from the SPA to attend the biennial meeting, such as an International Early Career Scholar Travel Grant, or travel support provided to the SPA Board’s graduate student representative. 

Awards of approximately $400 will be awarded to individuals to facilitate their participation in the SPA Biennial Meetings. The number of awards will vary according to the funding available in any given year. 

If you have any questions, please contact The Beatrice and John Whiting SPA Biennial Travel Grant Committee Chair, Ted Lowe (elowe@soka.edu). 

Application
Follow the Link: https://forms.office.com/r/4PxBNP1u5e to complete an application
Or you can scan the QU code in the attached PDF with your phone or tablet device
You will also need to have an advisor/mentor send an email in support of this application to the committee. Please send these to Ted Lowe, committee chair, at elowe@soka.edu 
These support emails should also arrive by March 12, 2023.

Find the Application details and QR Code at:
https://mcusercontent.com/c4c1279d96abc5934a4acc7c2/files/446f023b-8a4e-3278-f360-c4635998f0c6/The_Beatrice_and_John_Whiting_SPA_Biennial_Travel_Grants.pdf

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meetings

SPA Biennial: Announcement and Reminder

REMINDER: One week left to submit abstracts for individual papers and posters, Organized Sessions, and Roundtables!  

Submissions close February 3, 2023 at 8pm EST

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Biennial is going Hybrid! Registration and submission now open for remote participation. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

  • Individual papers, Organized Panels, and Roundtables may include remote participants.  Note: we are not accepting any fully remote panels. For organized sessions and roundtables, up to half of the participants may be remote. All sessions must have an in-person chair.
  • We are currently exploring the possibility of remote poster presentations. If you are interested in presenting a poster and think the only way you could attend is remotely, please email program organizer Rebecca Seligman: r-seligman@northwestern.edu
  • The submission interface now includes fields for indicating modality (in-person or remote) for each participant. If you have already submitted your session or paper and would like to change to/add remote participation, please email Rebecca Seligman: r-seligman@northwestern.edu

HELP WANTED: We are looking for student volunteers to helpout during the conference (including helping to manage tech in the hybrid sessions). Student volunteers will receive a coupon code for half price registration. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact volunteer coordinator Daniel Lende: dlende@usf.edu 

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SPA 2023 Registration and Submission Open

SPA Biennial Conference (April 27 – 30, 2023, San Diego CA) Registration is Now Open

Dear SPA Colleagues and Affiliates,

We are pleased to announce that registration for the SPA Biennial Conference (April 27-30, 2023, San Diego, CA) is now open. We also invite you to submit your papers, posters, panels and roundtables for review using the link below. This year, registration and submission are separate processes, so please don’t forget to do both!

(If any of the hyperlinks does not work, please copy the link and paste in your browser. All the information are also updated on the SPA website under MEETINGS)

KEY DATES

Submission closes February 3, 2023

Abstract acceptance notification: March 1, 2023

Registration closes March 15, 2023

Registration: https://my.americananthro.org/nc__event?id=a0l8W00000Zge2HQAR

To register, participants must have an account with the AAA (Community Hub link:https://my.americananthro.org) or create an account through: https://my.americananthro.org/nc__createaccount?startURL=%2FNC__Login%3FstartUrl%3D%252F

You do NOT need to be a member of the AAA.

Registration closes on March 15, 2023

SUBMISSION

Submit on: https://rebrand.ly/spa-submission-site

Important submission information to keep in mind:

  • Participation is limited to 3 roles in the meeting: 1 paper or poster presentation; 1 discussant role; and 1 roundtable or workshop. Being a session chair does not count against this 3-role maximum.
  • Organized panels are limited to 6 slots: 4 presenters and 2 discussants; 5 presenters and 1 discussant; or 6 presenters and no discussant. It is also possible to submit a session with only 4 presenters and 1 discussant, which will leave extra time for discussion. A panel may not have fewer than 4 presenters.
  • Organizers will need to submit all of the information for their session (including individual paper abstracts).
  • The order in which papers are submitted for the panel is the order in which presenters will be listed on the program.
  • Roundtables may have between 4 and 7 presenters.
  • For roundtable submissions, skip the section for entering discussant information and go straight to presenters. It is also not necessary to enter separate titles and abstracts for each presenter in a roundtable, so you may skip those fields.

Submission closes February 3, 2023

Abstract Acceptance notification: March 1, 2023

We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

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SPA Biennial Meeting: Ecologies of Mind

SPA Biennial Meeting
Joan B.Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
University of San Diego
San Diego, CA; April 27-30, 2023

Call for Papers:  Ecologies of Mind
Psychological anthropology is rooted in recognition of the social constitution of mind, self and person. Gregory Bateson’s concept of an ecology of mind pointed to ways of thinking about mind as situated in both interpersonal and larger social systems. This ecological perspective provides a shared genealogy and bridge between the concerns of psychological anthropology and contemporary approaches in cognitive science, which see human experience as emerging from embodied, enacted, embedded and extended social processes.

The recognition that human psychology has its own ecology and dynamics that depend on local niches and networks as well as on wider social systems is urgently needed to help us address the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change and ecocide; systemic racism and structural violence; social polarization and the erosion of trust in civil society and democratic institutions; and the colonization of imagination and epistemic chaos created by commercial and political manipulation of social media.

This meeting will explore ecologies of mind in diverse domains and at multiple scales from local communities to planetary networks, from embodied realities to virtual worlds. We invite papers and presentations that engage with the enduring questions of psychological anthropology and current social, political, and existential predicaments. We especially encourage interdisciplinary work that bridges anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, and allied disciplines to explore the dynamics of healthy and pathological ecologies of mind.

The 2023 SPA meeting will include a joint conference day with the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture (SSPC), an interdisciplinary group devoted to clinical issues in culture and mental health. Long awaited by both societies, this day of overlap is aimed at fostering cross-discipline engagement. This joint day will allow SPA members, researchers, and practitioners to discuss cross-cutting interests and the underpinnings and consequences of social experience for mental health, psychiatric disorders, and healing. The overall theme of the SSPC meeting will be “Practices that Harm/Practices that Heal.” For the joint day, we are especially interested in showcasing work in psychological anthropology and cultural psychiatry that addresses issues of healing and transformation.

Registration:
The registration portal will go live in the next couple of weeks. Please watch for the announcement!

Abstract Submission:
The Abstract Submission portal will open in early January and close in late January.  Please watch for that announcement as well.   **In light of the relatively short window for submissions, we recommend preparing your abstracts in advance!**

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SPA Biennial 2021: Interrogating Inequalities

SPA Biennial Meeting 2021

6-10 April, 2021

This year’s SPA 2021 Biennial took place online. Delegates can watch recordings of the sessions embedded in the programme.

View the programme

Thanks

The SPA would like to acknowledge generous support from the National Science Foundation for the development of the Plenary Panels.

Theme

Questions about psychology and culture have characterized the field of anthropology from its inception, and have fundamentally shaped the discipline’s engagements with human differences.  Psychological Anthropology’s deep roots in the history and development of anthropology is both a strength and liability.  More than ever before, questions about whether we should “let anthropology burn” (Jobson 2020) have come to the fore, centering on whether a discipline so fundamentally rooted in the colonialist enterprise is even remotely redeemable; and if so, how.

In the context of these debates, psychological anthropologists have some extra work to do.  On the one hand, a major commitment of psychological anthropological work has been to interrogate the status quo and to destabilize categories of knowledge.  Yet, at the same time, this endeavor has been built on systems, structures, and modes of knowledge production that are deeply colonialist.  Some within anthropology and related disciplines have even suggested that the very premise of psychological or psychologically informed inquiry is hopelessly retrograde.  This has led in more recent decades to a disciplinary perception of psychological anthropology as theoretically, methodologically, and even ideologically conservative.

While many (if not all) of us would reject such characterizations, we must be willing to look unflinchingly at the possibility that there is something to this critique.  Our subdiscipline undeniably derives from forms of practice and knowledge-building that are often deeply problematic and that need radical revisioning.  We are called upon to do better, to push beyond conventional comfort zones.  Yet, at the same time, our subdiscipline also derives from forms of practice and knowledge-building that are deeply humanistic, respectful, and compassionate.  The question then becomes: how can we leverage the unique intellectual and human resources of our sub-discipline to move us forward into new ways of thinking, research, writing, and engagement? 

With the conference theme of Interrogating Inequalities, we encourage scholars to radically re-encounter their own data, methodologies, theoretical commitments, engagements with the anthropological canon, forms of writing and research dissemination, and the subdiscipline more broadly.  Our aim with this theme is to prompt participants to reflect not only on the colonial dimensions and decolonial possibilities of anthropological work, but also to radically reimagine what it means to be a psychological anthropologist in today’s world.

Presentation formats

SPA invited two primary panel formats:

  1. Traditional panels with five 15-minute papers per 90-minute session (leaving one required 15-minute slot for Q&A/ discussion).
  2. Roundtables: at a roundtable a group of scholars (no more than 5) would discuss themes/issues of general scholarly interest in front of (and subsequently with) an audience. While a roundtable can include short (5-10 min) provocations/presentations, the main idea is to create a lively debate, not to focus on any one presenter. In your roundtable proposal, you can list/name the participants in your long abstract, or you can leave the list open and take in ‘provocation/presentation’ proposals during the Call for Papers and choose five of those to be on the roundtable.

The SPA strongly encouraged panel organizers to prioritize diversity and inclusivity across all dimensions when making their selections, including (but not limited to) academic affiliation, stage of academic career, geographic region of origin and/or interest, theoretical orientation, race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexuality.

 

SPA has the “two roles per person, each role once” rule: participants can have two roles PLUS be an organizer of one session. So:-

  1. An organizer can only propose one session; this does not count against their two-role limit
  2. Giving a paper or being a roundtable participant each counts as one role
  3. You can do a roundtable and a paper and so have up to two roles
  4. But you can only have one paper, so you cannot have two papers for two roles
  5. You can give a paper in your own session, which then counts as one role.

 

Recording policy

The panels and plenaries were recorded for delegate and public consumption, respectively. Read the full policy.

Edit your panel or paper

Questions? 

Please email spa2021(at)nomadit.co.uk.

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SPA 2019

SPA Biennial Meeting 2019

SPA 2019 in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico

April 4-7, 2019

The Biennial will take place at the Tamaya Resort, which is owned by the Santa Ana Pueblo, with profits returning to the people of the Santa Ana Pueblo for a range of social programs. It is located in a beautiful setting with many opportunities for walking, hiking, and enjoying nature. To reserve a room at the discounted rate, please click on the appropriate button. Note that it is currently not possible to extend your stay or arrive earlier through the reservation website.

View the Finalized Conference Schedule here.

Abstract submission is closed. Furthermore, Breakfast and Banquet tickets are no longer available. They needed to be purchased by March 13.

Follow the steps below to add a special event to your existing SPA meeting registration:
1. Log in to your Anthro Gateway account.
2. Look on the left-hand side of the page, and click ADD WORKSHOP/EVENT.
3. Once the page loads, locate the 2019 CSAS meeting under the Meetings/Other Events header.
4. Click Add Workshops.
5. The special events will appear, and you may proceed to checkout.

Transportation to/from Albuquerque Airport: The hotel provides shuttles to and from the Albuquerque Airport on Thursday, April 4, 6 a.m.-12 p.m. and Sunday, April 7, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The shuttle costs $20/per person and requires a reservation. It departs at the top of each hour and will take 30 minutes to get to the intended destinations. Complete this form in order to register for the shuttle. Other forms of transportation include Lyft, Uber, or a taxi, all of which we recommend reserving ahead of time to ensure they are there to pick you up.

Hotel: The SPA block of rooms at the hotel is currently full. To reserve a room please contact the hotel directly at 505-867-1234 or https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/new-mexico/hyatt-regency-tamaya-resort-and-spa/tamay

FAQ: https://spa.americananthro.org/biennial-faq/

Any questions related to the biennial should be directed to spabiennial@gmail.com.

Registration Rates

2019 SPA Biennial
April 4-7, 2019
Tamaya Resort,
Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico

Reserve a room (professional)

Reserve a room (student)

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SPA at AAA 2017

AAA 2017 in Washington DC

Anthropology Matters

More information about SPA at AAA 2017 is available here: SPA Calendar

See the dates and times for our sessions, business meeting and reception, engaged psychological anthropology meeting, and mentoring session!

116th AAA Annual Meeting
November 29-December 3
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Washington, DC

SPA-sponsored workshops

Workshop: Using Ethnographic Methods to Inform Development of Measurement Tools

Friday, December 1, 10:30 AM-12:30 PM, Location: Marriott, Park Tower 8210

Increasingly, anthropologists are engaging with mixed-methods research. The development of culturally-appropriate measurement tools is an important yet challenging part of this process, particularly for anthropologists interested in cognitive or medical anthropology. Using instruments that best reflect local ethnobiologies and ethnopsychologies, explanatory models, and experiences of health and illness are essential for ensuring validity. Anthropologists are ideally suited to identify such relevant categories and constructs but are not always trained in translating ethnographic findings into quantitative measures. This workshop will introduce participants to the concepts and methods that are central to developing appropriate, ethnographically valid measurement tools. 

This workshop is an interactive participatory teaching session consisting of small group activities facilitated by researchers with instrument development experience in multiple settings. There will be an emphasis on measurement tools that are used in the context of health research and interventions. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the limitations of using standard instruments for cross-cultural health and mental health assessment. Participants will be exposed to the novel tool development process, and facilitators will guide participants through a simulated tool development exercise. Participants will be exposed to pile sort and free-listing procedures and basic thematic analysis procedures to demonstrate how qualitative and ethnographic data can be used to develop items for instruments. The group will then discuss instrument piloting and refinement, including quantitative and qualitative techniques. Workshop participants will develop foundational skills and will be provided with resources for future reference as they seek to apply these strategies in their own work. 

Learning Objectives: 

Describe how anthropological concepts such as ethnographic validity, idioms of distress, and explanatory models are relevant to development of measurement tools. 

Employ freelisting, pilesort, and thematic analysis methods to develop a novel instrument in a local setting

Critique this and other quantitative approaches to the measurement of subjective phenomena

Presenters: 
Bonnie Kaiser conducts global mental health research with a focus on cultural aspects of measurement, communication, and intervention design. Dr. Kaiser holds a PhD in Anthropology and MPH in Epidemiology, and her work aims to bridge the methods and epistemologies of these fields in the study of mental health.

Lesley Jo Weaver is a medical anthropologist whose work focuses on mental health, chronic diseases, and nutritional concerns in India and Brazil. Weaver Holds a PhD in Anthropology and an MPH in Global Health, and she draws on both fields to study health inequity from a biocultural perspective.

 

Workshop: Image and Identity: Using Photography in Psychological AnthropologyFriday, December 1, 1:00pm – 3:00pm. 

 

Mead and Bateson worked with photography and film at the outset of what became psychological anthropology. Despite this early use of image-based research and representation, visual methodologies seem largely absent from most work in the field today. Although there are some notable exceptions (e.g. Lemelson’s film series on culture and mental illness in Indonesia), image-based work is absent from most current iterations of psychological anthropology. As the initial call for photo-essays at 2017 SPA Biennial meeting in New Orleans recognized, and as the initial exhibition illustrated (as part of the prominently scheduled poster session), images can convey understandings inaccessible to purely verbal and textual explications. Recognizing the utility of images to help convey such meanings, this workshop is designed to provide participants with a framework for thinking about and understanding how images convey information, how this differs from verbal content, and how to use both in a complementary manner. While the general model presented is applicable to all visual work, this workshop focuses on photography as still images (whether in the form of pictures, graphs, diagrams, and the like) are already regular features of academic publishing and scholarship, including books, journal articles, online content, and conference presentations. Whether you are new to photography, psychological anthropology, or both, this workshop explores the relationships between images and culturally contextualized identities, and is intended to provide a framework of basic theoretical and technical understandings for utilizing photography in conceptualizing, conducting, and disseminating psychological anthropology research. Whether you are ready to start including images in your work now, or want to use this as an opportunity to start thinking about presenting a photo-essay at the 2019 SPA Biennial, this workshop is for you.

Learning Objectives:

identify foci in psychological anthropology most amenable to photographic research and representation.

understand how images can convey understandings inaccessible to purely verbal and textual explications.

incorporate photography into their research toolkit, and understand how to use it as a complement to other strategies.

Presenter: 
Dr. Jonathan S. Marion received his Ph.D. in psychological anthropology from the University of California San Diego in 2006. His ongoing research explores the interrelationships between performance, embodiment, identity, gender, and media, as well as visual ethics, theory, and method. An Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas, Marion serves on the Gender Studies steering committee and involved in introducing a medical humanities minor. Currently the President of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology, he is also a Past-president of the Society for Visual Anthropology, and the author of Ballroom: Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance (2008), Visual Research: A Concise Introduction to Thinking Visually (with J. W. Crowder, 2013), Ballroom Dance and Glamour (Bloomsbury 2014), and Apprenticeship Pilgrimage: Developing Expertise through Travel and Training (with L. M. Griffith, in press).