Meetings

2025 SPA Biennial Meeting

The SPA Biennial brings together scholars from all levels – students, postdocs, junior & senior faculty—who are exploring diverse issues in psychological anthropology. The conference is an opportunity to immerse yourself in current debates, controversies, and state-of-the-art thinking across a range of approaches within the field.  This is also an opportunity to meet new colleagues and old friends alike. We are planning many informal events and spaces in which we can think out loud, together.  For those new to the SPA, we warmly welcome you as part of this community! 

We recognize that a post-pandemic and Zoom world can induce people to stay at home and on-line.  That sort of habitus misses out on the lived experience and collective energy of shared space.  We are confident that the ambiance of the Santa Ana Pueblo’s Tamaya conference center makes this meeting worth showing up for.  The program offers innovative forums for interaction, including plenaries, pre-conference methods/writing workshops, mentoring for students/junior scholars, and more.  

Two Presidential Plenary Sessions will engage contemporary issues in Psychological Anthropology: 

1. Subjectivity and Security: This session examines political subjectivity and atmosphere across variety of issues, including empathy, ethics, care, addiction, violence, climate disaster, migration, and adolescence.  Session participants are Angela Garcia, Byron Good, Bridget Haas, Janis H Jenkins, Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, & Jason Throop. 
2. Eruptions of Liveliness: Native American Health in the 21^st Century.  This session examines revitalizing traditional knowledge, collaboration of traditional practitioners and allopathic health care providers, and issues of indigenous identity in contemporary North America.Session participants are Thomas Csordas, Joseph Gone, Jennie Joe, Melissa Lewis, & Audra Simpson.

Types of Submissions: We are eager to learn about your work and we will be welcoming submissions across a range of formats, including:

·      Individual papers

·      Organized group paper panels

·      Individual posters

·      Roundtable/ interactive sessions

Traditional paper presentations—whether individually volunteered or organized around a central panel theme—may be used to delve deeply into recent research, lay out work-in-progress, or reflect on ethnographic or pedagogical practice.

Poster presentations offer an opportunity to present your work visually and in a highly interactive format as participants mingle in a relaxed environment.

Roundtable/ interactive sessions provide a space for a range of scholarly conversations, creative engagement, and innovative/experimental practice. 

Participation is limited to 3 roles in the meeting from among these options: 1 paper or poster presentation; 1 discussant role (paper panel or roundtable); 1 chair role (paper panel or roundtable), and 1 roundtable/interactive session participant role. 

For Group Oral Presentation sessions, the organizer should submit the session abstract and the individual abstracts for the papers as a single submission. Make sure that all your presenters register for the meeting, but the organizer will be responsible for the panel submission.

Abstracts are 250 words (2,000 characters)

Registration Information

Registration opens October 1st, 2024. To receive an early discounted registration rate register by November 10, 2024. Rates will increase when the submission portal closes on November 10 at 11:59pm PST.

Follow the steps below to register:

1.) Click on the “Register for the Conference” button below. You will receive a link to submit your conference materials after you register.

2.) Book your room at this link by February 15th, 2025 to secure room block rates at the Tamaya Resort.

3.) Plan your transportation to/from the Albuquerque Airport: Transportation options include Lyft, Uber, or a taxi, all of which we recommend reserving ahead of time to ensure they are there to pick you up.

4.) Preview the conference schedule that will be posted on this site when finalized

If you have any trouble reaching the submission portal, please reach out to Elizabeth.A.Carpenter-Song@dartmouth.edu before the submission deadline.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Warmly,

The SPA Executive Committee