Society for Linguistic Anthropology Business Meeting
November 19, 2010, 6:15-7:15 pm
New Orleans, LA
Welcome (Kathryn Woolard, President)
Kit welcomed, and thanked Monica Heller for her work organizing the AAA meetings this year.
Student Paper Prizes (Jillian Cavanaugh, Member-at-large)
Jillian presented student paper prize awards.
Undergraduate award: Jade De La Paz (Brooklyn College, CUNY) ““OMG, Guess What?!”: The Indispensability of Gossip in Community Building.”
Graduate award: Nicholas Harkness (University of Chicago) “Vowel Harmony Redux: A Binary Structure of Attribution in Korean and Its Ideological Framings.”
Announcements (Kit)
Kit welcomed Lindsay Bell, SLA Graduate Student Representative to the AAA Student Caucus.
Norma Mendoza-Denton has been serving as President-elect by appointment since the results of the 2010 election were announced, through the 2010 meetings (an arrangement made necessary by past irregularities in our election cycles, now corrected). Norma will fulfill her officially elected term as President-elect from the end of the 2010 meetings through the 2011 meetings, at which time she will move into the position of President.
Paul Garrett was re-elected to a second two-year term as Member-at-large, which begins at the end of the 2010 meetings and runs until the end of the 2012 meetings.
SLA has 682 members (compared to 688 in 2000); numbers are steady.
The new JLA Editors will begin their official three-year term on January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2013: Misty Jaffe, Editor, and Paul Garrett, Associate Editor.
JLA has been doing very well. It has been granted an annual on-line supplement.
SLA logo contest winner (committee: Leila Monaghan, Paul Garrett, and Alex Enkerli): Mirko Yukic of Serbia.
Publisher discounts are on the SLA website.
AAA registration waivers were made available, and Lucero Flores Najera, a graduate student at Centro de Investigaciounes y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social in Mexico, received one; two Louisiana language activists, Rocky McKeon and Christophe Landry, also received waivers.
Travel grants for non-anthropologists/international folks were also made available by the Council for World Anthropology, and Lucero received that too.
ACTIONS: SLA exec board decided to make changes to the Edward Sapir Book Prize. It will now be an annual award with a $500 cash prize.
Wiley-Blackwell contract has been successful for small journals like ours. The contract ends in 2012. There is talk that a contract with WB will most likely be renewed.
Treasurer’s Report (Angela Reyes, Treasurer)
Angie gave report on the financial aspects of SLA. Highlights:
(1) Summary: Our net assets are projected to be $120,000.00 on January 1, 2011. Since 2008 and until fall 2010, our major sources of revenue have been from membership fees (around $20,000.00) and from JLA (around $10,000.00). Our expenses include the website (around $2,200.00), the business meeting reception (around $2,100.00), and prizes and awards (around $1,700.00).
(2) WB Publishing Agreement: Our net assets have been growing by about $25,000.00 each year since the 2008 publishing agreement with Wiley-Blackwell. (As a refresher, this agreement turned JLA from a major SLA expense of about $10,000.00 to a major source of revenue of about $10,000.00.) The five-year WB publishing arrangement ends in 2012, after which a new contract will be negotiated.
(3) New JLA Editor Agreement: Beginning in fall 2010, we have a new JLA editor agreement, which commits $10,000.00 annually for three years for course releases for the JLA editor. Because of this new agreement, JLA will no longer bring in $10,000.00 of revenue, but approximately $300.00. Our net assets will no longer grow by approximately $25,000.00 per year, but by about $15,000.00 per year.
Someone asked how JLA makes money. It was reported that the larger publications, particularly AA, make money and the wealth is spread across the sections.
Alex King suggested that we increase student essay prize amounts. Kit: the board will take that into consideration.
JLA Report (Paul Manning, Outgoing Editor; Misty Jaffe, Incoming Editor)
Paul: JLA is doing well. 2.4-month turn-around is a little slower than last year due to an increase in special issue submissions. The rejection rate hovers around 75-80%
Paul encouraged everyone to download from the site because each download gives us revenue.
Two special issues this year: one was published earlier this year, and one on media and technology is coming out next.
Kit thanked Paul and Miyako for their superb service, and Paul in particular for mentoring junior scholars.
Misty introduced Erica Hoffmann-Dilloway, book review editor.
Misty discussed the movement to ScholarOne, the on-line submission program.
Misty explained that SLA will primarily publish thematic content in the on-line supplement. The on-line supplement opens up exciting opportunities for innovations in publishing.
Michael Silverstein raised question about the limits of ScholarOne to view diacritics or other special symbols.
Program Editor (Kira Hall)
New section program editor beginning next year is Jocelyn Ahlers, who worked on the program this year.
Kira thanked reviewers: Jocelyn Ahlers, Don Brenneis, Jennifer Dickinson, Galey Modan, Chantal Tetreault, Anna Marie Trester, and Robin Queen. We received 38 volunteered panels, 52 individually volunteered papers, and 9 individually volunteered posters. Some of the individually volunteered papers were grouped into 5 panels. 17 invited panels submitted; 3 were selected. All 38 panels appear on the program, perhaps because of bigger hotel space. Not all individually submitted papers appear, so if you submit on a panel, you increase your odds of appearing on the program.
Jocelyn thanked Kira for her service.
Misty asked if it is possible to put the individual papers into posters. The meeting editor will consider it.
AAA Student Caucus (Lindsay Bell, SLA Graduate Student Representative)
Lindsay Bell (University of Toronto) was introduced as the SLA Graduate Student Representative to the AAA Student Caucus. She asked students to share ideas about what students want, how to encourage speakers of non-English languages to participate, and how AAA, SLA, and the AAA meetings can be more accessible.
Nominations Committee (Chaise LaDousa, Nominations Chair)
Chaise: On the recommendation of the Nominations Committee , three people were appointed as core members of the Language and Social Justice Committee: Sonia Das, H. Samy Alim, and Ana Celia Zentella (chair). These core members may recruit additional members not appointed by the Executive Board.
The Nominations Committee wrote letters of support for two people for the AAA Executive Board position designated for linguistic anthropology and two people for the AAA Nominations Committee position designated for linguistic anthropology. In addition, the committee wrote letters of support for two undesignated seats because the self-nominees are linguistic anthropologists, one for the Committee on World Anthropology and one for the Committee on Human Rights.
Upcoming elections: SLA president-elect and SLA member-at-large, both with 2011-2013 term dates. If you are volunteering to run, please let Chaise know.
Edward Sapir Book Prize (Kit)
Kit thanked H. Samy Alim and Richard Bauman, who were on the committee for the Sapir prize with her. 24 books were eligible. Kit presented the prizes.
Honorable mention for a first book by an author: Bernard Bate (2009) Tamil Oratory and the Dravidian Aesthetic: Democratic Practice in South India. Columbia University Press.
Honorable mention for a book by a senior scholar: Niko Besnier (2009) Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics. University of Hawaii Press.
Sapir prize: William F. Hanks (2009) Converting Words: Maya in the Age of the Cross. University of California Press.
SLA Website (Leila Monaghan, Digital Content Editor)
Leila gave update on the SLA website. One change will be a clearer distinction between the official SLA communication and the opinion content.
Leila walked everyone through the various aspects of the website, including: 1) tool kit, which is now up and running as a place to discuss technology issues in linguistic anthropology; and plans for 2) teaching resources; 3) unpublished articles; and 4) K-12 site, which would house resources for teachers and parents. She thanked Mark Sicoli, Robin Shoaps, and Jennifer Dickinson for their help setting up the tool kit. She also thanked Adrienne Lo for help with teaching materials. She announced that the website needs archivists, so please talk to her if interested.
Judy Irvine raised concerns about publishing any paper on the website without peer review. In discussion, Kit pointed out that these projects such as the unpublished paper collection are at this point proposals for long-range development and will be considered and discussed by the board before going forward. Michael Silverstein said we need disclaimer language for postings that do not reflect official SLA positions, a position that received informal agreement from several quarters and the chair.
Anthropology News (James Stanlaw, Anthropology News Editor)
Jim reported for him and Mark Peterson. He announced the deadlines and themes.
AN will still be in print form.
AN is the most widely read anthropology publication.
AN wants to change how it appears online: switch from PDF to an online format, and there is talk about having a ‘AAA app’ for smart phones.
Language and Social Justice Committee (Ana Celia Zentella, Chair)
Ana Celia reported on activities of the committee.
The committee is in discussion with the US Census Bureau and their use of the term “linguistic isolation.” The committee hopes to get a resolution out. Ana Celia thanked Laurie Graham for her work on this.
The committee is trying to raise language issues in the AAA RACE project. Bonnie Urciuoli’s “language and discrimination” chapter will be part of the RACE materials.
H. Samy Alim’s piece on the DEA’s recruitment of Ebonics speakers will appear in AN.
Katherine Hoffman is heading an effort to work with media outlets to remedy misuse of the word “dialect” to label non-European languages.
Susan Blum is writing a piece on Chinese language policy.
For next year, the committee is putting together a panel on language rights.
The committee would like to have a session addressed to the media about the ‘Top 10’ language and social justice issues of the year.
Linguistic Anthropology Representative on AAA Board (Laurie Graham)
Laurie announced that this is the last year that the program will be put together with post-it notes.
There is a search for the new editor of American Anthropologist.
Open Announcements
Leila Monaghan announced that the SLA dinner will be tonight at Mother’s.
Michael Silverstein said a note about research funding. There has been a decline in research proposals on indigenous languages to various organizations like the American Philosophical Society. He encouraged people to apply.
Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm.