The AES 2019 spring conference will be co-sponsored by Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists (ALLA) and Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA). It will be held at Washington University in St Louis (MO) from Thursday, March 14th to Saturday, March 16th.

Proposal submission portal is now closed. Contact conference organizers for more details: aes.alla.aba.2019@gmail.com.

Ethnographic Futures

We are not in normal times. At least according to some. For others, the perverse assaults against bodies, land, science, and justice have merely become more visible and contestable. At a minimum, people around the world and in the United States are experiencing uncertainty, violations, and anxieties. How are anthropologists strategically positioned to reflect on and theorize this uncertainty and ab-normalcy while bringing to the foreground local articulations of hope, emancipatory politics, and meaning-making? For our Spring 2019 meeting, we invite anthropologists and other scholars and activists to join the American Ethnological Society (AES), the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists (ALLA), and the Association for Black Anthropologists (ABA) in St. Louis to consider possible unfoldings of the future in specific locales, worlds, and lifeways. Five years after protests in Ferguson around racialized police brutality, Ethnographic Futures will convene in nearby St. Louis to explore how people with whom we study and collaborate imagine, create, participate, and refuse. This includes possibilities for mobilizing and challenging dominant structures but also the quotidian practices of caring, laboring, and celebrating. As some blur lines between the academy and activism, while others push back on disruptions of traditional geographic and disciplinary boundaries, we invite reflections on the future and the ethnographic. Both a method of knowing and a practice of representation (texts, photography, documentaries, teaching), ethnography is itself part of and a challenge to certain futures.

Questions? Contact aes.alla.aba.2019@gmail.com

Sign up to receive conference updates via email: https://goo.gl/forms/bPG6pr7Df0o4kJSm1

Conference Registration

Registration remains open until the final day of the conference. Register HERE.
Graduate (and undergraduate) students! We have a deal for you. AES membership is free if you sign up between now and March 17, 2019. This would normally be $12, but it’s free for a whole year. It also will get you a $5 discount on the AES/ALLA/ABA spring meeting registration because you can register for at student “member" rate ($40) rather than the student "non-member" rate ($45). To access this deal, do the following:

• Become an AES member. Enter the code AES19 at the checkout on the join/renew form.
• Then register for the AES/ALLA/ABA 2019 spring conference HERE at the subsidized student member rate.

Deadlines

The final deadline for all submissions will be Monday, January 28, 2019 (3 pm ET).
Decisions will be announced by Friday, February 8, 2019.

Hotel Reservations

The Charles F. Knight Conference Center
Throop Drive & Snow Way Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
https://www.acc-knightconferencecenter.com/

Reserve your room by calling 314-933-9400 or 866-933-9400 and ask for the “American Ethnological Conference” rate. The deadline for making room reservations at the special AAA rate of $119 S/D/T is Wednesday, February 20, 2019. After that date, any reservations received will be subject to availability and may not be at the discounted group rate.

Additional Accommodation

The Moonrise Hotel
6177 Delmar in The Loop
St. Louis, MO 63112
Tel: (314) 721-1111

Additional rooms are available at the Moonrise at the special AAA rate of $154 S/D/T. These rooms will be held until Thursday, February 21, 2019. After that date, any reservations received will be subject to availability and may not be at the discounted group rate.

Make your reservations with the following options:

• Call the hotel directly for in house reservations at 314-721-1111 and ask for the “AES/ALLA/ABA Joint Conference” rate.
• Go to http://www.moonrisehotel.com and filling in the appropriate reservation information on the left side of the opening screen. In the box labeled “Group Code” fill in your booking code, which is ANTHROPOLOGY2019 and the reservation will be made at your discounted rate.
• Email the Moonrise Hotel reservations department at Reservations@moonrisehotel.com.

Just for Graduate Students

Grad Student Networking & Solidarity Lunch

Friday March 15, 2019

Join a gathering for graduate students and undergraduates! Enjoy this low-key conference break! Network. Meet like-minded people. This is primarily a social gathering, but we can make space for sharing strategies and debriefing too. Lunch will be provided. Sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/6XBEnWuzAZ7PnYfg2

Graduate Student Happy Hour

Saturday March 16, 2019
Time & Location TBD

Plenary Sessions

Opening Plenary

Decolonizing American Anthropology: Ethnographic Futures & Possibilities
Thursday, March 14, 2019

Plenary Series

Troubling Ferguson & Beyond: Emergent Futures in the Afterlife of Death & Defiance in Divided Times
Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16, 2019

• Part I – Troubling States: Policing, Law, and Protest
• Part II – Troubling Whiteness: Complicity, Fragility and Ethics
• Part III – Troubling Bodies: Motherhood, Masculinity, and Queer Dissent

Featured Plenary Speakers

Ana Aparicio, Northwestern University
Gina Athena Ulysse, Wesleyan University
Riché Barnes, Yale University
Peter Benson, Washington University in St. Louis
Jong Bum Kwon, Webster University
Marc Edelman, CUNY, Hunter College and Graduate Center
Sherine Hamdy, University of California, Irvine
Odis Johnson, Washington University in St. Louis
Christopher Loperena, CUNY, Graduate Center
Laurence Ralph, Princeton University
Gilberto Rosas, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Krystal Smalls, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Alisse Waterston, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Bianca Williams, CUNY, Graduate Center
Rhaisa Williams, Washington University in St. Louis

Preconference Workshops

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Workshops require preregistration, which will be refunded upon your confirmed attendance. Follow the steps below to add a special event to your existing AES/ALLA/ABA 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. Locate the 2019 AES/ALLA/ABA meeting under the Meetings/Other Events header.
4. Click Add Workshops.
5. The workshops will appear, and you may proceed to checkout. For workshops that are refundable upon confirmed attendance, AAA will issue refunds after the meeting.

The Message and the Media: Advancing Your Mission through Communications

Thursday, March 14 | 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. | $20 (refundable with proof of attendance)
In this workshop participants will meet with representatives from Public Radio/NPR, the newspaper, and university publicity office to learn tips on how to effectively translate academic research and arguments to a wider audience.

How to publish your first major journal article

Thursday, March 14 | 12:30 – 2:00 p.m | $20 (refundable with proof of attendance)
American Ethnologist editor Niko Besnier illustrates the article manuscript publication process.

Radical Design: Exploring Alternative Futures in the Divided City (Walking Tour, Hands-On Workshop & Lunch)

Thursday, March 14 | 12:30 – 5:00 p.m. | $40 (non-refundable)
Explore St. Louis’ history of division through a tour of the urban landscape, and then create alternative futures in a hands-on studio activity.

Preparing Your Tenure File & Navigating University Politics

Thursday, March 14 | 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. | $20 (refundable with proof of attendance)
This workshop is intended to demystify the tenure and promotion process and discuss the university system and how to navigate university politics.

Teaching in the Trumpocene

Thursday, March 14 | 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. | $20 (refundable with proof of attendance)
This workshop will explore the tools anthropology has to offer them as they navigate college and their futures. Facilitator: Ken Guest, Professor, CUNY, and author of Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age.

AES Student Diversity Travel Grant

The AES Student Diversity Travel Grants are intended to increase participation in AES's annual spring conference in St. Louis (March 14-16, 2019). Students are required to present a paper.

Graduate students from historically underrepresented groups and those with disabilities are encouraged to apply for these travel grants to help defray costs associated with attending the AES conference.

Grants of up to $500 each will be awarded (in the form of reimbursement for travel, lodging, and/or meals, upon submission of receipts).

Travel Grant Applications are due by January 28, 2019.

Send to AESGrantsCompetition@gmail.com. Please include your last name followed by "AES diversity" in the title of the attachment.

Please include the following with your application:

• A completed cover sheet: [download here]
• A brief CV (maximum 2 pages)
• Letter of reference from a scholar or advisor who knows your work (maximum 2 pages). Please ask that the recommender submit the letter directly to AESGrantsCompetition@gmail.com by the deadline, January 28, 2019.

For questions, contact AESGrantsCompetition@gmail.com.