The 2013 AAA Annual Meetings in Chicago are fast approaching. AfAA and its members have organized and sponsored a number of exciting panels and other events this year, which are listed below. We look forward to seeing you there!
AfAA Panels and Events at the AAA Meetings 2013
Wednesday, November 20
4:00-5:45 PM: 2-0620 AFRICAN DIASPORAS, MIGRATIONS AND HOMECOMINGS
Conference Room 5F, Chicago Hilton
Chair: Gayatri Reddy (University of Illinois at Chicago)
4:00 PM: “African Dance Tourisms: Power, Sexuality and the Labor of Hospitality,” Jasmine E Johnson (Northwestern University)
4:15 PM: “Contrasting Paths of Slave Emancipation in Northern Mali, West Africa,” Aurelien Mauxion (Columbia College)
4:30 PM: “Examining Networks of the Afropolitan: Ghana’s Digital Elites,” Reginold A. Royston (University of California, Berkeley)
4:45 PM: “The “African” Diaspora in India: Explorations of Race, Masculinity and Caste Politics in Contemporary Hyderabad,” Gayatri Reddy (University of Illinois at Chicago)
5:00 PM: “The Feminist Movement in the Operation of the South Sudanese Justice System,” MaryBeth Lucina Chrostowsky (University of Kentucky)
5:15 PM: “The Production of Matonge As An ‘African’ Neighbourhood in Brussels (Belgium): Performances & Mediations,” Karel Arnaut (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity)
5:30 PM: Discussion
Thursday, November 21
7:45-9:30 AM: 3-0005 ASSOCIATION FOR AFRICANIST ANTHROPOLOGY (AFAA) BOARD MEETING
Conference Room 5D, Chicago Hilton
Organizer: Anita Spring (University of Florida)
8:00-9:45 AM: 3-0115 RESOURCES, DEVELOPMENT AND POWER RELATONS ACROSS AFRICA
PDR 5, Chicago Hilton
Chair: Sibel Kusimba (Northern Illinois University)
8:00 AM: “’All I Need Is Help to Do Well’: Obstacles to Elder Health Treatment in Agate, Ghana, “Joyce Avotri wuaku (Nova Southeastern University) and Eileen M Smith-Cavros (Nova Southeastern University)
8:15 AM: “’You Should Have Left Me in Exile to Fend for myself’: Exploring the Challenges of Refugee Return in Post-Conflict Burundi,” Barbra Lukunka (American University)
8:30 AM: “African Science and White People’s Witchcraft: Morality and Identity in Occult Discourses of Southern Benin,” Douglas J Falen (Agnes Scott College)
8:45 AM: ‘Compassionate Aid: American Humanitarianism and the Ethic of Accountability in Ugandan AIDS Prevention Programs,” Lydia C Boyd (UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Chapel Hill)
9:00 AM: “Forever Creative! Equitable Access and Tanzania,” Shawn Smith (Northern Illinois University)
9:15 AM: “Social Networks of Mobile Money in Kenya,” Sibel Kusimba (Northern Illinois University)
9:30 AM: Discussion
10:15 AM-12:00 PM: 3-0435 AFRICA IN GLOBAL AND CONTINENTAL CONVERSATIONS
Lake Michigan Room, Chicago Hilton
Organizer and Chair: Gwendolyn Mikell (Georgetown University)
10:15 AM: “Public and Private Business Environments and Transnational Migration of the Chinese in Ghana,” Anita Spring (University of Florida)
10:30 AM: “Operating Off the International Development Grid: China’s Strategy As An Aid Donor, Investor, and Resource Extractor in Africa,” Betty J Harris (University of Oklahoma, Norman)
10:45 AM: “Kofi Annan and Africa: The Will To Transform,” Gwendolyn Mikell (Georgetown University)
11:00 AM: “Systems Thinking for ‘Sustainable Pastoralism’ Among Maasai in Southern Kenya: Case Studies in Using a Board Game Simulator,” Jennifer E Coffman (James Madison University)
11:15 AM: Discussion
1:45 PM-5:30 PM: 3-0910 AFRICAN MIGRANTS AND THE POLITICS OF PLACE: IDENTITY, COMMUNITY, POWER
Chicago/Alton, Renaissance Blackstone Hotel
Organizer: Yolanda D Covington-Ward (University of Pittsburgh)
Chairs: Ruti Talmor (PItzer College) and Edward C. Davis IV (City Colleges of Chicago)
Discussants: JoAnn D’Alisera (University of Arkansas) and Cati M Coe (Rutgers University, Camden)
1:45 PM: “’I Get Money, Now I Get Trouble:’ Tanzanian Migrant Women Making a Living in South Africa,” Emily J Margaretten (Ripon College)
2:00 PM: “Eating Fufu in the Steel City: The Social Integration of Liberian Immigrants in Pittsburgh,” Yolanda D Covington-Ward (University of Pittsburgh)
2:15 PM: “The Role of Home Town Associations (HTAS) and Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAS) in the Formation of Identities of Cameroonian Women in Berlin,” Elizabeth Iyase Beloe (Free University Berlin, Germany)
2:30 PM: “Changing Acts of Self-Inscription: Ghanaian Artists in Europe,” Ruti Talmor (Pitzer College)
2:45 PM: “African Transnational Communities: Experiences From Southern Africa,” Rubin Patterson (University of Toledo)
3:00 PM: Discussant, JoAnn D’Alisera (University of Arkansas)
3:15 PM: Discussion
3:30 PM: Break
3:45 PM: “From African Warzone to Cuban ‘Revolution’: The Lives of Northern Ugandan Scholarship Students in Cuba,” Ayesha Nibbe (Hawaii Pacific University)
4:00 PM: “Être Bana-Kin Na Poto Mpé Na Améliki: Navigating Congolese Transnational Space in Europe and North America,” Edward C. Davis IV (City Colleges of Chicago)
4:15 PM: “Giving Them What They Want: Immigrant Adjudication and the Marketing of Self Among Chicago’s New Africans,” Lisa M Simeone (University of Chicago)
4:30 PM: “Leaving Zimbabwe: Zimbabweans in the Rural Areas of Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia,” William Derman (Norwegian University of the Life Sciences)
4:45 PM: “’Black Chinese’: Racial Frontiers and the Problems of Mixed African(Nigerian)-Chinese Offspring in the Politics of Identity,” Yu Qiu (University of Cambridge)
5:00 PM: Discussant, Cati M Coe (Rutgers University, Camden)
5:15 PM: Discussion
4:00 PM-5:45 PM: 3-1105 DIVERSE ALTERITIES: CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF IDENTITY ACROSS AFRICA
PDR 7, Chicago Hilton
Chair: Wendi A Haugh (St. Lawrence University)
4:00 PM: “’We Are Not Africans, We Are Only Ruled By them’: The Politics of Belonging and the Struggle for Defining Civilization in Contemporary Zanzibar,” Akbar A Keshodkar (Zayed University)
4:15 PM: “Citizen-Owners, Not Culture-Bearers: Namibian Nationalist Discourse in Comparative Perspective,” Wendi A Haugh (St. Lawrence University)
4:30 PM: “Joining the Networks: The Implications of Tanzanian Urban Professionals’ Uses of Electronic Communications,” Anne S Lewinson (Berry College)
4:45 PM: “Led Into Temptation: The Limits of Pentecostalism Among Zimbabwean Migrant Farm Workers in South Africa,” Lincoln Addison (Rutgers University)
5:00 PM: “The Anthropologist Wedding Planner: Researching Notions of Love, Success and Change in An Emerging African Metropolis,” Ana Sofia Tillo (Oxford university)
5:15 PM: Discussion
7:30 PM-9:30 PM: 3-1215 AFAA BUSINESS MEETING, RECEPTION, AND DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
Boulevard C, Chicago Hilton
Organizer: Anita Spring (University of Florida)
2013 Distinguished Lecture: Mwenda Ntarangwi, “Swimming Against the Tide: Hip Hop Youth Culture and Anthropology”
Friday, November 22
8:00 AM-9:45 AM: 4-0025 THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF POTENTIALITY IN AFRICA
Joliet Room, Chicago Hilton
Invited Session
Co-sponsored with Society for Economic Anthropology
Organizers: Erin V Moore (University of Chicago) and Brooke S Bocast (Northwestern University and Temple University)
Chair: Brooke S Bocast (Temple University)
8:00 AM: “The Potential of Culture: Social Technologies of Branding and the Guises of Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana,” Lauren N Adrover (Northwestern University)
8:15 AM: “Towards a ‘bright Future’: Pathologies of Potential in a Ugandan Village,” Brooke S Bocast (Temple University)
8:30 AM: “Having AIDS in An AIDS-Free Generation: Negotiating HIV-Positive Children’s Futures Amidst Successful Prevention Programs in Botswana,” Bianca Dahl (University of Toronto)
8:45 AM: “Sponsoring the Future: Marketizing Children’s Potential in Senegalese Preschools,” Kathryn E. McHarry (University of Chicago)
9:00 AM: “Nubility and Indolence: The Tropes of ‘Harnessing Girls’ Potential’ in Urban Uganda,” Erin V Moore (University of Chicago)
9:15 AM: “Potentiality Contested: Futures of Prosperity and Health in Mozambican Pentecostal Movements,” Christy K Schuetze (Swarthmore College)
8:00 AM-11:45 AM: 4-0280 RELIGIOUS FUTURES IN AFRICA: NGO-IZED, PERSONALIZED, GLOBALIZED
Chicago/Alton, Renaissance Blackstone Hotel
Organizers: Mara A Leichtman (Michigan State University) and Joseph B Hill (University of Alberta)
Chairs: Mara A Leichtman (Michigan State University) and Joseph B Hill (University of Alberta)
Discussants: Birgit Meyer (University of Utrecht) and Julia Elyachar (University of California at Irvine)
8:00 AM: “Beyond Gift and Market: The NGO-Ization of Religious Groups in Côte d’Ivoire,” Marie Nathalie LeBlanc (Université du Québec à Montréal)
8:15 AM: “Venture Discipleship: NGO-Izing Sufi Religious Associations in Dakar,” Joseph B Hill (University of Alberta)
8:30 AM: “The Cooperative Gospel: The Religious Dynamics of Burial Assurance in Swaziland,” Casey Golomski (University of Massachusetts Boston)
8:45 AM: “Conflicts in the Sexual Realm? Secularity Meets Religiosity in Sex Education of Postcolonial Nigeria,” Victor Ogbonnaya Okorie (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
9:00 AM: Discussant, Birgit Meyer (University of Utrecht)
9:15 AM: Discussion
9:45 AM: Break
10:00 AM: “From Militancy to Economic Development: Islamic Youth Associations in Neoliberal Burkina Faso,” Louis Audet Gosselin (Université du Québec à Montréal)
10:15 AM: “(Re)Making Religious Community: Islamic Moral Renewal and Changing Patterns of Sociability and Economic Enterprise in Urban Mali,” Dorothea Schulz (University of Cologne)
10:30 AM: “Christian Businesses and Confucius Insitutes: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Reconfigured Between Rwandans and Chinese,” Amy Stambach (University of Oxford)
10:45 AM: “NGO-Ization As Legitimization: Shi‘I Islamic Organizations In Senegal,” Mara A Leichtman (Michigan State University)
11:00 AM: Discussant, Julia Elyachar (University of California at Irvine)
11:15 AM: Discussion
10:15 AM-12:00 PM: 4-0425 POLITIES OF DISPOSSESSION: CONTESTED RESOURCES AND the PRODUCTION of PLACE in AFRICA
Boulevard B, Chicago Hilton
Organizers: Kristin D Phillips (Emory University), Amy B. Nichols-Belo (Randolph-Macon College) and Omolade Adunbi (The University of Michigan)
Chair: Omolade Adunbi (The University of Michigan)
Discussant: James H Smith (University of California – Davis)
10:15 AM: “Contested Spaces, Conflicting Nation: Violence, Oil and the ‘City of Sin,’” Omolade Adunbi (The University of Michigan)
10:30 AM: “Contested Knowledge in the Post-Socialist Nation: Traditional Healing As Resource and Threat in Northwestern Tanzania,” Amy B. Nichols-Belo (Randolph-Macon College)
10:45 AM: “’Before the Young Ones Throw It Out’: Intellectual Property, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and the Power of Place in Venda,” Clare M Terni (University of Virginia)
11:00 AM: “Competing Spaces of Extraction: Protected Areas, Pastoralism and Capital Accumulation By Dispossession in Dryland Regions of East Africa,” Bilal Butt (University of Michigan)
11:15 AM: “Natural Resources in the Making of Nation-Space: Oil, Citizenship, and the New Regionalism in Tanzania,” Kristin D Phillips (Emory University)
11:30 AM: Discussant, James H Smith (University of California – Davis)
11:45 AM: Discussion
10:15 AM-12:00 PM: 4-0465 SCENES OF SOVEREIGNTY
Conference Room 4G, Chicago Hilton
Organizer and Chair: Stacey L Vanderhurst (Brown University)
Discussants: Niklas Hultin (Cambridge University) and Joseph Hellweg (Florida State University)
10:15 AM: “Negotiating State Sovereignty At Mombasa’s Old Port,” Nidhi Mahajan (Cornell University)
10:30 AM: “The Tractor and the Plow: Commercial Agriculture and Ethiopian Sovereignty in the 21st Century,” Sarah Stefanos (University of Wisconsin – Madison and University of Wisconsin – Madison)
10:45 AM: “Religious Freedom and Government Intervention in Ethiopia,” Teferi A Adem (HRAF at Yale University)
11:00 AM: “God Rescued You: Divine Intervention and Sovereign Power in Nigeria’s Counter-Trafficking Programs,” Stacey L Vanderhurst (Brown University)
11:15 AM: “When Is a State? The Case of Somaliland,” Diane O’Rourke (Victoria University of Wellington + University of Hargeisa)
11:30 AM: Discussant, Niklas Hultin (Cambridge University)
11:45 AM: Discussant, Joseph Hellweg (Florida State University)
1:45 PM-3:30 PM: 4-0825 ISSUES OF AGE, GENDER AND CLASS ACROSS AFRICA
Conference Room 4L, Chicago Hilton
Chair: Melina Taylor (CSU Chico)
1:45 PM: “The Politics and Development of the Mungiki Movement in Kenya,” Declan Galvin (New York University)
2:00 PM: “’Because We Young People Drink Beer, and they Drink Jabulani:’ Examining An Alcohol Ban in a Rural Xhosa Community Through the Lens of Intergenerational Conflict,” Kate Rice (University of Toronto)
2:15 PM: “Test-Tube Transnationalism: Fertility Migrants and Reproductive Refugees in Southern Africa,” Rebecca L Upton (DePauw University)
2:30 PM: “Black Female Bed and Breakfast Entrepreneurs in the Cape Town, South Africa Townships: Opportunity, Intersections, and Change,” Katrina T Greene (Biola University)
2:45 PM: “Female Genital Mutilation Education and Outreach Strategies in The Gambia, West Africa: An Analysis of a Non-Governmental Organization’s Influence in Changing Public Policy,” Melina Taylor (CSU Chico)
3:00 PM: Discussion
4:00 PM-5:45 PM: 4-1010 INTERGENERATIONAL DYNAMICS IN AFRICA TODAY: CHANGING PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES
Conference Room 4C, Chicago Hilton
Invited Session
Organizers and Chairs: Jeanette L Dickerson-Putman (Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis) and Maria G Cattell (The Field Museum of Natural History)
Discussant: Maria G Cattell (The Field Museum of Natural History)
4:00 PM: “Men’s Intergenerational Reflections On Sexuality, Marriage and Fatherhood in Patrilineal Malawi,” Fiona R Parrott (University of Amsterdam)
4:15 PM: “What Do African (Cameroonian) University Professors, Parents and University Students Have to Say About the Value of Higher Education in Human Development?” Rachel R Reynolds (Drexel University)
4:30 PM: “Doing Kinship in Critical Health Moments: Case Studies From Coastal Tanzania,” Brigit Obrist van Eeuwijk (University of Basel)
4:45 PM: “Transgressing Norms of Care: Older Persons Providing Elder Care in Tanzania,” Peter M Van Eeuwijk (University of Basel)
5:00 PM: “When There Is No Next Generation: Old Age and Childless Women in a Southern Nigerian Community,” Marida Hollos (Brown University)
5:15 PM: “Building Bridges Across Generations: Revitalizing Elder and Youth Communication and Knowledge Transmissiom Among the Nandi of Western Kenya,” Jeanette L Dickerson-Putman (Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis) and Emily Choge (Moi University)
5:30 PM: Discussant, Maria G Cattell (The Field Museum of Natural History)
Saturday, November 23
8:00 AM-9:45 AM: 5-0140 POPULAR CULTURE, CONTESTATIONS AND CHANGE IN AFRICAN CONTEXTS
Conference Room 4E, Chicago Hilton
Chair: Lesley N Braun (Université de Montréal)
8:00 AM: “Conjuring a New Public: Mystic Arts and National Culture in Postwar Sierra Leone,” Samuel M. Anderson (University of California Los Angeles)
8:15 AM: “Cyber Siren: What Mami Wata Reveals About Popular Culture and the Chinese Presence in Kinshasa, DRC,” Lesley N Braun (Université de Montréal)
8:30 AM: “Mimesis, Syncretism, and Visual Representation in Ewe Vodu,” Eric J Montgomery (Wayne State University)
8:45 AM: “Re-Circulating Giriama Traditional Heroines: Mekatilili and Mepoho,” Linda L Giles (Illinois Wesleyan University), Celia Nyamweru (St. Lawrence University) and John Mitsanze (Malindi District Cultural Association)
9:00 AM: “The Ballet and Its Other: The Theatre and Social Change in Contemporary South Africa,” Meryl Lauer Lodge (University of Minnesota and University of Minnesota)
9:15 AM: “The Gift of Dundunba: Dance and Social Cohesion in Urban Guinea,” Adrienne Jordan Cohen (Yale University)
9:30 AM: Discussion
1:45 PM-3:30 PM: 5-0755 INEQUALITY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
Grand Tradition, Chicago Hilton
Invited Session
Co-sponsored with Society for Economic Anthropology
Organizer and Chair: Laura L Cochrane (Central Michigan University)
Discussant: Carolyn K Lesorogol (Washington University)
1:45 PM: Discussant, Carolyn K Lesorogol (Washington University)
2:00 PM: “Women’s Groups and the Topography of Money and Exchange Between Maasai Women: Mitigating the Landscape of Gender Inequality,” Julia Klara Bryson Bailey (McGill University)
2:15 PM: “Addressing Global Economic Inequalities Through Community Participation in Senegal’s Artisanal Workshops,” Laura L Cochrane (Central Michigan University)
2:30 PM: “Inequality and Migration: The Political Economy of Difference Among Transnational Movers,” Jeffrey H Cohen (The Ohio State University) and Ibrahim Sirkeci (Regent’s College London)
2:45 PM: “Farmers and Farmworkers: Negotiating Unequal Identities in a Rural Appalachian Community,” Susie Donaldson (University of Iowa)
3:00 PM: “’Not What It Used to be’: Schemas of Class and Contradiction in the Great Recession,” Anna Jefferson (Abt Associates)
3:15 PM: “The Political Economy of Community and Cooperation: Artisans, Business Associations, and Economic Development in Rural Peru,” Jennifer A Vogt (Vanderbilt University)
1:45 PM-3:30 PM: 5-0815 AESTHETICS OF SECURITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
Conference Room 4G, Chicago Hilton
Organizer and Chair: Anna M West (Stanford University)
Discussants: Jason Price (UC Berkeley) and Claudia Gastrow (University of Chicago)
1:45 PM: “The Biometric Imaginary: The Technopolitics of Securing the Market and State in Contemporary South African Social Protection,” Kevin Donovan (University of Cape Town & University of Michigan)
2:00 PM: “The Story of the Purple House: Aesthetics and Security of Gated Communities in South Africa,” Liezemarie Johannes (Universty of the Witswatersrand)
2:15 PM: “White Weddings,” Danai Samantha Mupotsa (University of the Witwatersrand)
2:30 PM: “Food Security and the Semiotics of Maize in Malawi,” Anna M West (Stanford University)
2:45 PM: Discussant, Jason Price (UC Berkeley)
3:00 PM: Discussant, Claudia Gastrow (University of Chicago)
3:15 PM: Discussion
Sunday, November 24
8:00 AM-9:45 AM: 6-0045 MUSEUMS AND ART MARKETS: SPACES TO ENGAGE THE PUBLIC
Conference Room 4D, Chicago Hilton
Invited Session
Organizers: Bennetta Jules-Rosette (University of California, San Diego) and Erica L Fontana (University of California, San Diego)
Chair: Bennetta Jules-Rosette (University of California, San Diego)
Discussant: Christopher B Steiner (Connecticut College)
8:00 AM: “Museums From Private to Public: Trajectories of Transformation in Comparative Perspective,” Bennetta Jules-Rosette (University of California, San Diego)
8:15 AM: “Private Memories and Public Histories: Transformations of Historical Museums in Poland,” Erica L Fontana (University of California, San Diego)
8:30 AM: “Afro-Dubai: Alternative Modernities and Dubai’s Contemporary Art Scene,” Wayne H Osborn Jr (Georgetown University)
8:45 AM: “Statues, Murals and the National Museum: Mediating the Presence and Absence of Women in Zimbabwean Political Struggles,” Lorna Lueker-Zukas (National University)
9:00 AM: Discussant, Christopher B Steiner (Connecticut College)
9:15 AM: Discussion
10:15 AM-12:00 PM: 6-0345 TRAVELLING MODELS OF POLICY MAKING IN CONTEMPORARY UPPER GUINEA COAST SOCIETIES
Conference Room 4J, Chicago Hilton
Organizer: David O’Kane (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Chair: William P Murphy (Northwestern University)
10:15 AM: “Krio Ideologies of Descent in Current Public Discourse and Performance,” Jacqueline Knörr (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
10:30 AM: “Performances and Discourses Related to Secret Societies in the Freetown Peninsula, Sierra Leone,” Anaïs Menard (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
10:45 AM: “Performances and Discourses On Peace Building in the Casamance,” Markus Rudolf (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and Markus Rudolf)
11:00 AM: “Performances and Discourses Related to Security in Guinea-Bissau: Bottom-Up Versus Top-Down Discourses,” Christoph Kohl (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF))
11:15 AM: “Performances and Discourses in Public Spectacle At the University of Makeni,” David O’Kane (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
11:30 AM: “Promoting Freedom of Expression Through Civic Education – Opportunities and Challenges in Post War Sierra Leone,” Sylvanus Spencer (Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone)
11:45 AM: “Witchcraft Confessions As a Public Performance: The Complexity of Emerging Orders in Post-War Liberia,” Maarten Bedert (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
