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A Reason to Celebrate — SEA turns 40!

Dear SEA Members and Friends!

I am honored to introduce myself as the new SEA President. Thank you for the opportunity to lead the organization, which will be 40 YEARS OLD IN THE NEW YEAR! We have very good reason to celebrate at our spring meeting!

This year’s conference will be held April 30 – May 2, hosted by Rahul Oka at The University of Notre Dame. The theme is “Convenience” —and we sure hope it will be convenient for you to join us! The submission deadline is Jan. 15th, with notification by Jan 30th. For more information please visit our 2020 Spring Meeting page. Please note that the board prioritizes affordability. We worked hard to keep registration rates low and have approved three travel awards to help defer costs for students and/or un- or under-employed faculty with excellent abstracts.

Please also allow me to take a moment to thank all those of you who have served SEA over the years, helping to create such a strong, vibrant, engaging and friendly community. I’d also like to extend thanks to everyone currently involved in leading the organization, and to warmly invite others to join us.

BIG, BIG THANKS to our current leadership!!!!
Board Members: NORA HAENN (President Elect); BRAM TUCKER (Past President); RICHARD WALLACE (Treasurer); JOHN MILLHAUSER (Secretary); MAIA GREENE; RAJA SWAMY; LAURA TILGHMAN; EMMA MCDONELL, JOANNE BARON, MELISSA BERESFORD & LAURA COCHRANE

The SEA Book Prize Chair and Social Media Coordinator: JOHN MILLHAUSER;
M. Estellie Smith Award Chair: DAN MURPHY;
The Rhoda Halperin Memorial Award Chair: LAURA TILGHMAN;
The Harold K. Schneider Paper Prize Chair: LEILA RODRIGUEZ;
AAA Program Chair: AJ FAAS;
SEA 2020 Spring Meeting Program Chair: RAHUL OKA;
Anthropology News Editor: WALTER LITTLE;
Economic Anthropology Editor & List-serve Moderator: BRANDON LUNDY;
SEA Webmaster: DAWN RIVERS

We have several opportunities for others to get involved!
If you are interested in running for a board position, please do let us know as we have an election coming up. We are also looking for someone interested in serving as the Chair of the Schneider Paper Prize, as Leila is stepping down after several years of service (THANK YOU SO MUCH LEILA!). Walt Little also plans to step down as the Anthropology News Editor in November. He will be a tough act to follow, that is for sure (THANK YOU WALT), but we feel sure one of our members is up to the challenge! If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please send a quick email to cynthia.isenhour@maine.edu.

Please keep an eye out for another wonderful issue of Economic Anthropology, coming in January! This open issue includes an excellent symposium discussion prompted by the question: “What does economic anthropology contribute to the understanding of the economics of peace and conflict?” Our contributors include Laura Nader, Gearoid Millar, Cynthia Mahmood, Mark Moberg, and Erik Bähre! Please be sure to download it, cite it and share it! Also please note that Economic Anthropology is currently soliciting submissions for the January 2021 open issue. The deadline is January 20, 2020.

The SEA leadership wishes you a wonderful holiday season and a very happy and healthy new year!

Cindy Isenhour
SEA President 2019 – 2021

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SEA 2020 Book Prize nominations are open!

Hi SEA-ers,

I am pleased to announce that we are now accepting nominations for the 2020 SEA Book Prize. The SEA Book Prize Committee looks for the best book in economic anthropology published over the last 3 years. Previous winners of the Society for Economic Anthropology’s book prize are:

2003 Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia by Karen Tranberg-Hansen
2005 Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World by Ted Bestor
2008 Global Outlaws: Crime, money and power in the Contemporary World by Carolyn Nordstrom AND Home Cooking in the Global Village: Caribbean Food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists by Richard Wilk
2011 Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair Trade Markets by Sarah Lyons
2014 The Darjeeling Distinction: Labor and Justice on Fair-Trade Tea Plantations in India by Sarah Besky
2017 Money from Nothing: Indebtedness and Aspiration in South Africa by Deborah James

The book prize includes a $500 award. It will be presented at the fall 2020 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in St. Louis, MO during the SEA Friday afternoon business meeting. The winning book will also be announced in the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology News.

Instructions for Nominations:

Deadline for nominations is April 1, 2020.

Nominations must include

1. Author(s)
2. SEA membership status
3. Book title
4. Publication date and publisher
5. A paragraph summarizing the book’s argument
6. A paragraph describing how the book fits into economic anthropology
7. Contact information for the person submitting the nomination (name, email, phone number)

Authors must be SEA members at the time of their book’s submission. SEA is a member organization of the American Anthropological Association. Nonmembers whose books are nominated will have the opportunity to join the SEA to be considered for this prize.

Books must be published between May 2017 and April 2020. Books previously considered for the SEA book prize are not eligible for resubmission.

Please email nominations to the book prize committee chair, John Millhauser (millhauser@ncsu.edu) with the subject “SEA book prize nomination.”

SEA members who are interested in serving on the committee should let me know by email before the end of November.

Best,

John Millhauser