Newsletter: March 2001
Ann Miles and Fred Bloom Co-Contributing Editors
SMA Business Meeting
On November 17, 2000 the SMA Business Meeting took place in San Francisco. As promised earlier by SMA President Bill Dressler, the Meeting did indeed have a new look. In an effort to engage the membership more fully in the business of the SMA, reports by Board members and committees were streamlined, giving more opportunity for new business to emerge from the floor. Food and drink contributed to a truly congenial atmosphere.
Bill’s opening remarks evoked Woody Allen who said that “90% of success in life involves just showing up.” That being so, the Editors noted the room packed with successful people. Bill continued, however, by discussing the serious work of the SMA last year to increase the presence of medical anthropology in venues such as the NIH.
The first business was the presentation of awards. Since there were too few submissions, no student prizes (Rivers and Hughes) were awarded for 2000. James Trostle urged the membership to encourage more student submissions (see www.cudenver.edu/public/sma for Prize details). The Polgar Prize went to Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer for the best paper published in the Medical Anthropology Quarterly in 1999. The Basker Memorial Prize, presented by James Carey, went to Gelya Frank for her book Venus on Wheels: Two Decades of Dialogue on Disability, Biography, and Being Female in America. The Virchow Prize, from the Critical Anthropology of Health Caucus, went to Carolyn Smith.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly Editor Mac Marshall reported that the board approved a permanent page increase. The past year saw 63 submissions and 15 papers accepted, a selective 24% acceptance rate. Papers are now reviewed in approximately two months. Innovations for MAQ were discussed, including theme issues and the posting of back issues on “Jstore.org.”
Some Executive Committee Reports were delivered by Bill who noted the following highlights. Barbara Koenig reported the financial health of SMA is good, with a fund balance of $104,000, and a deficit of $3,000 projected for 2000. A dues increase is likely by 2005. New officers and board members are Mark Nichter, President-elect; Mark Luborsky, Secretary/Treasurer; Cheryl Mattingly, Catherine Panter-Brick, Paul Farmer, Executive Board; Sabrina Chase, Student Member of Board. James Trostle agreed to serve an extra one year term. Abby Kohn, the student representative reported that the guide to graduate programs is “on-line” on the SMA web site and that they sponsored two successful events at the meetings.
Ruthbeth Finerman (AAA Program Committee, with Andrea Wiley), reported on their work. Ruthbeth noted that because of space considerations at the hotel, the 2000 Meetings were extremely competitive. There were 10 proposals for invited sessions with space for only four.
Peter Guarnaccia reported on the Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) brief submitted by the SMA to the U.S. Supreme Court concerning drug testing of pregnant women. This set a precedent for the SMA, and resulted in new AAA policy. He also reviewed the SfAA/SMA meeting last March. The Board would like feedback about future joint meetings with SfAA or others.
Bill then provided details of his activities to increase the profile of medical anthropologists in various agencies. He highlighted work at NIH and the National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He discussed the AAA section assembly, pointing out that the SMA should be more involved in nominations.
In new business, Charles Briggs, from the AAA Public Policy Committee described their work adding that “the path-breaking policy work of Medical Anthropologists is well understood.” The Committee’s purpose is to increase anthropology’s participation in the public arena. He urged members to submit “expert” data sheets to the SMA web site and asked how the Association can assist members. Robert Hahn proposed the SMA Board create a membership registry indicating areas of policy expertise. Bill agreed the Board would take on this task. Next, Rob Lemelson described the Foundation for Psycho-Cultural Research for anthropologists working at the boundary of the social and neurosciences.
To close, Bill informed the membership that the search for a new MAQ Editor will soon be initiated. Suggestions from the membership to the search committee are welcome.
Explore the SMA website for an expanded version of this column at http://www.cudenver.edu/public/sma. To submit contact Ann Miles, Anthropology, WMU, Kalamazoo, MI 49008; tel 616/387-3983, fax 616/387-3999, Miles@wmich.edu.
To submit to this column, contact Ann Miles at miles@wmich.edu.