medanthro.net - SMA reports

2003 Annual Reports

2002 Business Meeting Minutes (pdf) | 2002 Current SMA Board Meeting Minutes (pdf) | 2002 New SMA Board Meeting Minutes (pdf)

Treasurer Report

Mark Luborksy, Secretary-Treasurer
Treasurer Report (pdf)

Graduate Student Activities Report

Graduate Student Representatives: Kari Olson and Sabrina Chase

This year the graduate student organization is sponsoring a Special Event panel discussion on Work vs. Family in Academia to be held Thursday, November 21, 6:15-7:30pm at the AAA meetings in Chicago. Issues to be discussed include institutional policies that help or hinder faculty members with family responsibilities, tips for dealing with family issues during interviews and the job search process, strategies for negotiating the pre-tenure years and family concerns, and more. We will convene our student membership meeting at the AAAs on Saturday, November 22 from 12:15-1:30pm. We will discuss next year's projects including topics for the 2004 AAA Special Event, a survey of medical anthropology graduate programs, and an SMA graduate student listserve. We are currently compiling a directory of medical anthropology graduate students, which will be distributed electronically to all students shortly after the AAAs. We have also established a new Graduate Student Mentoring Award to honor mid-career and senior medical anthropology professors with outstanding records of mentorship. The deadline for award nominations is February 29, 2004, and the first Mentoring Award will be presented at the 2004 AAA meetings.

Program Committee

Chair: Wenda Trevathan; Co-Chair: Carolyn Sargent

This year there were 29 sessions submitted and 25 accepted. Of the accepted sessions, 4 were awarded invitedstatus, including two that were co-sponsored, one with GAD and one with NAPA. One of the remaining 21 sessions, one was a poster session. There were 106 individually volunteered papers of which 96 were accepted and 5 forwarded to other sections. The ones accepted by SMA were organized into 9 sessions, including 1 poster session and one double session. Additionally, the two sessions invited by BAS address issues of concern to medical anthropologists and include SMA members, so our visibility and impact are enhanced beyond our own section's sponsorship.

In comparison with last year, SMA members this year submitted far more organized sessions (16 last year, 29 this year) and thus fewer volunteered papers (177 last year, 106 this year), suggesting better planning and collaboration. On the other hand, students and recent PhDs are more likely to submit volunteered papers, so we want to continue supporting their efforts.

more reports forthcoming...