Abbreviation | ABA |
---|---|
Formation | December 2–7, 1975 |
Headquarters | Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
Region served | United States of America |
Membership | 1,000+ |
President | Bertin Louis |
Parent organization | American Anthropological Association |
Website | Official website ![]() |
Founded in 1975, the Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA) is an American organization that brings together Black anthropologists in an effort to better highlight the history of African Americans, especially in regard to exploitation, oppression, and discrimination. [1] It encourages, in particular, the involvement of Black students, including the recruitment of graduates, and establishes exchanges with African anthropologists. It publishes the journal Transforming Anthropology. [2] The ABA seeks to address theories across academic disciplines that do not accurately represent the experience and oppression of communities of color and to aid and strengthen these theories with the inclusion of an African American historical perspective. [1] It is one of the sections of the American Anthropological Association.
The ABA had its origins in the Minority Caucus, which in 1968 became the Caucus of Black Anthropologists after a meeting on a Black curriculum for anthropological studies held in Seattle. At the 1969 meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in New Orleans, a symposium was held on "Ethnographic Research in Black Communities in the U.S." The following year, an AAA Committee on Minority Participation was formed under the chairmanship of Gloria Marshall. [3] The Caucus was renamed the Association of Black Anthropologists in 1975 at that year's AAA meetings. [4] During the Civil Rights era, black graduate students began to pressure the academic world and the AAA to create a platform that would recognize, give agency to, and encourage communication among black anthropologists. The ABA joined with the AAA officially in 1987 as a way to attain further resources to meet their objectives in putting black anthropologists on the map. [5] This was done on the agreement that the ABA would be a multidisciplinary sector that focused on all areas of study by anthropologists that dealt with challenging the dominant hegemony of white supremacy, restoration and preservation of African heritage and expansion towards a more equal society, overall. [5]
The first president of the Association of Black Anthropologists was Vera Green who served from 1977 to 1979. [6]
Prior to the 1960s there was little to no representation of black anthropologists at the doctorate level. Of the thirteen who did receive their doctorate prior to 1980, only a handful continued to teach in academia at the collegiate level and virtually none actively participated at the AAA. The Caucus of Black Anthropologist was founded to fill this void at the AAA conferences by representing Black anthropologists in the field. The individuals involved with the Caucus would become the founding cohort of the Association of Black Anthropologists. The Caucus collectively founded News from the Natives. The publication was intended to engage and connect past, present, and future black students and faculty of anthropology. [1]
The executive board consists of three elected officers who serve two-year terms: the president, president-elect, and secretary/treasurer; two to three members-at-large appointed by the elected officers; the general editor; the program chair; the student representative; and the nomination committee. [7] The organization is self-defined as an egalitarian and participatory democracy with its members volunteering their time and resources.The current ABA Executive Board includes: [8]
President
The president represents the ABA in the American Anthropological Association and oversees records of the ABA's activities.
President-Elect is Jemima Pierre and Secretary/Treasurer is Shanti Parikh.
The president-elect votes on appointed positions. The secretary-treasurer is responsible for drafting the annual budget as well as managing correspondence records and administrative documents created during their term.
Program Chair
The program chair is appointed by the elected officers and serves a two-year term. This position presides over the ABA's scientific programs.
Other board members
The Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA) participates in the American Anthropological Associations (AAA) annual meeting. [9] The AAA annual meeting brings together members of the AAA and provides space for sub-associations to hold seminars and discussions around their research [10] The ABA's participation in the AAA annual meetings is best understood through the variety of discussion and presentations offered over the last decade. The ABA uses this space to hold board meetings, discussion on transforming Black presence in Anthropology and mentoring sessions for researchers and Grad students. Sessions held are specific to members of the ABA's research, often there are themes throughout the years which illustrate the ABA's focus, examples of past ABA sessions include:
AAA Annual meetings in the 20th Century included varied sponsored ABA sessions on Blackness in the United States and The African Diaspora. Topics addressed State Violence, White power, Black Identity and Performance and varied topics within the subject of the African Diaspora. Sessions sponsored by the ABA during this time included:
ABA involvement in sessions at the AAA Annual Meetings before 2010 is less apparent than recent years and the public records to illustrate involvement is sparse. From 2000 to 2010 ABA sponsored sessions revolved around writing workshops, [15] ABA board and business meetings, mentoring sessions and some special topics of global African issues [16] and Race research in the United States. Session topics included:
ABA Sponsored session at the AAA Annual meeting from 2010-2012 revolved around topics of the African Diaspora, Criminalization/Imprisonment of Black bodies, Race and Gender (representation in media and popular culture) and impacts of Gentrification and Politics.
ABA sponsored sessions at the AAA Annual Meetings between 2012 and 2016 discussed reoccurring topics of Gender, Black Bodies and the strengthening of Black Communities. The topics vary each year, there are however consistent sessions to discuss ways of transforming Anthropology and preserving the history and legacy of Black Academics and Leaders.
Recent ABA sponsored sessions have centered around topics of the re-emergence of racism and whiteness in the United States, representations of Black bodies and Black culture in media, Black Women's health, Gender and Queerness and State Violence (Mass Incarceration). [22] Discussions from 2016 to the present are central to popular culture and racialized politics of the 21st century.
The Association of Black Anthropologists funds awards and scholarships for exceptional anthropologists, researchers and scholars who contribute to the community through their work, specifically seeking to fund scholars who emphasize diversity in their work and conduct research in communities of color. [24]
This award was established in 2008 to honor research, scholarship, and service to anthropologists for their work for communities of African descent. This award is associated with Sankofa, the word in Akan which means "looking backward to move forward". this symbol represents an appreciation and knowledge of the past- in order to pay tribute to those before us. This award recognizes black anthropologists in the past who created opportunities for current black anthropologists and others. Winners have been
Yolanda Moses ( 2015) | Leith Mullings ( 2015) | Anselme Remy ( 2014) |
A Lynn Bolles ( 2013) | Arthur K Spears ( 2013) | Faye V. Harrison ( 2010) |
Ira E. Harrison ( 2010) | George C. Bond ( 2009) | Johnnetta Cole ( 2009) |
Audrey Smedley ( 2009) |
The candidates can be nominated by the ABA Legacy scholar committee, or by colleagues.
Named after Johnnetta B. Cole, who along with many other achievements, was the first female African-American president of Spelman College in 1987. As a professor at Washington State University, she cofounded one of the first black studies programs in the United States.
This award is in place to supplement travel expenses to ABA annual meetings to further student of African descent. applicants must be current ABA members, and enrolled din Ph.D. or Masters programs.
This award was created in honor of John L. Gwaltney (1928-1998), who through his research had a strong emphasis on black life in industrial cities. Gwaltney was a writer and anthropologist, whose research was centered around African-American culture. He was a student of Margaret Mead, and although he lost his eyesight as a child, is well known for his book; Drylongso: Self Portrait of Black America.
This award is given to member os the ABA, to those in any field of anthropology who have not been assistant professor for more than two years, in order to help scholars further their research. Along with the monetary award, the winner will be published din Transforming Anthropology.
This award was established in 2007, created in honor of Dr. Vera Mae Green (1928-1982) who was a pioneer in public and caribbean anthropology. She focused on activism, issues of poverty, and international human rights, along with contributing to a better understanding of aging an migration. Dr. Green was a prominent activist in encouraging African Americans and people of color to pursue anthropology.
The applicants must have a Ph.D with work pertaining to public anthropology. the winner will be published in ABA's journal: Transforming Anthropology
Awarded by the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology, this award is open to ABA members and supported by the Association.
The ABA, based on its founding purpose and missions, fundamentally works towards increasing the presence of African Americans in the discipline of Anthropology. These efforts are put forth through anthropological research and journals by African American Scholars and Anthropologists alike. This includes working towards getting people of color admitted into programs for Doctorates or Graduate degrees [25] through ABA sponsored mentoring, scholarships and awards. [24] Through the practice of increasing the presence of African American scholars in Anthropology, Dr.Tony Whitehead (Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of Maryland and member of the ABA) suggests that the ABA is also opening up avenues for both people of color and other marginalized groups to engage in higher education. [25] Dr. Whitehead, in association with the AAA, the ABA and WAPA (the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists) is continuing research on the lack of African American representation in Anthropology in effort to increase the presence of persons of color in the discipline. This research was initiated after a 2014 interview with Karen Brodkin (Professor of Emeritus in the Anthropology Department at UCLA) in which she stated that Anthropology is still a white public space [26] based on a 2013 online survey of the scarcity of African Americans in Anthropology. [25] The current editors have emphasized their responsibility towards an anthropology that dismantles the racial, sexual and gendered norms by expanding the barriers to what counts as anthropology and acknowledging their biases. Their goal is to reject the standard anthropological position of neutrality, and encourage activism, action and coalition-building. [27]
The organization's journal, Transforming Anthropology's, is where one can find the most recently published work of ABA scholars. The October 2017 issue, "Race and Religion Special Forum," features six articles that look at how race, religion, African-diaspora and the state intersect when dealing with the treatment of Black people within and outside state institutions. This work specifically delves into the United States' context and Nigeria, arguing that religion and race determine one's citizenship, rights and the access to resources provided by the state. The first article by anthropologists, Michal Ralph, Aisha Beliso-De Jesús and Stephan Palmié titled, "Saint Tupac," makes the argument that rapper Tupac Shakur has continued, even after death, to be a spearhead figure in battling white supremacy, capitalism and the oppression of African-Americans. They make connections between the poetic lyrics and African-diasporic religions and how his holographic presence at Coachella has led him to a sainthood status, not in alignment with Catholicism, but with traditional Afro-Cuban religions, and through this resurrection, has continued to inspire and fight against white supremacy. [27] "Citizens and Suspects: Race, Gender and the Making of American Muslim Citizenship" is the second article featured by Su'ad Abdul Khabeer brings ethnographic focus on two Muslim women and how their status, although both people of color and Muslim, has rendered different due to the de facto discrimination of brown Muslim people. Whereas American society does not associate blackness with being Muslim, the disparity of being brown and Muslim produces very different circumstances with citizenship and discrimination. [27] The third article, "Church and (re)Birth: Legacies of Christianity for Maternal Care in Nigeria," examines how the expansion of Pentecostal birthing centers in Nigeria have come into conflict with state-run, secular hospitals, modeled after the West. The birthing centers have been labeled as an interference to the state's neoliberal methods of treatment, deeming it harmful and counterproductive to further medical advancements. [27] The state's opposition to the religious practices is meant to reveal the Western influence of medicine through control of women's bodies during the birthing process. [27] The fourth article, "Beyond Genealogies: Expertise and Religious Knowledge in Legal Cases Involving African Diasporic Publics," by Kamari Maxine Clarke, looks at how anthropological approaches to religion, particularly religions associated with the Black diasporic, have advanced in academia, but are still illegitimate in the court of law. Clarke has been brought in to testify as an anthropological expert on African diasporic religions in a legal proceeding. Many of these religious practices are unknown and unacknowledged by the Christian-dominated hegemonic practices of the West, so the article suggests that anthropologists build new frameworks of diasporic religions that will allow them to be deemed legible in state institutions. [27] The last two articles are transcribed interviews and conversations between ABA members and prominent scholars of the African diasporic religious contributions.
In order to align their research with the ABA's goals of inciting action and transformation of anthropological practice, the October issue dedicates a section to practicing an activist-approach anthropology, labelled as "Anthropology in Action". The two featured articles take an activist-based approach to anthropology that gives space to underrepresented voices. "(Re) Politicizing the Anthropologist in the Age of Neoliberalism and #BlackLivesMatter," by Sarah Lacy and Ashton Rome, critiques the collegiate and university structure as an extension of the state. [27] "Love Dem Bad: Embodied Experience, Self-Adoration, and Eroticism in Dancehall," look at how "dancehall" dance is used as a form of Black self-love, self-expression and resistance against the societal hegemony. [27]
Members of the ABA often facilitate the use of books to present their research. Some of these books and authors have been awarded or recognized by various university presses for the content and the research being conducted. [28] [29] [30] Some of the books are as follows:
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavior, while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. The term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans.
Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of various kinds, including those characterized by close kinship relations. By the 17th century, the term began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits, and then later to national affiliations. Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society. While partly based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning. The concept of race is foundational to racism, the belief that humans can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists, linguistic anthropologists, linguists, medical anthropologists and applied anthropologists in universities and colleges, research institutions, government agencies, museums, corporations and non-profits throughout the world. The AAA publishes more than 20 peer-reviewed scholarly journals, available in print and online through AnthroSource. The AAA was founded in 1902.
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values, and general behavior of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life, while economic anthropology studies human economic behavior. Biological (physical), forensic and medical anthropology study the biological development of humans, the application of biological anthropology in a legal setting and the study of diseases and their impacts on humans over time, respectively.
Paul Gilroy is an English sociologist and cultural studies scholar who is the founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Race and Racism at University College London (UCL). Gilroy is the 2019 winner of the €660,000 Holberg Prize, for "his outstanding contributions to a number of academic fields, including cultural studies, critical race studies, sociology, history, anthropology and African-American studies".
The American Association of Biological Anthropologists (AABA) is an international group based in the United States which affirms itself as a professional society of biological anthropologists. The organization publishes the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, a peer-reviewed science journal. It was formerly the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA), but changed its name after a series of votes between 2018 and 2020.
John Gibbs St. Clair Drake was an African-American sociologist and anthropologist whose scholarship and activism led him to document much of the social turmoil of the 1960s, establish some of the first Black Studies programs in American universities, and contribute to the independence movement in Ghana. Drake often wrote about challenges and achievements in race relations as a result of his extensive research.
Tina Campt is Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. Campt previously held faculty positions as Owen F. Walker Professor of Humanities at Brown University, Director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Africana and Women's Studies at Barnard College, Professor of Women's Studies at Duke University, and Professor of Women's Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Campt is the author of four books: Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender and Memory in the Third Reich, Image Matters: Archive Photography and the African Diaspora in Europe, Listening to Images, and A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See.
Educational anthropology, or the anthropology of education, is a sub-field of socio-cultural anthropology that focuses on the role that culture has in education, as well as how social processes and cultural relations are shaped by educational settings. To do so, educational anthropologists focus on education and multiculturalism, educational pluralism, culturally relevant pedagogy and native methods of learning and socializing. Educational anthropologists are also interested in the education of marginal and peripheral communities within large nation states. Overall, educational anthropology tends to be considered as an applied field, as the focus of educational anthropology is on improving teaching learning process within classroom settings.
Suad Joseph received her doctorate in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1975. Dr. Joseph is Professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis and in 2009 was President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Her research addresses issues of gender; families, children, and youth; sociology of the family; and selfhood, citizenship, and the state in the Middle East, with a focus on her native Lebanon. Her earlier work focused on the politicization of religion in Lebanon. Joseph is the founder of the Middle East Research Group in Anthropology, the founder and coordinator of the Arab Families Working Group, the founder of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies, the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, and the founding director of the Middle East/South Asian Studies Program at the University of California at Davis. She is also the founder and facilitator of a six-university consortium of the American University of Beirut, American University in Cairo, Lebanese American University, University of California at Davis, and Birzeit University Consortium.
Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In the United States, social anthropology is commonly subsumed within cultural anthropology or sociocultural anthropology.
Leith Patricia Mullings was a Jamaican-born author, anthropologist and professor. She was president of the American Anthropological Association from 2011–2013, and was a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Mullings was involved in organizing for progressive social justice, racial equality and economic justice as one of the founding members of the Black Radical Congress and in her role as President of the AAA. Under her leadership, the American Anthropological Association took up the issue of academic labor rights.
Bianca Christel Williams is an American cultural anthropologist, feminist, author and academic, whose work centers on black Americans. In November 2016, the American Anthropological Association and the Oxford University Press honored her with the AAA/Oxford University Press Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology. Williams is an associate professor of anthropology at Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Vera Mae Green was an American anthropologist, educator, and scholar, who made major contributions in the fields of Caribbean studies, interethnic studies, black family studies and the study of poverty and the poor. She was one of the first African-American Caribbeanists and the first to focus on Dutch Caribbean culture. She developed a "methodology for the study of African American Anthropology" that acknowledged the diversity among and within black families, communities and cultures. Her other areas of research included mestizos in Mexico and communities in India and Israel. "[C]ommitted to the betterment of the human condition", Green also focused her efforts toward international human rights.
John L. Jackson Jr. is an American anthropologist, filmmaker, author, and university administrator. He is currently the Provost and the Richard Perry University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Jackson earned his BA from Howard University and his PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. He served as a junior fellow at the Harvard University Society of Fellows before joining the Cultural Anthropology faculty at Duke University.
Whitney Battle-Baptiste is an American historical archaeologist of African and Cherokee descent. She is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Center at the University. Battle-Baptiste's research focuses on "how the intersection of race, gender, class, and sexuality look through an archaeological lens". She is also the president of American Anthropological Association.
Dr. Andrea Abrams is an American anthropologist, Associate Professor, President of the Association of Black Anthropologists and Author of God and Blackness: Race, Gender and Identity in a Middle Class Afrocentric Church. Andrea is currently an associate professor of Anthropology, Gender Studies and African American Studies at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, as well as the Chair of the Gender Studies Program. In 2018, she was named associate vice president for diversity affairs & special assistant to the president, and in 2021 was named vice president for diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Dr. Faye Venetia Harrison is an American anthropologist. Her research interests include political economy, power, diaspora, human rights, and the intersections of race, gender, and class. She is currently Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She formerly served as Joint Professor of Anthropology and African American Studies at the University of Florida. Harrison received her BA in Anthropology in 1974 from Brown University, and her MA and PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University in 1977 and 1982, respectively. She has conducted research in the US, UK, and Jamaica. Her scholarly interests have also taken her to Cuba, South Africa, and Japan.
Samuel Martinez is a Cuban-born American ethnologist, ethnographer, cultural anthropologist, and professor at the University of Connecticut. He has published extensively on the struggle for human rights for Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic and their Dominican-born offspring. He has also done research on north–south knowledge exchange in human rights and on the rhetoric and visual culture of activism against modern slavery.
Donna Auston is an American anthropologist. Her research focuses on the African American Muslim community. She explores race, ethnicity, gender, and the lived experience of practicing Islam in the United States. Auston has served as a community organizer for over twenty years, and has been featured on television and radio in discussions on media and race, Islamophobia, and feminism.