The Society for Cultural Anthropology's Biennial Conference

Past Conferences

The SCA has run biennial conferences since its founding in 1963. Past SCA conferences have been held in a number of cities around the U.S. and abroad, including Chicago (1970), Washington, D.C. (1973), Pittsburgh (1976), San Francisco (1979), Boston (1982), Philadelphia (1985), Irvine (1988), Toronto (1991), Seattle (1994), San Francisco (1997), Philadelphia (2000), Denver (2003), Santa Fe (2006), New York City (2009), and Atlanta (2012).

Upcoming Conferences

The SCA will host its 2021 biennial conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The SCA's 2022 biennial conference will be held in Berlin, Germany. The conference will be hosted by the Berlin Social Science Research Center, the Department of Culture Studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the SCA.

SCA Initiatives

The Society for Cultural Anthropology is dedicated to creating opportunities for anthropologists to share ideas, research, and practices through its biennial conferences, publications, and various programs. The SCA has published a biannual Journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology since 1967. The journal is open to members and non-members and includes articles and discussions in the fields of cultural and social anthropology, and related subjects. The SCA Newsletter is a quarterly publication that includes announcements, job openings, and other pertinent information for SCA members. SCA members can apply for travel grants through the Society for Cultural Anthropology Fund for Anthropological Research and Publication. The fund provides research and publication grants to SCA members who are conducting research and who are working on articles and books in any area of the social or cultural sciences. The SCA has an official Professional Training Initiative (PTI) program, which exists to promote and facilitate the implementation of undergraduate and graduate training programs in cultural anthropology. The initiative was established in 2015 with the goals of supporting the development of cultural anthropology as a discipline and building up the next generation of anthropologists. The initiative encourages faculty members to develop and teach cultural anthropology courses and fosters the creation of cultural anthropology programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Hiring Pool

In 2017, the SCA initiated the Hiring Pool. The hiring pool is an online database that allows SCA members to post job openings, look through current job listings, and see which SCA members are seeking research partnerships. The hiring pool is open to all members of the SCA, regardless of whether they are employed at a university or not. The hiring pool is not meant to be a general database for anthropologists to find research partners, but rather a tool for cultural anthropologists to find employment.

Biannual Newsletter

The SCA publishes a biennial newsletter, the Culture Guild Line, which publishes news, articles, and job listings from the SCA and its members. The newsletter also publishes articles from the Journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology, as well as from other cultural anthropology publications.

Conferences for Students and Early-Career Anthropologists

The biennial conference provides a great opportunity for early-career anthropologists to present their research and meet other anthropologists from around the world. Early-career anthropologists often choose to present their research in the form of a poster presentation, which enables them to engage in dialogue with other conference attendees in a less formal setting than a traditional paper presentation. If you are an early-career anthropologist, you should definitely consider attending your local biennial conference if it is open to the public. Many of these conferences are free or very low cost and provide a great opportunity to learn and network with graduate students and early-career anthropologists.

Conferences for Advanced Students and Early-Career Anthropologists

If you are an advanced student or early-career anthropologist and you would like to present your research at a conference, you should consider attending one of the larger and more established conferences in the field of cultural and social anthropology. However, it is important to remember that not all conferences are open to the public and some have a very specific call for papers requirements. Many conferences have student and early-career rates, which can make attending more financially feasible. Depending on your discipline of interest, there are many conferences to choose from. Some general conferences include the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, the Society for Humanistic Anthropology Conference, and the Society for Cultural Anthropology Biennial Conference.

Major Conferences for the Field of Anthropology and Beyond

While the conferences listed above are great for anthropology students, there are also many conferences dedicated specifically to specific disciplines within anthropology. These conferences deal with topics such as archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and medical anthropology, to name a few. While not all of these conferences are open to the public, many are and provide a great opportunity to network with other specialists in the field of anthropology. If you are an advanced student or an early-career anthropologist and you are interested in a specific discipline within anthropology, be sure to keep an eye out for upcoming conferences related to your discipline.

Conclusion

The Society for Cultural Anthropology is dedicated to creating opportunities for anthropologists to share ideas, research, and practices through its biennial conferences, publications, and various programs.