Calls for Proposals for SfAA 2027, Norfolk, Virginia

As a co-sponsor of the Society for Applied Anthropology meetings in March, WAPA needs to submit at least five sessions (panels, roundtables) and participate with NAPA and the Anthropology Career Readiness Network (ACRN) in providing workshops.  Please consider contributing a proposal or participating in one of the following activities being developed by WAPA members.  The deadline for submissions is October 15.

Panel Proposals

If you are interested in participating in any of these panels, please contact the organizers as soon as possible.

PANEL: Centering Cultural Anthropology in US Economic Policy

Organized by Richard Morris (morris.counts@gmail.com)

Abstract:  This panel examines cultural anthropology’s vital (if underutilized) role in US economic policy. While macroeconomic modeling dominates policymaking, these top-down, quantitative approaches often miss how policies unfold in real-world communities, labor markets, and supply chains. Panelists will evaluate the current state of anthropological engagement in US economic policy, discuss how policy directives would shift if ethnography were prioritized, examine the trade-offs and risks caused by a lack of qualitative data, and identify opportunities for education and awareness raising to better prepare students, faculty, and the general public to better integrate anthropology in US economic policy formulation and implementation.  See complete call for papers for more information.

PANEL:  Rigor and Relevance in Applied Anthropology

Organized by Richard Morris (morris.counts@gmail.com) and Mark Edberg (medberg@gwu.edu)

Abstract:  A recent publication commissioned by Vanderbilt and Washington Universities (called the “Vanderbilt Report”) has raised a broad critique of what it characterizes as “humanistic social sciences,” including cultural anthropology, claiming that these social sciences have been overtaken by relativistic ideologies and have lost their scientific rigor and utility. Such a representation poses a threat to the reputation and efficacy of the field, with potentially detrimental consequences. To address and rectify this matter, we invite scholars to demonstrate how methodological rigor by anthropology contributes to quantifiable scientific advancement and serves the public interest. This panel invites exemplary research utilizing foundational qualitative methodologies, including participant observation, in-depth interviewing, textual and discourse analysis, comparative analysis, and thick description. Presenters are expected to articulate discipline-specific best practices, navigate complex qualitative research challenges, and illuminate the essential role of ethnography in broader scientific progress. During this session, panelists will deliver instructive case studies that underscore the empirical validity, methodological stringency, and contemporary relevance of anthropological inquiry.  See complete call for papers for more information.

PANEL:  The Vanderbilt Report and Applied Anthropology – Talking Back to A Well-Dressed Ideological Weapon

Organized by Mark Edberg (medberg@gwu.edu)

Abstract:  By now the reverberations of the Vanderbilt Report (Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences, released April 5, 2026) have been widely publicized. The Report took aim at what it called the “humanistic social sciences,” including anthropology (cultural anthropology in particular), for degrading the quality of scholarship and standards for truth through what its authors view as excess politicization of knowledge, specifically due to a perceived academic prevalence of “relativistic” approaches to evidence and truth (where “relativism” in the Report is primarily defined in terms of the influence of postmodernism, poststructuralism, decolonization, feminism, anti-racist/social justice goals, and a purported “repudiation of longstanding ideals of rigor and objectivity”). Many anthropologists have since reacted to the claims in the Report, viewing it as selective with respect to its “evidence,” ideological in its aims, misinformed regarding the application of anthropological theory and methods to a wide variety of real-world concerns, and simply wrong about the long and productive value of relativism in anthropological inquiry and research. That value includes the willingness to consider the variation in epistemologies and experiences that might guide the beliefs and actions of people, which in turn may lead to improved human understandings and relationships, better treatment, better services, better products, more equitable opportunities, and better quality of life for those among whom we work.  See complete call for papers for more information.

Page updated 12 Sept 2026