By Louise Lamphere, President and Heléna Ragoné, Program Chair

Since its inception anthropology has long been concerned with and contributed greatly to our understanding of humanity. Building upon this tradition, the theme of the 2000 meeting, to be held in San Francisco, CA (November 15–19), is "The Public Face of Anthropology in the Millennium." We envision participants extending anthropology's contributions by focusing even greater attention on our discipline's ability to shed light on complex issues affecting people's lives both here in the US and abroad.

One of the Association's long range goals is to ensure that national discussions of critical societal issues become informed by anthropological perspectives. Members are encouraged to showcase and explore the many ways our research touches on issues of social, political and public concerns from the perspective of all four subfields of anthropology, as well as practicing anthropology. We are particularly interested in exploring social justice, health research and health policy, education, development, ecological movements and environmental degradation, globalization, science, technology and the information revolution, violence, conflict and peace, race/ethnicity, gender and class.

The 2000 meeting theme will also serve to highlight the many ways in which anthropological knowledge can be directed toward educating both public and private sectors and in disseminating critical information to policy makers, decision makers and opinion makers on a variety of issues. The advancement of anthropology will serve a multitude of purposes: to promote the discipline, facilitate the hiring of anthropologists in both the private and public sectors, and increase the use of anthropological systems of knowledge, methodology and skills, thereby increasing public awareness of the uses and efficacy of anthropological knowledge.

Participants are actively encouraged to recast their work by exploring innovative and creative linkages, analyses, and implications and applications. We encourage you to submit proposals and papers that forge bridges between subjects and subfields moving us beyond traditionally conceived categories. For example, an archaeology paper on slave plantations would typically be conceived for an archaeology panel with a focus on race, but we would like to see such a paper enrich panels that address issues of health, violence, social justice, political economy and so forth. We would also like to see, for example, a cultural or linguistic paper that explores the effects of war or violence enhance a forensic panel or archaeological panel on sites that depict violence. Applying this same approach topically also reveals the intersections of subjects and approaches. Panels that incorporate the four subfields (as well as practicing dimension) in innovative ways that cross boundaries and explore nuances of race/ethnicity, gender and class are highly desirable.

The 2000 meeting provides us with a forum to engage with one another and with the public in a collaborative and creative process. Aside from the obvious historic value, it is our hope that "The Public Face of Anthropology in the Millennium" will showcase our strengths and usher in a new era of growth and collegiality in anthropology.