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Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists
2001 Annual Reportas submitted to the AAA by Co-Chairs Deborah Elliston and Tom Boellstorffin January 2003
OLGA Annual Report
December 2000-November 2001 Prepared January 2002 SOLGA, the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, was founded in 1978 and became an official AAA section in 1998. With a current membership of more than 250, SOLGA is continuing its maturation as a AAA section. SOLGA is committed to facilitating communications among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and other queer anthropologists and between queer anthropologists and queer scholars in other fields; to encouraging and supporting anthropological research on homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, and gender in all subfields of the discipline; to developing materials for teaching about gender and sexuality topics in various cultural contexts; and to serving the interests of gays, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered anthropologists within the AAA. SOLGA is co-chaired by two individuals of different gender identities. Sandra Faiman-Silva (Bridgewater State C) completed her term at the 2001 Annual Meeting, and Deborah Elliston (Binghamton U/SUNY) succeeds her for the next two years; Frank Proschan (Smithsonian) is in the middle of his two-year term. In addition to these three persons, other SOLGA Board members include, C. Todd White (USC, ctw@usc.edu), Secretary/Treasurer; Evelyn Blackwood (Purdue U), chair of the Payne Student Prize Committee; David Valentine (Sarah Lawrence C) and Heather Levi (Lake Forest C), 2001-2002 Program Co-Chairs; Barbara West (U of the Pacific), Newsletter Editor; Ken Rowe (Graduate Theological Union), Student Board Member. Todd White also manages the SOLGA website, located at: www.usc.edu/isd/archives/oneigla/solga or www.solga.org . At the 2001 AAA Meeting, SOLGA sponsored two invited sessions (“Postwar Influences on Alternate Sexualities in East Asia” and “Coming to Terms With an Anthropology of Sex: Sexuality as Practice, Relation, Community and Fetish”) and five volunteered sessions (“Queer Bodies, Queer Spaces,” “Coming Together: Gay and Lesbian Perspectives on Community and Kinship,” “But Wait, There's More!: Sexuality Meets X,” “Sexuality and Social Inequality: New Approaches to Participatory Research and Ethnography,” and “Sex in the Global Circuit: Intersexions and (Inter)Nationalisms”). SOLGA sponsors two annual prize competitions. The Ruth Benedict Prize is awarded annually in two categories, a single author volume and an edited volume, for scholarly anthropological works that address gay and lesbian subjects from an anthropological perspective. A student paper prize, the Kenneth Payne Prize, is a cash grant awarded for a student paper of exceptional merit. The 2001 Benedict Prize was awarded to Arlene Stein (Rutgers U) for her book, The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community's Battle over Sex, Faith, and Civil Rights (Boston: Beacon Press) .No award was made for the Kenneth Payne Prize in 2001. SOLGA also maintains a Mentoring File, under the guidance of Christa Craven, (American U). She can be contacted at cccrave@attglobal.net . The Mentoring File aims to provide a LGBT scholarly network of assistance for undergraduate and graduate students. SOLGA’s current work focuses on four areas: 1) building a solid organizational infrastructure; 2) enhancing networks of communication among members; 3) sponsoring a broad range of scholarly programs annually related to LGBT anthropological research; and 4) providing a vehicle for scholarship and networking for SOLGA members and non-members interested in issues pertaining to LGBT scholarship and activism. The SOLGA website (http:www.solga.org), the SOLGA listserv (SOLGA-L@american.edu), and the SOLGA column in the AAA Newsletter constitute SOLGA’s key information dissemination vehicles. Currently the website hosts the Mentoring File, a SOLGA history column, links to other websites, and other information of interest to SOLGA members and prospective SOLGA members. SOLGA continues to be concerned about homophobia and discrimination against gendered “others.” SOLGA is actively working to broaden networks across AAA sections around lesbian, gay, transgender and transsexual issues, and to provide a network of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and transsexual members of the AAA. Through the SOLGA website, the SOLGA listserv, the AAA Newsletter SOLGA column, AAA sponsored sessions, and proactive work on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and transgender topics, SOLGA maintains an active life in the AAA.
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