<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">[Apologies and warning about the length of this response; this topic triggered expressions of concerns I’ve been stewing on for some time now. —RJS]<div><br></div><div>Colleagues,<div><br></div><div>I strongly believe that asking for reconsideration of this in-person only decision for AAA 2025 is warranted for multiple reasons of accessibility and safety (age, economic, political, among others). I would like to see the SLA and other units or interest groups (within and extremely to the AAA) formally call for a hybrid format as a matter of equity and efficacy to further the fundamental purposes of our Annual Meetings: the dissemination of research; peer review and collaboration; and democratic self-governance as professional disciplinary organizations. </div><div><br></div><div>Increasingly, DACA and undocumented individuals (or those who might be deemed to simply “look like unauthorized individuals”) are at greater risk even for domestic travel, especially with differing levels of compliance or capitulation by authorities in the various states, counties, and municipalities. </div><div><br></div><div>Many of our legally-resident members are non-USA citizens with either visas or even Green Cards that are demonstrably no longer being respected. Those international scholars with no reasonable reason for refusal of admittance at our borders can no longer be confident that they will be admitted. And, alas, it appears that the US Legislative Branch is capitulating to the whims and directives of the Executive Branch, exacerbating (if not fueling) the concerns and risks considerably. </div><div><br></div><div>Many of our areas of research are active foci for federal targeting, not just for their funding or publishing of findings, but also for agencies, organizations, or individuals who are openly being labeled as “The Enemy Within” because their public positions critique or are even in opposition to official stances and pronouncements. Sadly, topics or projects that are actually unrelated to these problematically-identified areas that just happen to use certain identified terms or phrases deemed anathema could cause many others that apparently aren’t intentionally targeted to be swept into the maw of this indiscriminate (though very discriminating) movement despite whatever context or coreferences would indicate “non-problematic” cases (for example, the scrubbing of the historical references on federal websites to the atomic-bomb delivering airplane “Enola Gay”).</div><div><br></div><div>I believe that concerns about environmental mitigation from reduced greenhouse gas emissions due to fewer long-distance travelers need only a mention, as they are almost self-evident nowadays. </div><div><br></div><div>Excluding so many of our members and colleagues from participating in professional advancement and professional self-governance by an in-person only policy seems extremely counter-productive. Yes, there are many both tangible and intangible benefits of participating in-person, but I do not believe that those should be promoted at the expense of so many other benefits and principles. The both-and solution of a hybrid format for the Annual Meetings of the AAA seems to me, while especially appropriate for this year, to be warranted for <i>all</i> future meetings.</div><div><br></div><div>—RJS<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr"><div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">===========================</span></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;">Richard J. Senghas, Ph.D.</font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;">Professor, Anthropology/Human Development</font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;">School of Applied Human and Environmental Studies</font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;">SSU Statewide Senator, Academic Senate, California State University VP</font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><span class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Stevenson Hall 3804</span></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><span class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Sonoma State University</span></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;">1801 East Cotati Avenue</font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;">Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609</font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://sonoma.edu/" class="">senghas@sonoma.edu</a></font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><font face="Helvetica" color="#000000" class="" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;">707-664-2307</font></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><br></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;">[Note: on leave during the summer and the Fall 2024 semester.]</div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/selfsched?sstoken=UUNOanFKY2l2bmN1fGRlZmF1bHR8OWZhZDdkZjY0YTg5ZDdlNmFmMDNiNDNkNTRkNTNlMjE" class="">Office Hour Signups</a></div><div class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 12px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-family: Arial; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://sonomastate.zoom.us/j/82498444218" class="">Office Hour Zoom Sessions</a></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Mar 16, 2025, at 8:17 AM, Zentella, Ana <azentella@ucsd.edu> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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<div dir="auto">In total agreement, esp since it is harder for me to travel every yr. </div>
<div dir="auto"> Ac Zentella </div>
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<div id="ms-outlook-mobile-signature" dir="auto">Sent via the Samsung Galaxy A12, an AT&T smartphone<br>
Get <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg&source=gmail-imap&ust=1742743038000000&usg=AOvVaw39E4jV1hpUiKHhlH8_qx_u">Outlook for Android</a></div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Linganth <linganth-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Joseph Wilson <joseph.wilson@utoronto.ca><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, March 16, 2025 7:07:31 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> linganth@listserv.linguistlist.org <linganth@listserv.linguistlist.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Linganth] Virtual option for AAA 2025?</font>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Hi all, </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">I just posted a comment on the All Members Community channel of the AAA message board about AAA 2025:</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">[snip]</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Lato",sans-serif; color:black; background:white">As I understand it, the AAA conference this year will no longer have a virtual option. I'm not an American citizen and am not comfortable travelling
to the US at the moment with the rhetoric about Canada coming from the current administration. There are probably other non-American members who feel the same way. I'm not sure what percentage of the AAA membership is non-American, but if the only option for
AAA 2025 is in-person, there are going to be a lot of people who are not willing/able to make the trip. In the end, this will have a more detrimental effect on the "participation levels and overall engagement" than would holding a hybrid conference. Would
you reconsider this policy?</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Lato",sans-serif; color:black; background:white">[snip]</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Lato",sans-serif; color:black; background:white"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">If others feel the same way, perhaps the SLA could consider asking AAA to reconsider their in-person-only policy for 2025?
</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">I’ve touched base with Bernard Perley, too, to see if CASCA can advocate for this option.
</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Thx</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Joe </span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#0563C1"><a href="mailto:%0bJoseph.wilson@utoronto.ca"><br>
<span style="color:#0563C1">Joseph.wilson@utoronto.ca</span></a></span></u><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">PhD Candidate,</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">Dept. of Anthropology, University of Toronto</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black; background:white">Schwartz Reisman Institute Graduate Fellow</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"></span></p>
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