CASCA 2024, May 15-18, University of British Columbia, Okanagan.
Syilx Okanagan Territory, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
THEME AND CALL FOR PAPERS
Histoires sédimentées | Trajectoires vitales
Sedimented Histories | Vital Trajectories
We have much to celebrate and reflect on at the semi-centennial conference of the Canadian Anthropology Society/La Société Canadienne d’Anthropologie and the inaugural meeting to be held at the Okanagan Campus of the University of British Columbia, located on unceded Syilx Nation Territory. For CASCA 2024, we wish to celebrate the vital aspects of anthropology that have propelled us to this space and time, but also to celebrate all that continues to animate and inspire our current and future trajectories. We wish to make space for a conference that is responsive to emergent changes in the world around us and the discipline as we each know it, while respecting those lineages that are enacted, and transformed, in our anthropological practices today. There are layers to the history of anthropology, as well as to how we as anthropologists engage in our work. This conference turns our attention to the anthropologies that have come before, but also asks us to turn to the future of anthropology/anthropologies as we reflect on our past.
“Trajectories” can refer, most simply, to the path of an object moving under the action of given forces. Anthropological knowledges and practices are such objects and assemblages of meaning that are influenced by such powerful trends such as neoliberalism, labor precarity, elitism, white supremacy, climate crises, as well as more promising motivations such as decolonization, reconciliation, public engagement, activism, and other political mobilizations. Knowing that these powerful trends and their countervailing forces never operate on a tabula rasa, but on variegated terrains of sedimented histories that provide different conditions for continuities, discontinuities, and ruptures, we signal the importance of simultaneously looking backwards, sideways, and forward as we chart vital trajectories.
At this critical juncture in time, fifty years of Canadian anthropology, we ask and reflect upon: what is the vital-ness of anthropology, as well as its vitality? How can we ensure that the trajectories of the discipline remain spirited, urgent, and of consequence? In short, vibrant. Our meeting will center provocations like the pressing need to re-envision the anthropological canon, experiment with alternative modalities of scholarly production, and reimagine the conference format itself towards more sustainable, accessible, and collaborative configurations. Situated in the Okanagan and on the stolen land of the Syilx Peoples, these reflections must likewise address the ongoing work of decolonizing the discipline, developing liberatory pedagogies, and nurturing collaborative forms of inquiry. To open spaces for new trajectories that potentiate an anthropological otherwise, this meeting will veer somewhat away from the conventional conference structure to foreground a multiplicity of informal, dialogical, multi-modal forms of engagement and knowledge. We look forward to engaging with you.
Registration Information:
CASCA 2024 is a multi-access conference: there are two streams of participation available – in-person, at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia, and virtual, using the platform Gather.
Certain key events occur both in person and on Gather through live streaming. These key events include a welcome session, the Weaver-Tremblay lecture, the Keynote address, the 50th anniversary session, and the Annual General Meeting. Book exhibits will also be present in both venues. All other events and sessions, including opportunities for social events and networking, will occur either in person or virtually.
Registration costs differ between the two streams and take into account the costs of each venue, as well as conference organization costs overall.
In-Person Stream:
Individuals who register for the in-person conference have the ability to also join the virtual platform.
Virtual (Gather) Stream:
Individuals who register for virtual will NOT be able to access or participate in the in-person events beyond the hybrid ones listed above.
Submission Information:
For the following session submission information, you must choose either in-person submission or virtual submission.
Format Types
There are five different formats for participation in CASCA 2024 in two different streams (in-person or virtual): workshops, flash talks, roundtables, panel papers, and digital posters.
For oral presentation participation, we enthusiastically encourage CASCA members to participate in a workshop, flash talk, or roundtable. In order to feature dialogue in our program we have purposefully structured the conference to have limited traditional panels.
Please keep this in mind when submitting an abstract: your chances of acceptance will be lower for panel papers than other formats.
Full technical details for the digital posters will be provided once abstracts are accepted into the conference program.
- Workshops
Workshops are interactive sessions that involve shared participation in an activity or discussion that ideally relates to conference themes. These will be scheduled for 1.5-hour blocks.
2. Individual Flash Talks and Flash Talk Series
Flash talks are 7-minute presentations at maximum. They can be submitted as an organized series in a 1.5-hour block or as an individual talk, which the Local Organizing Committee will arrange into a series.
50th Anniversary of CASCA:
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of CASCA, we encourage submissions for the organized 50th anniversary flash talk series. In this series, we invite individuals who wish to reflect on their favourite CASCA moment over the years. Which conference was your favourite and why? What was a pivotal moment in your career that occurred at CASCA? We encourage submissions to the organized 50th anniversary flash talk series from all CASCA members.
- Roundtables
Roundtables are in-depth group discussions on a topic that ideally relates to the conference themes. These will be scheduled for 1.5-hour blocks.
- Individual Panel Papers and Organized Panels
Individual papers, if accepted, will be arranged into panels by the Local Organizing Committee. As noted above, we are only accepting limited organized panels for this conference.
- Digital Posters (accessed both in the Sawchuk Family Theater and online in Gather)
This is a new format for the 2024 conference that is site-specific to UBCO. Digital posters will be shown in the Sawchuk Family Theatre screens located at the in-person venue (see the Sawchuk Family Theatre here) and online via the virtual venue Gather. Posters are ideal for scholars with works in progress, presenting new directions in research, and student research projects and findings.
Digital poster presentations are a suggested alternative to an oral paper presentation as they are dynamic and take the traditional poster presentation to the next level. No design skills are required for this format. Abstracts that are selected for this format will be invited to participate in two (2) preparatory workshops for presenters to prepare their digital poster – one workshop on content development and one workshop on layout and design. These workshops are required and will take place in March/April 2024 well in advance of the conference.
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To submit a proposal for a workshop, please submit a title and an abstract of 100-150 words describing the theme and intended audience. These abstracts should be submitted by January 31st, 2024. (Change)
To submit a proposal for a roundtable, flash talk series, or organized panel please submit a roundtable, flash talk series, or panel title and an abstract of 100 –150 words describing the theme. Your abstract should also include a list of 3 confirmed participants (minimum) and identify the chair. These abstracts should be submitted by January 31st, 2024. (Change)
Individual submissions for organized panels and flash talk series should identify the title of the panel or series in their submission. These individual abstracts are due by January 31st, 2024.
To submit a proposal for an individual flash talk or panel paper, please submit a title, an abstract of 100-150 words (including co-author information, if applicable), and up to 5 keywords. These abstracts should be submitted by January 31st, 2024.
To submit a digital poster, please submit a title, an abstract of 100-150 words maximum (including co-author information, if applicable), and up to 5 keywords. The abstract should include what research will be presented on the poster and possibly what elements you might want to consider including (photos, video, gifs, illustrations, sound). These abstracts should be submitted by January 31st, 2024.
For this conference, participants are limited to two roles in the program. For example, you can submit to organize a roundtable and to present a flash talk or you can submit to present in an organized flash talk series and then submit to present an individual flash talk. Please complete the submission form for each role.
List of roles:
-organizer (of a workshop, roundtable, panel or flash talk series)
-presenter (at a workshop, roundtable, paper or flash talk)
Click HERE to submit abstracts for any of the formats. You will choose your stream, in-person or virtual, when you submit.
QUESTIONS
If you have questions, please email the Local Organizing Committee at casca.2024@ubc.ca
Christine Schreyer and Sue Frohlick, Local Organizing Committee Co-Chairs
Local Organizing Committee:
John (Song Pae) Cho
Emily Comeau
Natalie Forssman
David Geary
Justin Haruyama
Em Isaak
Virginie Magnat
Fiona McDonald
Laura Meek
John Wagner
Shannon Ward
Clare Wiznura
Nassim Zand