Website:http://www.h-net.org/~sae/sae/index.html Type of Organization: International/Academic 'Date 'Founded:1986 Journal:The Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe Member Fees: 20.00USD |
A Brief History[]
The SAE was first conceived in 1986 and its first elections as a section of the AAA were held in the Fall of 1987. The purposes of the organization, as announced in the organizing letter that went out to colleagues in 1986, were:
- Strengthening national and international networks between colleagues.
- Providing forums for discussion and debate
- Encouraging comparative research
- Enhancing the visibility and legitimacy of Europeanist anthropology, both within the discipline and among other Europeanist groups
- Facilitating dissemination of information about employment opportunities, grants, visiting European scholars, and other resources
- Promoting the professional integration of students specializing in Europe.
(SAE website)
About the SAE[]
Katherine Verdery (1997:715) The most trenchant critique of European hegemony must...begin in Europe itself...The first way is by furthering the critique and deconstruction of the central categories of European experience. The Second is by a more nuanced presentation of what is "really happening" in the area of the world that so frequently characterized, in ominous fashion, as "the West."
The SAE was founded for the same reasons as many of the other sections of the American Association of Anthropology. It is a forum for those who share a common interest to be able to discuss their ideas and share and receive information. The topic of the SAE is Europe. This is interesting because for a long time Europe was not of interest to many anthropologists. Many anthropologists felt that Europe had many other fields such as literature and history that it did not need an anthropological look and that it would be fruitless. Although as the field of anthropology grew anthropologist began to see a need to exam their own culture. Those who studied and study Europe were still few and far between. The SAE aims to give both professional and students a place in the anthropology community.
What is Europe
Merrian Webster Defines Europe as
But not all of those countries participate in the European Union an
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
The question of Europe isn't as easy as it might seem. What do these group of coutries have in common? This is the reason for studying Europe. Even though these countries might seem familiar to 'Westerners' there is still a lot to be defined.
SAE Publications []
The Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe[]
Some of the resent themes in the articles found in the journal are transnationalism, Muslims, and Ireland. This makes sense because since the advent of the EU there has been easier for people to move from country to country. As well as Human Rights Doctrine which has supposedly made it easier for those seeking asylum to enter into those countries who are participating. Many Muslims have been involved with transnationalism as well. There are Muslim neighborhoods and cities in many countries. Economic impact, racial profiling, and transnationalism are some of the topics intrest within these groups. Ireland is also of interest because of the unrest that continues to happen there.
The following are articles from September 2001 until the most recent issue April 2008, involving Muslims, Transnationalism, and Ireland. The abstract is included where available. All Articles can be found using Anthrosource.
Sept 2001
Claiming the King's Highway: Assertions of Power, Domination and Territory during the Marching Season in Northern Ireland
Thomas Taaffe
Not Quite Dyed in the Wool: Weaving Selflwod in Ireland:
Eileen Moore Quinn
March 2002
Cosmopolitanism and Business among German-Turks in Berlin:
Antoine Pécoud
This paper investigates the cultural dimension of immigrant entrepreneurship in the case of Berlin's Turkish economy. This investigation is needed because cultural explanations of business have been criticised for their deterministic and reified conception of culture. As a result, models explaining immigrant economies are now mostly socioeconomic and ignore culture. After a description of recent changes in German-Turks entrepreneurial activities and an ethnographic description of two German-Turkish businesses in Berlin, the paper argues that the implications in terms of culture and identity of self-employment can be fruitfully analysed with the concepts of hybridity and cosmopolitanism. Finally, a broader perspective is proposed that establishes a link between foreigners, trade and culture in order to enlarge our understanding of cosmopolitanism.
Discourses of Exclusion: Dominant Self-Definitions and "The Other" In German Society:
Jens Schneider
Definitions of identity, which describe its dynamic and complex character, were formulated especially by those academic fields which set their focus predominantly, and often exclusively, on minorities or the excluded: e.g. feminist theory, Cultural Studies and antiracism. But the theory of identity politics as a field of struggle for self-positioning should also apply to dominant and majority identity constructions. Moreover, we can observe a close relationship between minority and dominant discourses of belonging. Taking some results of field research in Berlin as illustration, the article shows, how identity constructions of young German discursive elites' depend on the construction of specific minority groups as 'Non-Germans. At the same time, these dominant constructions fundamentally structure the field, in which minority groups are obliged to move for their self-definitions. These self-definitions thus cannot be fully understood without a close analysis of the role they play within the identity constructions of 'the majority'.
Demonstrating Passion Constructing Sacred Movement In Northern Ireland:
Liam D. Murphy
This paper suggests that the ubiquitous cultural act of parading in Northern Ireland, frequently employed by ethnonational organizations as a means of symbolically marking sectarian political and religious control of and authority over territory, is also employed by charismatic Protestants seeking to create a sacred economy in which all Christians citizens participate in movement towards the universal "End Times" of evangelical and charismatic salvation history. In Belfast, this is accomplished in charismatic events (such as parading and "home-group" meetings) where locally important ideas about urban mobility as cultural and political performance are resituated and transformed within a global network of institutions and beliefs (Charismatic Renewal) that incorporate a alternate logic of ritual movement in which the city is itself the object of sanctification. This sanctification is not contemplated by charismatic Protestants, but is reflexively indexed and "proved" by their practices. The local or regional acts of parading and urban movement are thereby shown to be semantically porous and open to reinterpretation through contact with global cultural phenomena, such as Charismatic Renewal.
March 2003
In the Spirit of the Game? Cricket & Changing Notions of Being British in Northern Ireland:
Thomas Carter
This article looks at cricket as a cultural practice that embodies Britishness in Northern Ireland. In general, cricket is mythologically tied to an unchanging, nostalgic vision of quintessential Britishness. As a practice, though, cricket represents varieties of Britishness as well as other identities. In Northern Ireland, being "British" is taken as possessing a specific political position and viewpoint within the context of the sectarian conflict that dominated the sociopolitical realm in the latter half of the twentieth century. The cessation of formal political violence in 1998 not only resulted in increased economic prosperity and investment but also increased immigration to the region. Consequently, alternative, more broadly defined notions of Britishness potentially threaten the entrenched, locally specific understandings. I argue that these new understandings played out against local sensibilities on the cricket pitch represent some of the changes occurring in post-conflict Northern Ireland.
Muslim Europe or Euro-Islam: Politics, Culture, and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization:
Nadeen M. Thomas
Muslim Europe or Euro-Islam: Politics, Culture, and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization. AlSayyad, Nezar and Manuel Castells. eds. Lexington Books: London, 2002. 204 pp. ISBN. 7391 0338 5.
A World of Fine Difference: The Social Architecture of a Modern Irish Village:
Robin Whitaker
Sept 2003
Competitors, collaborators or compaions? Gossip and storytelling among political journalists in Northern Ireland:
Kathryn Bell
In this paper, I discuss the gossiping practices of political journalists in Northern Ireland. Passing on the latest gossip to sources is a way for a journalist to demonstrate their usefulness as a contact, whilst still maintaining a trustworthy character. Acquiring sources is vital for career success, and gossip plays an important role in this process. Gossip between journalists can have a competitive edge, as reporters try to outdo one another by revealing their knowledge of political intrigue. Yet gossiping with colleagues can also be a collaborative practice - a method of signalling one's membership in a common journalistic world. Such exchanges set up a space in which cultural intimacy can be created. In this inner arena, journalists play with the well-known stereotypes surrounding their profession, and re-claim them for themselves. Furthermore, through gossiping about politicians' indiscretions, journalists construct themselves as educated liberals in contrast to the subjects of their conversations who are portrayed as political and religious fanatics.
Gender and Migration in Southern Europe. Women on the Move:
Margaret Magat
Coming Home to Germany? The Integration of Ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe in the Federal Republic:
Drew Walker
Sept 2004
Do Immigrants Have a Business Culture? The Political Epistemology of Fieldwork in Berlin's Turkish Economy:
Antoine Pécoud
March 2005
We the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship:
Thomas Taaffe
Flavia Stanley
Sept 2005
Plural Identities Singular Narratives: The Case of Northern Ireland:
Thomas Taaffe
Dominic Byran
Sept 2006
Book Review:
Kimberly Hart
Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey. Esra Özyürek. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2006. 227 pages. ISBN: 0822338955.
Book Reviews:
Lauren Wagner
North African Women in France: Gender, Culture, and Identity. Caitlin Killian. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 2006. 279 pages. ISBN 0804754209 (cloth); 0804754217 (paper)
March 2007
Book Reviews:
Jennifer Selby
Why the French Don't like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space. John Bowen. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. 2007. 328 pages. ISBN-10 0691125066.
Book Reviews:
Nicolas Kosmatopoulos
The Disenchantment of the Orient: Expertise in Arab Affairs and the Israeli State. Gil Eyal. Stanford University Press. 2006. 336 pages. ISBN-10 0804754039.
Book Reviews:
Susanne B. Unger
Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration: Changes in Boundary Constructions between Western and Eastern Europe. Edited by Willfried Spohn and Anna Trainadfyllidou. Routledge Advances in Sociology, London and New York. 2002. 304 pages. ISBN 978-0415296670.
Land of Saints and Tigers: The Transformation of Responsibility in Ireland?:
Elise McCarthy
March 2008
Demographic Modernity' in Ireland: A Cultural Analysis of Citizenship, Migration, and Fertility:
Veerendra Lele
In June 2004 citizens in Ireland voted on a constitutional referendum which proposed "to change the rules about the constitutional entitlement to citizenship by birth." Te proposed change and subsequent vote in favor of the referendum generated a variety of commentary and scholarship. While factors of political economy and a racialized discourse regarding immigration are central to understanding contemporary change in Ireland, this article examines the changing demographic and related cultural conditions corresponding with the referendum through three interrelated yet analytically distinguishable strands: a) population change, specifically patterns of migration and fertility; b) changing notions of Irish and European modernity and identity; and c) Ireland's historical experience of colonialism and diaspora. 'Demographic modernity' in Ireland is a cultural complex that interprets social demographic factors such as (low) fertility, high life expectancy, timing of first births and of marriage, low infant/child mortality, and variable standards of migration and mobility in relation to political and historical discourses about nation and person.
Modern Questione della Lingua: The Incomplete Standardization of Italian in a Northern Italian Town:
Jillian R. Cavanaugh
Although it seems from most scholarly accounts and everyday experience in Italy that the questione della lingua or language question has been definitively answered-and that Italian has emerged victorious over local vernaculars—approximately 60% of Italians continue to speak their local languages in addition to Italian. This article explores why these languages, which Italians call 'dialects,' continues to matter in Italy from the vantage point of one northern Italian town, Bergamo. It traces debates about language over the last two centuries, locates recurring themes during the standardization of Italian, and argues that this standardization remains incomplete. Repeatedly, socioeconomic shifts have proved more decisive than political action, although the language question has at times been deeply politicized. Indeed, at particular moments—immediately following Unification, the Fascist period, the Economic Miracle of the 1950s and '60s, during the Leftist movement during the 1960s and '70s, and the emergence of the Northern League—language has stood in for larger concerns about the state of the nation and its citizens.
The Politics of Public Memory in Turkey. Esra Özyürek, ed.:
Leyla Neyzi
April 2008
Stolen Honor: Stigmatizing Muslim Men in Berlin. Katherine Pratt Ewing.:
Bayard E. Lyons
Slave of Allah: Zacarias Moussaoui vs. The USA, Katherine C. Donahue.:
Julie Hartley-Moore
(Journal of the SAE)
Society for the Anthropology of Europe Directory, 2nd Edition (1993)[]
Edited by Susan Parman, Donna E. Muncey, and Gary Wray McDonogh
Name Index
Education Index
Fieldwork Region Index
Geographic Areas of Research Interest Index
Subject Interest Index Speaker's Bureau Index
(SAE Website)
European Anthropologies: A Guide to the Profession, Volume 1: Ethnography, Ethnology, and Social/Cultural Anthropology []
Edited by Susan Carol Rogers, Thomas M. Wilson and Gary W. McDonogh
Contains Country profiles as well as selected reference works and addresses.
(SAE Website)
Who's Who[]
SAE Program Chairs[]
- 1986-1987 James Taggart Cultural anthropologist who has done fieldwork with the Nahuat in Mexico, Spaniards in western Spain, and Hispanos in the Southwest. Professor at Franklin & Marshall College.(Franklin & Marshall College)
- 1988William Douglass Emeritus Coordinator for the Center of Basque Studies at the University of Nevada Reno. His areas of interest include: peasant society, ethnic groups and ethnicity maintenance, Basque society, Mediterranean social structure, family history, migration studies.(UNR)
- 1989 Linda Bennett Professor of Anthropology and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Memphis. Her areas of interest include: alcoholism and drug-related problems; cross-cultural dynamics of treatment; applied clinical research; culture and family; family and community rituals and routines; ethnic identity, socialization, and culture change; European ethnic groups in the U.S. (Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes); Europe, especially the former Yugoslavia (Croatia and Serbia); and Native Americans.( University of Memphis)
- 1990 Ellen Badone Professor at McMaster University. Western Europe is her primary geographical area of research. Current research concerns the anthropology of pilgrimage, and the relationships between pilgrimage and tourism. She has researched pilgrimage at a Marian apparition shrine in Brittany and at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer in southern France, a shrine which is particularly important for Roma pilgrims.(McMaster University)
- 1991 Robert UlinDean of the College of Liberal Arts as the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has an interest in the development of the wine industry in various cultures.(RIT)
- 1992 David Kideckel Professor of Anthropology at Central Connecticut State University. His main focus of research has been Eastern Europe especially Romania.(CCSU)
- 1993 Uli Linke associate professor of cultural anthropology at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her scholarship is focused on the cultural politics of nationhood in contemporary and historic Europe, specifically Germany.(RIT)
- 1994 Thomas Wilson Current president of the SAE. Professor of Anthropology with Concentration in national identity nationalism, international borders and frontiers, ethnicity and ethnic conflict, politics of Europeanization Europe integration and supernationationalsim, and consumer culture. Field research in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Hungary. (SUNY Binghamton)
- 1995 Alexandra Jaffee Professor in the Department of Linguistics at California State University Long Beach. Since 1988, she has been doing ethnographic research on Corsica, where she studied issues of identity, power and resistance related to minority language shift and language revitalization.(CSULB)
- 1996 Jane Nadel-Klein Professor of Anthropology at Trinity College. Her current research includes Landscape, Place and Gardening in North America and Britain.(Trinity College)
- 1997 Deborah Reed-Danahay Current vice president of the SAE. Socio-cultural anthropologist with a specialization in France -- especially rural France (region of Auvergne) and Vietnamese in Paris and the provinces.(SUNY Buffalo)
- 1998 Jeffrey Cole Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department at Connecticut College. Cole’s research explores varied aspects of migration, with a focus on Italy.(Connecticut College)
- 1999 Winnie Lem Professor at Trent University. Professor Lem’s research interests encompass migration, transnationalism, citizenship; regionalism, nationalism, gender relations in marginal economies, entrepreneurs, migrant livelihoods, women and small enterprises, diasporas, ethnicity, work, women and nationalism, gender and household economies; agrarian change; women and rural politics; racism; culture, class and political economy; Europe; Asia. Dr. Lem has conducted research on farming in Languedoc France. She is currently conducting research on migration between China and France. (Trent University)
- 2000Eva Huseby-Darvas Professor and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Her interest include: Anthropology of Education, France, West Africa. (UoM Dearborn)
Prizes[]
William A. Douglass Book Prize in Anthropology[]
The winner of the 2008 William A. Douglass Book Prize in Europeanist Anthropology has been unanimously chosen by the selection committee of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe: Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism Catherine Wanner
(SAE Website)
Annual Student Paper Competition[]
The Society for the Anthropology of Europe is holding its seventeenth annual student paper competition. One prize of $400 will be awarded for a graduate-level student paper.
(SAE website)
A Pre-dissertation Fellowship[]
The Society for the Anthropology of Europe and the Council on European Studies jointly sponsor a Pre-dissertation fellowship in anthropology.
Doctoral candidates in anthropology at U.S. and Canadian universities are eligible to apply. The fellowship supports short-term (two to three months) independent research in Europe for the purpose of testing the feasibility and research design of a projected doctoral dissertation in the social/cultural anthropology of contemporary Europe. The typical grantee is a second or third-year graduate student who has, or is close to, completing course work and/or Ph.D. qualifying exams, but who has neither fully formulated nor defended a dissertation prospectus.
The fellowship carries a stipend of $4,000. Funds may not be used for language courses or instruction at a European university, or to supplement a comparable or larger fellowship for research in Europe.
Awardee, Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE) Pre Dissertation Fellowship Award in Anthropology, 2008
Ceren Ozgul
Department of Anthropology City University of New York
(SAE Website)