December 2005

The 2005 AGM took place on 30 September at the British Museum, followed by a Wellcome Lecture delivered by Dr Christopher Davis, and a screening of Singing pictures - Women painters of Naya, winner of the Material Culture and Archaeology Prize at the September Film Festival (see separate announcement in this issue).

Amaury Talbot Prize for African Anthropology. We are delighted to announce that the 2004 Prize has been awarded to Frank Willett for The art of Ife (submitted as CD-ROM). The highly commended runner-up is Alma Gottlieb for The afterlife is where we come from: The culture of infancy in West Africa, published by Chicago University Press.

RAI Collection Open Days. The second in the Open Days series, dedicated to the Collection's holdings on Neil G. Munro and the Ainu of Japan, was held from 1-3 November.

Special Issue of the JRAI, 2007. The Call for Proposals for the 2007 Special Issue drew a good response. Proposals are now being considered by the RAI Publications Committee.

RAI Fellowship in Urgent Anthropology. The 2006-2007 Fellowship currently advertised (see separate announcement in this issue) will be the last in the University of Durham's current term as host to the programme. We expect to issue a call for offers from institutions to host the next phase of the programme in the February 2006 issue of AT.

Representation. The Director has been appointed to represent the RAI on the Steering Group for the forthcoming ESRC International Benchmarking Review of UK anthropology.

Staff news. Gemma Jones has been appointed as RAI Education Officer on a one-year contract funded by the grant made to the RAI by HEFCE (see AT, October 2005). She will work with the Education Committee on projects to develop the presence of anthropology in pre-university education.

Christmas-New Year closures. The RAI office will close on 20 December and reopen on 4 January. The Centre for Anthropology at the British Museum will be closed from 23 December to 2 January inclusive. We wish all AT readers a restful holiday season and a prosperous New Year.

October 2005

The 2005 Huxley Memorial Lecture will be given by Professor Peter Ucko, Professor of Comparative Archaeology and Director of the Institute of Archaeology, at University College London, at 6.15 pm on Wednesday 7 December in the Harrie Massey Lecture Theatre, UCL. Professor Ucko’s title is ‘Forms such as never were in nature: Forging authenticity’.

We are delighted to announce that the RAI has been awarded a grant by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) under the AimHigher Rolling Programme. The grant enables the RAI to appoint a part-time Education Officer for one year from 2005-6. Because of the appointment schedule it has not been possible to advertise the vacancy in this issue of AT, but a widespread search has been carried out and we expect to announce the appointment in the December issue. The person appointed will support the RAI’s Education Committee across the range of its activities. These currently include:

* Curriculum design and development for a potential future A-level in anthropology;

* Design and development of models for inclusion of anthropology within the Citizenship component of the National Curriculum;

* Development of teaching and information resources in anthropology for use in 14-19 education;

* Development of national partnerships with HEIs and cultural institutions such as museums to disseminate awareness of anthropology among young people;

* Development of activities and support material in anthropology for gifted and talented pupils;

* Development of cross-curricular initiatives to extend the role of anthropology in school and college curricula in other subject areas.

More information on the Committee’s work can be obtained from the RAI director on .

The RAI’s Publications Committee has been working intensively, in consultation with Blackwell Publishing, on a redesign of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. We expect to launch the redesigned JRAI, together with the inaugural volume in the Special Issue Series, early in 2006. AT readers are reminded that the deadline for proposals for the second Special Issue in the series is 31 October (for details see separate announcement in this issue).

Preparations are under way for the international conference on Periphery and Policy, organised by the RAI in partnership with the College of St Mark and St John (Plymouth) and Cornwall County Council, to be held in Truro on 21-22 April 2006. The deadline for proposals is 1 November; for details please see separate announcement in this issue of AT.

We are pleased to announce the inauguration of a joint project by the RAI, in collaboration with partner institutions in Japan, to locate and mobilize resources for research and digitization of material on the Ainu people held in the UK and Japan. The launch of the project is being marked by the second in the planned series of Open Days at the RAI Collection, which will be held on 1-3 November with the theme Neil G. Munro and the Ainu, Japan (for details see separate announcement in this issue of AT).

We are delighted to announce that the 2005-2006 Leach-RAI Fellowship has been awarded to Dr Gwyn Williams. Dr Williams’ research will explore the ways in which ‘alterglobalization’ activists in southern France collectively enact a politics of resistance to various forms of power, particularly that of the state, multinational corporations and the World Trade Organization. This will be the last Fellowship in the current series hosted by the University of Sussex. As previously announced, 2006-2007 will be a fallow year in which the Fellowship programme will be reviewed.

August 2005

Annual General Meeting, Special Lecture and Film Screening. The 2005 AGM will take place at 4.00pm on Friday 30 September 2005 in the Stephenson Lecture Theatre, British Museum, Great Russell St, London WC1, by kind permission of the Museum. Please note the change of date from that advertised in the April issue of AT. All are welcome; only RAI Fellows may vote. For the detailed AGM agenda, please see the insert included in this mailing of AT and posted on the RAI website.

Immediately after the AGM, Dr Christopher Davis, winner of the 2002 Wellcome Medal for Medical Anthropology, will give a special lecture entitled 'Remedies and resistances: Anthropology, technoscience and the politics of medicine'. This will be followed by a special screening of a film to be selected from those shown at the RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Oxford, 18-21 September. Refreshments will be served afterwards to all present.

Annual Report. The Annual Report for 2004 has been published and is being sent to Fellows with this issue of AT.

The 2005 Curl Lecture will be given by Dr Miguel Alexiades at 5.00 pm on Wednesday 7 September, in Panoz Lecture Theatre 1, Trinity College, Dublin, during the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr Alexiades' title is 'Headwaters of the past: Ethnoecology, memory and the struggle for nature in a western Amazonian landscape'. All welcome; refreshments will be served afterwards.

The 2005 Huxley Memorial Lecture will be given by Professor Peter Ucko, Professor of Comparative Archaeology and Director of the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London, on Wednesday 7 December in the Harrie Massey Lecture Theatre, UCL; title and timing to be announced.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute: Fifth Issue Series. The first volume of the new series, planned to appear early in 2006, will be edited by Professor Roy Ellen and will address the theme 'Ethnobiology and the science of humankind' (provisional title subject to amendment). The Publications Committee has brought forward the deadlines and timetable for selection of the second special issue to appear in 2007. For details see separate announcement in this issue of AT.

RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Oxford, 18-21 September. Preparations for the Festival are in full swing. A large number of international participants are expected at this major event. For details see separate announcement in this issue of AT.

Innovative conference planned in 2006. The RAI plans to join forces with the College of St Mark and St John (Plymouth) and Cornwall County Council to organize an international conference on 'Periphery and policy' in Truro, 21-22 April 2006. For details and first call for papers/proposals, see separate announcement in this issue of AT.

Subscriptions for 2006. The RAI Council has approved the following rates for individual subscriptions in 2006 (£ sterling rates; for Euro and $US equivalents where applicable please see the forthcoming RAI membership leaflet or visit the Blackwell website at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/memb.asp?ref=1359-0987). These represent a 2.5% inflation-only increase over rates for 2005. 2006 Fellows will receive, without charge, the first volume in the JRAI Special Issue Series.

	UK	Overseas
Ordinary Fellow	£75	£66
Junior Fellow	£37	£37
Joint Fellows	£113	£98
Retired Fellow	£58	£52
Member	£22
Student Associate	£26
Student Associate + ASA Associate Member	£32

Summer office closure. The RAI office will be closed from Monday 22 to Monday 29 August, reopening on Tuesday 30 August.

June 2005

April 2005