Urgent RAI announcements

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR FELLOWS, MEMBERS AND STUDENT ASSOCIATES

RAI TO TAKE MEMBERSHIP ADMINISTRATION IN-HOUSE

The RAI Council has decided that, with effect from the 2008 membership year, the Institute will take direct responsibility for membership administration. This has, since 2000, been outsourced to Blackwell Publishing under a management fee agreement; and we are grateful to Blackwell for the professional service they have provided. However, Council believes that now is the moment for the RAI to assume this responsibility. The change will enable the Institute to deal directly with its membership and provide a responsive and personal service, as well as developing new service areas in future based on improved knowledge of our membership and its needs.

Staffing changes have been put into effect at Fitzroy St to cover the additional tasks. Membership administration becomes the responsibility of the Office and Membership Manager, supported by the Assistant Director (finance and personnel) who will handle all financial transactions. Technical support will be provided by Nomad IT. Blackwell Publishing will continue to produce and dispatch the RAI’s two journals (the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Anthropology Today) and to administer journal-related membership services such as online journal access for those entitled to this, and access to JSTOR for Fellows. Institutional subscriptions to the journals will continue to be handled by Blackwell.

The RAI is also pleased to announce that individual fees for Fellows, Members and Student Associates in 2008 are being frozen at 2007 levels, in order to balance any bedding-in problems that may arise as we transfer to the new system. We ask those joining or renewing to let us know promptly on email of any problems encountered.

GCE A level qualification in Anthropology

The Royal Anthropological Institute and AQA Awarding Body are pleased to announce that they will work together in 2008 to develop an A level qualification in anthropology. Preliminary work on an A level has been carried out by the RAI over several years, with financial support from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Economic and Social Research Council. AQA will now develop the qualification in detail, in consultation with specialists drawn from the RAI. AQA will then seek accreditation of the qualification by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Following (and subject to) accreditation, the RAI and AQA anticipate working together in the longer term to support delivery and resourcing of the A level, which is expected to become the flagship of the RAI’s programme of education in anthropology at pre-University and FE levels.

www.aqa.org.uk

www.therai.org.uk

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

MARY DOUGLAS SEMINARS:
ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE BIBLE

Organising institutions: RAI and Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL

Convenor: Dr Florentina Badalanova Geller

Spring Term 2008

Venue: Room 218 Foster Court, UCL,

Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

4.00-6.00pm

Wednesday 23 January

Bruce Kapferer, University of Bergen

Mary Douglas and Henri Frankfort: Re-Orientations, the Present in the Past

Wednesday 6 Febraury

Nicolas Wyatt, University of Edinburgh

Circumcision and Circumstance: Male genital mutilation in ancient Ugarit and Israel

Wednesday 20 February

Adam Kuper, Brunel University

Anthropologists and the Bible since the Victorians

Wednesday 5 March

Seth Kunin, Durham University

A Structuralist Analysis of Competitive Models of Sacred Space in the Biblical Texts

Wednesday 19 March

William Ryan, Warburg Institute

Biblical Elements in Russian Magic

Wednesday 7 May

Paul-Francois Tremlett, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Post-Structuralism and the Bible in the Philippines - High Theory or Critical Amnesia?

Wednesday 21 May

Florentina Badalanova Geller, Royal Anthropological Institute / UCL

Folk Bible: the Hypertext

Admission Free Without Ticket

THE HENRY MYERS LECTURE 2008

Will be given by

Professor Bruno Latour

Professor and Vice-President of Research at Sciences Po Paris

on

“Nature and Creation: What good is it for a man to gain his soul, yet forfeit the whole world?”

Thursday 25 September 2008

at 5.30 pm

in the Stevenson Lecture Theatre, Clore Education Centre, the British Museum,

Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG

Admission free without ticket. Refreshments afterwards.

The lecture will be preceded by the RAI’s AGM at 4.30 pm.  All are welcome to the AGM; only RAI Fellows may vote.

Enquiries to: RAI, 50 Fitzroy St, London W1T 5 BT; tel 020 7387 0455;

email admin@therai.org.uk

Abstract:

The many ecological crises of today have had a strong impact on theology and spirituality generally. This might be a good occasion to revisit the many themes and metaphors that have opposed the spiritual and the material. What is transient and what is everlasting? The threat to the Earth itself requires a very different set of attitudes toward the very notion of the spiritual. It is especially interesting to revisit the old distinction between the notion of nature and that of creation by exploring different views of science and of religion.