SIUC CAI: VS Conference CALL FOR PAPERS


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25th Annual Visiting Scholar Conference:
Human Variation in the New World: a meeting of archaeology and biological anthropology

CALL FOR PAPERS

This is the first and final call for papers for the 2008 CAI Visiting Scholar Conference at Southern Illinois University. Abstract submission is open to all who are interested. Abstracts will be selected for inclusion by a committee of archaeologists and biological anthropologists. We encourage all who are interested in the conference topic to attend the meeting and to join in the interdisciplinary dialogue, even if your abstract is not selected for presentation.

The 2008 VS Conference, "Human Variation in the New World," seeks to bring together archaeologists, skeletal biologists, and anthropological geneticists to discuss human variation in the Americas prior to European colonization. The conference seeks researchers whose investigations cover topics from the entire temporal and geographic range of human occupation in the Americas. A goal of the conference is to initiate a synthesis of human diversity patterns in the New World. Specifically, there are three goals:

The meeting will promote a discourse among archaeologists and biological anthropologists working in similar regions of the Americas.

Presentations will start a synthetic documentation of biological and cultural diversity in the Americas throughout the Holocene and late Pleistocene.

Discussion of these topics will be placed into the context of the environments that shaped the biology and cultures of humans in North and South America.

Therefore, we ask that all participants place their specific research into a broader context. The Americas will be considered as a whole, and so the temporal and geographic ranges for presentations are left broad to be as inclusive as possible.

We seek participants who are able to synthesize their research in the framework of available information about their topic of study in the New World. For example, archaeologists would be expected to synthesize the cultural and environmental variation within the temporal and geographic areas of their concern and relate these to other regions (temporal and geographic) where appropriate. Geneticists working on the mitochondrial variation of one group of living peoples or ancient remains would be expected to discuss their findings in relation to genetic variation across the Americas. Most importantly, the goal of all papers presented at the conference is to relate individual findings to implications for variation in the Americas.

The conference will take place on Friday, 25 April and Saturday, 26 April 2008 in Carbondale, Illinois. An informal reception is planned for the evening of 24 April, and a formal reception will take place on the evening of 25 April, following the first day's podium session. Registration fees for the conference and events will be announced on this web site in the near future.

Please note that all papers will be delivered as podium (oral) presentations, and will be limited to a maximum of 20-25 minutes per presentation. (Presentation lengths will be finalized once all abstracts have been reviewed and participants notified). We also will ask that participants submit summaries and drafts of their papers prior to the conference.*

Abstract submissions are due on 15 December 2007. Please submit abstracts electronically, via e-mail, to Benjamin Auerbach at auerbach@siu.edu. There is a 300 word maximum limitation to abstract length, excluding titles, authors or information about funding. Do not include graphics in the abstracts. Abstracts noticeably exceeding 300 words will not be reviewed. Submissions should be sent either as a PDF file (which is preferred) or as a Microsoft Word file. See the Abstract Guidelines web page for further information to help you prepare your abstract.

We look forward to your submissions and hope that you will take the opportunity to attend this unique conference!

*Details concerning these drafts will be sent to participants upon the acceptance of their abstracts. Papers chosen for presentation are eligible for inclusion in an edited conference volume, Human Variation in the New World: the integration of archaeology and biological anthropology. This volume will be edited by Dr. Auerbach and published by the Center for Archaeological Investigations as part of their ongoing Occasional Paper series.

Please contact Benjamin M. Auerbach, Ph.D., for inquiries at auerbach@siu.edu.