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Interventions Series

OAC Press — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:31:29 +0000

The OAC Press launches its Interventions Series to make the work of renowned anthropologists newly accessible to the OAC community and to the general public. These occasional papers will focus our attention on the changes that have taken place in anthropological thinking through time. We aim to publish work online that has transformed our understanding of anthropology in the past or has the potential to do so now. OAC members will have a chance to talk to the academics concerned in a question and answer format via a thread on the main site. As with our Working Papers, we hope to refresh notions of what anthropology is and what intellectual creativity consists in. Participants may pose questions to our guest anthropologists within a restricted format; and discussion may spill over into other OAC formats. Like the OAC online seminars, the Interventions question and answer can unfold at a leisurely pace and will give our community an opportunity to converse with some of anthropology’s sharpest minds.

Half-yearly report

OAC Press — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:29:19 +0000

After a period when members of the network were invited to join an online discussion about the Press, the OACP formed a large Editorial Board recruited from many of them. This experiment in large-scale open decision-making made slow progress. Over the past few months Keith Hart, Justin Shaffner and Huon Wardle have been discussing how to move things forward at the Press. Our results have been modest. Most of what is listed below was already in the pipeline when we formed this reduced editorial committee. But there are some promising new developments. We are currently applying for ISSN numbers for several publication series.

Working Papers/ Seminar Series:
Papers have been published by Huon Wardle, John McCreery and Alberto Corsin Jimenez. A Group was formed to discuss these publications. Lately the series has been linked to the OAC Seminars with papers disseminated in advance for open discussion over a two-week period. We have now ironed out the format for this series and invite submissions from within and outside the OAC, preferably the former. We are about to publish a new paper by Philip Swift and will organize a seminar related to it. We have had several further submissions, but, after review, we have not proceeded with them.

Book Reviews Series:
This has met with excellent initial results under Stacy Hope’s direction. A large number of new titles are now available for review and most of the major European publishers of anthropology have either offered texts or are likely to do so. Books will be sent to members who express an interest in reviewing them.

The Art of Anthropology Series:
This is a new initiative. The Press is looking to bring the world of art, especially poetry, prose and film, into the mainstream of OACP anthropology discussions. Roy Wagner has offered some sonnets and we have commissioned Achirri Ishmael (an OAC regular) to put together an anthology of his anthropological poems.

Interventions Series:
This series has sprung from Sidney Mintz’s offer to publish reworkings of two of his classic papers with us. Progress is slow, but we hope that these publications will put the OACP on the map.

Portuguese Series:
Vanessa Campanacho, a Portuguese graduate student in physical anthropology, and Moises Lino e Silva, a Brazilian graduate student in social anthropology, have agreed to share responsibility for editing a series of working papers, reviews and instructional texts in Portuguese. Our Lusophone membership is large and, with this initiative, we signal the Press’s openness to publishing in languages other than English.

Book Review Series

Stacy Hope — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:33:45 +0000

The Open Anthropology Cooperative is the largest online community of anthropologists in the world, with a current membership of over 3,000. The OAC Press is approaching publishers to supply a wide range of newly published works in anthropology for review. We are looking for publications that will contribute to the dynamism of the OAC’s discussion forums by being linked to them. Our goal is to establish ongoing collaborative relationships with publishers.

This venture will serve as a platform through which to publicise new books to our growing body of members and the general public. A book reviews section will add another dimension to this vibrant and engaging network which already takes the form of forums, blogs, seminars, discussion groups and online publications.

To submit a notice or make inquiries, please contact the Reviews Editor—Stacy Hope—at saah@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Call for papers

OAC Press — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:34:35 +0000

We solicit a wide range of writings, from work in progress to finished pieces, that in some way seek to advance anthropology by engaging with radical ideas in innovative ways. This includes any subfield of the academic discipline and interdisciplinary writing that anthropologists might find engaging.

We hope to bring what anthropologists have to say to the attention of the general public and invite everyone to take part in our debates. Each paper published will be linked to an open discussion thread in the OAC network, which will offer authors feedback for further revision. We place no restriction on publication elsewhere.

We encourage contributions in various genres, such as ethnography, conversation, debate, and fiction. Submissions may not be limited to text, and may include mixed media such text, sound, image or video. To submit work for consideration, please contact Huon Wardle at oacpress@openanthcoop.net.

Working Papers Series

OAC Press — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:31:36 +0000

The OAC Press launches the Working Papers Series to promote intellectual exchange within and outside the universities. We hope to bring what anthropologists have to say to the attention of the general public and invite everyone to take part in our debates. Each paper published will be linked to an open discussion thread in the OAC network. We will select work in progress that offers readers timely and relevant ideas and authors feedback for revision. The papers will be presented here in various formats and at several stages of their evolution. We place no restriction on publication elsewhere. The point is to refresh an ongoing conversation about anthropology and the world we live in.

The setting of the seminar is the OAC main discussion forum and it lasts for a fixed period of 10-14 days. to be announced beforehand. The paper is made available 4-7 days before the online seminar starts. There is a chair and a discussant who may or may not be the same person. After introductions, the discussant offers a critique of the paper, the presenter responds and then the floor is open for general discussion by members. The seminar unfolds at a leisurely pace, as and when participants (including the presenter) find the time to post. This allows for reading of relevant material and even for some spontaneous fieldwork, as well as for the usual cut and thrust of real time debate.

To submit work for consideration, please contact any or all of Keith Hart, Justin Shaffner or Huon Wardle at oacpress@openanthcoop.net.