Given the theme of “praxis,” it’s difficult to think of a more provocative location in North America to host the 2024 American Anthropological Association meeting than Florida. Recent book bans, crackdowns on reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, rising sea levels and extreme climate events, and attacks on higher education institutions, educators, and students have brought Florida to the forefront of academic discourse, particularly for the anthropologists working in, on, and around the state. Widespread calls to boycott the meetings have foregrounded the idea that Florida is exceptional within the US political landscape.

In this call, Home/Field is interested in perspectives that engage with the idea of Florida’s (un)exceptionality as political geography, and/or that locate Florida within regional and historical formations that do not only conform to hegemonic geographies and temporalities of the present-day United States (e.g. the Caribbean, Atlantic, Gulf South, Confederate South, Indigenous North America). We are open to critical reflections from cultural, linguistic, archaeological, medical, and biological anthropology, as well as from scholars and practitioners engaged in teaching, research, and political organizing in Florida’s higher education context. These commentaries should link such an analysis to the difficulties, conflicts, contradictions, impasses, and possibilities of gathering in Florida in November. For anthropologists concerned with theory and its applications, we consider this an opportunity to critically examine the stakes and commitments of anthropological praxis in real time.

To submit:

Send us a brief pitch (max 300 words) that outlines your proposal and argument, a short bio, as well as any questions, to homefieldsubmission@gmail.com by October 1, 2024.

The editorial collective will send out decisions within one week of receiving pitches. Final submissions will be double editor reviewed.

Text-based submissions should be 1,500-2,500 words. Photo, video, or graphic submissions should include a written introduction (500 words max).