For the 2025 SCA Biennial, Restorative Relations, the SCA is experimenting with new formats for coming together that foreground and center the generative nature of thinking together, in the moment. These formats aim to catalyze the restorative effects of being in relationship as a communal investment in our creative and scholarly practices. An “unconference,” the Biennial offers opportunities for participating in a variety of sessions that offer novel ways of coming together to talk, think, read, write, make, walk, listen, or rest. To “unconference” in this way means operating in ways that are not always outcome based and transactional, like so much academic work. It means creating unprogrammed time and space for quiet reflection, relaxation, and informal conversation.
Here is the link to register: https://my.americananthro.org/nc__event?Id=a0lUO000003S7w5YAC
A central ethos of the 2025 Biennial is renewing our relationships with ourselves, our academic lives, and one another. The biennial will take place from May 8th to May 11th at the Stony Point Retreat Center in upstate New York. Registration rates include three meals a day for all participants, as well as access to all biennial events. Some registration rates include accommodations for those who choose to stay on-site at Stony Point, differentiated according to whether one chooses single vs. double occupancy accommodations, as well as SCA membership status. For those who prefer to stay off-site, there are several nearby hotels in a fifteen-mile radius. Please refer to this document for information on registration rates, how to find a roommate, off-site accommodations, and transportation options. Childcare will be provided on site; specific arrangements will be made closer to the date of the biennial based on need.
Provisional Program and Registering for Events
Please take a moment to look over our provisional program. We hope you share our excitement at the excellent lineup of events. Look soon for instructions on how to sign up for events. They will be released shortly.
Restorative Relations Ethos: How We Gather…Differently
As the world becomes increasingly precarious in more ways than we can name, it seems imperative that we practice responding to the unexpected and the unintended with creativity and grace. The initial intention of this conference was to carve out the space to gather in ways that allow for fluidity and accommodation in the face of all that challenges our innate need to think and act collectively by using the tools that nourish and sustain us. In this spirit, we invite everyone to think of hiccups and bumps in the road as opportunities to exercise our imaginations and to remind ourselves that innovation arises out of these moments.
While we have done our best to organize and schedule the sessions in our provisional program, we would like to remind you of the unusual configuration of this unconference. We have curated the program and chosen the venue carefully to reflect the restorative ethos of this unconference, in which our intention is to gather differently. We anticipate changes, no-shows, cancellations, or room space inconveniences at times, and we invite you and ourselves to embrace these together. We will have on-site volunteers helping us throughout the days, but this call to action extends to all of us. As inconveniences or turbulence arise, let’s deal with them restoratively and collectively, as part of our effort of imagining and enacting new modes of gathering, thinking, and acting.
Please be in touch as you need via board@culanth.org.
Looking forward to seeing you at Stony Point!
Yours,
The Biennial Organizing Collective
Aimee Cox
Anand Pandian
Andrew Gilbert
Joella Bitter
Marina Peterson
Noha Fikry