Risk and Disaster TIG call for proposals for 2026 SfAA (Albuquerque)

[Irena Connon]

Dear all, 

We hope this email finds you well. We are excited to let you know that the Risk and Disaster’s TIG are now issuing a call for proposals for the TIG program at the SfAA Annual Meeting 2026 in Albuquerque, March 17-21.

Please see details of the call below.

If you are interested in presenting on these questions (or any other relevant questions that you have), please submit your panel, paper, or poster abstracts to the SfAA annual meeting page by the October 15, 2025, deadline. In doing so, please select the Risk & Disaster TIG in the drop-down menu as the appropriate group to submit your abstract to.

 

We also encourage everyone to use the Risk & Disaster TIG Listserv or social media to connect with others who are interested in forming collaborative panels and to let us know if you have a panel or paper that you will be submitting. You can also use the directory to identify people who do similar work. The Risk and Disaster Linktree is available at this link, which also contains details of all our social media channels. Risk & Disasters Topical Interest Group (SFAA) | Linktree

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Risk & Disaster TIG leadership at riskanddi...@gmail.com

 

Thanks and Best Wishes,

 

Irena Connon and Crystal Felima, co-chairs

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RISK AND DISASTER TIG CALL FOR PANELS & PAPERS FOR THE 86TH SFAA ANNUAL MEETING, 17th - 21st MARCH 2026, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO.

 

The Need Grows: Everyday Practice of Applied Anthropology on Risk and Disasters

 

As the intensity, magnitude and frequency of disasters continues to accelerate across the globe, the world now also faces new and alarming forms of threat and uncertainty. The level of foreboding results from both government actions and uneven power dynamics that characterise what is termed as ‘the post truth world,’ and the mishandling of amplifying risks of calamity. This alarming situation presents an urgent call to arms for those of us working in the risk and disaster field. At the same time that these compounding threats not only intensify risks for those in prior and new disaster-prone areas where anthropogenic climate change and legacies of cultures of colonization and development continue to create profound and uneven catastrophic impacts, they also affect the ways we anthropologists engage with our interlocutors and each other. It therefore becomes crucial to reflect on our work and think about how we can continue to apply anthropology to reduce the harms and iniquities that result from disasters, as well sustain and renew our optimisms in our capacity to bring about positive change.

 

The annual SFAA meeting in Albuquerque, NM, offers an opportunity to for those involved in applying anthropology in the context of risk and disaster to think, share, collaborate, and critically reconsider how the work that we do drives meaningful change to lessen suffering in contexts of crises. It also provides a space to collectively think about how our work should best continue in these volatile and uncertain times. We therefore ask our members to consider a range of critical questions in their abstracts, including those asked by the larger SfAA and building beyond them:

• In a time of accelerating crises and turmoil, what concerns should our work now address?
• What can we discern from the ongoing political conflicts that look to reshape preparedness for, responses to, and recovery from risks and disasters around the world? How can we best approach navigating these situations?
• How is anthropology’s application in the risk and disaster field imagined, understood, and applied (and at what point)? What does this mean for the work that we do going forward?
• With whom can we better engage and collaborate with to lessen the harms associated with disasters and shape the kind of change envisioned? How might we go about achieving this? What are the ethical dimensions and practical challenges of engaging in such work?
• How do we build on the history of risk and disaster applied anthropology to reach across boundaries and position it at the forefront of critical work on risk and disasters, more broadly within the social sciences, and beyond?
• What concepts and theories that have shaped the history of the applied anthropology of risk and disaster and/or applied anthropology remain vital or should be revisited? How might these be applied in changing and accelerating contexts of crises?
• How can we continue to diversify and decolonize the applied anthropology of risk and disaster in an age of accelerating crises and political turmoil?
• How might we reconsider and enhance anthropological methodologies and methods and apply these to address uneven power dynamics in applied research on risk and disaster?
• How might we best navigate uncertain futures for scholars, researchers, and practitioners?
• How might we better navigate working across academic and practitioner boundaries?
• How can the Society for Applied Anthropology and Risk & Disaster TIG better serve as the juncture between action and theory, where the practice of anthropology informs the discipline’s intellectual core?
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• If you are interested in presenting on these questions (or any other relevant questions that you have), please submit your panel, paper, or poster abstracts to the SfAA annual meeting page by the October 15, 2025, deadline. Please remember to select the Risk and Disaster TIG in the drop-down menu when submitting your abstract. 
• 
  

Dr Irena L. C. Connon 

Faculty of Social Sciences, 

University of Stirling,

Stirling, Scotland, FK94NF,

Phone: + 44 (0)1786 467634

Email: irena....@stir.ac.uk

Chair (Acting) of IUAES Commission on Risk and Disaster

Co-Chair of Society for Applied Anthropology Risk and Disaster Topical Interest Group

Leader of SAGES forum on Creating Sustainable Water Futures

 

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