Organizing Committee, Delegates and Advisory Committee
Clara Saraiva
Chair
Clara Saraiva (PhD 1999) is a senior researcher at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS). Her research spans religion, ritual, transnationalism, heritage, and medical anthropology. She has held prestigious fellowships at UC Berkeley and Brown University, and has lectured at institutions including the University of São Paulo and Université d’Aix-Marseille.
Saraiva has led major research initiatives, serving as the Portuguese PI for the HERA project “HERILIGION” and the FCT-funded project on the “invisibility of death” among immigrant populations. Her extensive fieldwork covers Portugal, Brazil, the US, and multiple African nations, including Guinea-Bissau and South Africa.
A widely published scholar, her work appears in journals such as JEMS and African Diaspora, and with publishers like Brill and Palgrave Macmillan. She also co-editors the Lit-Verlag series on the Ethnology of Religion. Currently, she serves as President of the Association of Portuguese Anthropology (APA), sits on the WCAA Organizing Committee, and is a former vice-president of SIEF.
Francesca Declich
Deputy Chair
Francesca Declich (PhD) is affiliated with three Italian anthropological associations (SIAC, ANPIA, and SIAA) and served as a member of ANPIA’s Arbitrator’s Council for six years. She has been the International Liaison of the AfAA (AAA section) since 2015 and previously served as European Rapporteur for the Tanzanian Studies section of the ASA African Studies Association (US).
Following extensive fieldwork in Somalia, Tanzania, and Mozambique, she co-founded the Italian Association for African Studies (ASAI) in 2011 and was elected its President in 2021. In that role, she organized major international conferences in Urbino (2022) and Messina (2024), fostering interdisciplinary dialogue among anthropologists, historians, and linguists. Since 2021, she has served on the Organizing Committee (OC) of the WCAA, endorsed by SIAC. She has also edited three video documentaries and worked in applied anthropology in a number of countries in Latin America and Africa.
She has written widely in international peer reviewed journals and the results of her research work on several topics (enslavement, enfranchisement and abolition in Mozambique and Somalia, women and Islam in East Africa, Indian Ocean and Swahili networks) appears in renowned publishers like Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Brill, James and Currey.
Ed Liebow
Treasurer
Ed Liebow, based in Washington DC (USA) is WCAA’s Treasurer. He served as Executive Director of the American Anthropological Association from 2012-2023. Before being named AAA director, Ed enjoyed a long career with the non-profit Battelle Memorial Institute, where he was director of the Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation and for 27 years conducted research on a variety of environmental, public health, and social policy issues. He received his PhD from Arizona State University, and maintains affiliations with the University of Washington and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. He was selected as a Senior Fellow of the Fulbright Commission, and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and the Society for Applied Anthropology. In addition to his service with the World Anthropological Union, he has also served on the boards of the National Humanities Alliance, the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the Society for Applied Anthropology, the American Anthropological Association, the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community, the National Institute of Social Sciences, and the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund.
Michel Bouchard
Secretary
Michel Bouchard, PhD, is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia (Prince George, Canada). A former President of the Canadian Anthropological Association, he completed his studies in both English and French at the University of Toronto (BA), Université Laval (MA), and the University of Alberta (PhD). As a member of a minority French-speaking community, he has explored the topics of language, identity, and nationhood in Canada, Estonia, Russia, and now Ukraine. He has served as Chair of his department as well as the university senate. Michel has taught anthropology for over 25 years, covering a range of topics in sociocultural anthropology. He has always integrated students into his research and worked effectively with writing teams to produce a range of publications covering topics such as Métis ethnogenesis in North America and nation and nationalism in Eastern Europe. The 2019 work won the prestigious Prix du Canada Prize, awarded annually to the best scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences that have received funding from the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP). The winning books make an exceptional contribution to scholarship, are engagingly written, and enrich the social, cultural and intellectual life of Canada.
Noreen Sapalo-Chan
Organizing Committee
Noreen Sapalo-Chan is the immediate past President of Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao, Inc. (UGAT), the Anthropological Association of the Philippines, and a previous Board Member of the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC). She is a Tenured Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, the nation’s first anthropology department.
As UGAT President, she led national initiatives, conferences, and public engagement programs. An advocate for public anthropology and the co-creation of knowledge with communities, she has secured multiple grants for community-engaged research.
In her academic capacity, she teaches social and cultural anthropology with a focus on ethnography. She directed the Anthropology Field Schools in 2022 (Benguet) and 2023 (Romblon Island) and serves as Affiliate Faculty of the Folklore Studies Program. A consultant for government and non-government agencies, she frequently publishes academic and popular essays that foreground the relevance of anthropological perspectives in everyday Philippine life.
Gonzalo Díaz Crovetto
Organizing Committee
I studied Anthropology at the Universidad Austral de Chile in the city of Valdivia Afterwards, I studied in the Postgraduate Program in Anthropology at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Brasilia (Brazil), where I completed my master (2005) and my doctorate (2010). Currently, I work at the Department of Anthropology of the Universidad Católica de Temuco (Chile). I also participate as an associate researcher at the Research Center in Intercultural and Interethnic Studies and teach at the Doctoral Programs in Anthropology and Intercultural Studies, as well as in the Anthropology undergraduate program and at the University’s Master in Anthropology. I am also the Director of the University’s Postgraduate School. I have conducted fieldwork in Chile, Brazil, and Spain. I have researched, written, and taught on topics associated with the anthropology of globalization, work and mobility, and the anthropology of disasters and risk. Additionally, I have a systematic line of work and reflection on the study and problematization of anthropologies in a world anthropological perspective. I’m also interested in the material and subjective conditions of anthropology, both politically and morally. Currently, I serve as Secretary of the Latin American Anthropology Association (ALA).
Verónica Lucía López Tessore
Organizing Committee
Anthropologist. She is a Professor and Researcher at the School of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Arts, National University of Rosario (Universidad Nacional de Rosario), Argentina. President of the Latin American Anthropological Association (2024–2027). Director of the Center for Studies on Cultural Diversity, FHYA, UNR. (2025–). She served as Director of the Department of Sociocultural Anthropology at the National University of Rosario from 2019 to 2022. She was President (2016–2021), Treasurer (2021–2023), and currently Member of the Board (2023–2027) of the Rosario Anthropological Association. She has been a member of the ALA Board from 2021 to 2024 under the presidency of Lía Ferrero. She has directed and co-directed research and outreach projects. She has published articles in journals and books. She is a member of the editorial committee of the Claroscuro Journal of the Center for Studies on Cultural Diversity and of the Plural Journal of ALA. She is Titular Professor of the course Sociocultural Systems Outside of the Americas at the School of Anthropology and of Pre-professional Practice 3 in the Cultural Management program, FHYA, UNR. She coordinates the Gender Program at the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design of UNR. She is part of the Feminist Anthropologies Working Group of ALA.
Cristina Rocha
Organizing Committee
Cristina Rocha is an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Western Sydney University, Australia. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and co-edits the Journal of Global Buddhism. She was a Fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (2021-2022) and President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (2018-2019). She held Visiting Researcher/Professor positions at Utrecht University, King’s College and Queen Mary College, University of London, CUNY Graduate Centre, the Max Planck Institute for Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and the University of Campinas. Her research focuses on the intersections of globalisation, religion, and (im)mobilities. She is the author of the award-winning books Cool Christianity: Hillsong and the Fashioning of Cosmopolitan Identities (OUP 2024) and John of God: The Globalization of Brazilian Faith Healing (OUP 2017); as well as Zen in Brazil: The Quest for Cosmopolitan Modernity (Hawaii UP, 2006), among other publications.
Gabriel Gyang Darong
Organizing Committee
Dr Gabriel Gyang Darong is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa. His primary area of research and teaching is medical anthropology, where he has conducted research on HIV education and management, ethnomedicine, and the practice of medical pluralism in South Africa. He has also been involved in research projects that look at the practice of voluntary medical male circumcision and maternal and child health interventions. Dr Darong currently runs a National Research Foundation (NRF) funded project, “Medical Pluralism in Makhanda, and beyond”, which seeks to find ways of promoting collaboration among the health practitioners of the diverse health systems in the community. Using a service-learning approach, he connects students to HIV community health workers, the careers of children living with disabilities, indigenous healers, dental care, mental health, and maternal health practitioners. He is the current President of Anthropology Southern Africa, an Organising Committee member of the World Council of Anthropological Associations, and a Steering Committee member of the World Anthropological Union. Dr Darong has a PhD, a Master’s (Summa Cum Laude), and a Bachelor of Social Science Honours (Cum Laude) in Anthropology. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (Cum Laude) and has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (with Distinction).
James Gang Chen
Organizing Committee
James Gang Chen is currently a professor in University of Sanya, and the Chief Editor of International Journal of Business Anthropology. He received an MA in anthropology from Iowa State University in USA in September 1993, and a PhD in anthropology from The Ohio State University in USA in June 2000. He used to work as lecturer in Xi’an Jiaotong University (1983-1990), post-doc research fellow in Department of Human Nutrition at The Ohio State University (2000-2004), visiting professor in Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Ohio University (2004-2006). From 2007 to 2023, he was the Chair Professor and Director of the Center for Social and Economic Behavior Studies at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics. His chief research interests are in the areas of business anthropology, food safety and culture, development anthropology and tourism, globalization and culture change. He has received numerous research grants both in the USA and in China, and has published quite a large number of academic papers and books both in Chinese and English.
International delegates
Anthropology Southern Africa (ASnA) Helen Macdonald
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) Mariya Ivancheva
International Association for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA) Danijela Birt
International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) Bernhard Tschofen
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Junji Koizumi
Latin American Association / Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología (ALA) Lía Ferrero
Pan African Anthropology Association (PAAA) Paul Nkwi
Wenner-Gren Foundation (WGF) Danilyn Rutherford
Anthropology Association of Ireland (AAI) Thomas Strong
Argentina: Colegio de Graduados en Antropología de la República Argentina (CGA) Silvia Hirsch
Association of Social Anthropologists UK & Commonwealth (ASA) Simone Abram
Australia: Australian Anthopological Society (AAS) Debra McDougall
Brazil: Associação Brasileira de Antropologia (ABA) Patricia Birman
Canada: La Societe Canadienne d’Anthropologie (CASCA) Éric Gagnon Poulin
Chile: Colegio de Antropólogos de Chile (CAC) Rosamel Millaman Reinao
China: Chinese Anthropological Society (CAS) Gang Chen
Croatia: Croatian Anthropological Society (HAD) Pavao Rudan
Czech Republic: Czech Association for Social Anthropology (CASA) Martin Hermansky
Czech Republic: Česká Národopisná Společnost (ČNS) Eva Kuminkova
Finland: Finnish Anthropological Society (SAS) Jukka Jouhki
France: Association Française d’Ethnologie et d’Anthropologie / French Association of Ethnology and Anthropology (AFEA) Marie-Pierre Julien
France: Association Française des Anthropologues (AFA) Barbara Morovich
Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie (DGSKA) Dorle Dracklé
Hong Kong: Hong Kong Anthropological Society (HKAS) Gordon Mathews
India: Indian Anthropological Association (IAA) Soumendra Mohan Patnaik
India: Indian Anthropological Society, Calcutta (IAS) Rajat Das
Indonesia: Indonesian Anthropological Association (AAI) Dian Rosdiana
Israel: Israeli Anthropological Association (IAA) Malka Shabtay
Italy: Società Italiana di Antropologia Culturale (SIAC) Ferdinando Mirizzi
Italy: Istituto Italiano di Antropologia (ISItA) Bernardino Fantini
Japan: Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology (JASCA) Sachiko Kubota
Latvia: Latvijas Antropologu Biedriba / Latvijas Antropologu Biedriba (LAB) Klāvs SedlenieksIeva Puzo
Lithuanian Anthropological Association
Mexico: Colegio de Etnólogos y Antropólogos Sociales (CEAS) Lizeth Pérez Cárdenas.
New Zealand: Association of Social Anthropologists of New Zealand/Aoteroa (ASAA/NZ) Brigitte Bonisch-Brednich
Norway: Norsk Antropologisk Forening (NAF) Elisabeth Fosseli Olsen
Norway: Nordic Antropological Film Association (NAFA) Frode Storaas
Philippines: Anthropological Association of the Philippines / Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao, Inc (UGAT) Skilty Labastilla
Poland: Polskie Towarszystwo Ludoznawcze / Polish Ethnological Society (PTL) Anna Weronika Brzezińska
Portugal: Associação Portuguesa de Antropologia (APA) Clara Saraiva
Russia: Association of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia (AAER) Valery Alexandrovich Tishkov
Serbia: Serbian Ethnological and Anthropological Society (SEAS) Vladimir S. Kostić
South-Korea: The Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology (KOSCA) Seok-jun Hong
Spain: Anthropological Association of Castile and Leon (AAC-LMK) Ignacio Fernández de Mata
Spain: (Catalania) Institut Català d’Antropologia (ICA) Araceli Muñoz Garcia
Spain: Instituto Madrileño de Antropología (IMA) Álvaro Pazos
Sweden: Anthropological Association of Sweden (SANT) Ulrik Jennishce
Taiwan: Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology (TSAE) Shu-min Huang
Tunisia: Tunisian Association of Anthropology / L’Association Tunisienne d’Anthropologie (ATA) Hassen Chaabani
UK: Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) David Shankland
Uruguay: Uruguay Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology (AUAS) María Noel Curbelo
USA: American Anthropological Association (AAA) Akhil Gupta
USA: Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) Sherylyn Briller
Advisory committee
Greg Acciaioli – former undesignated member of the Org Comm
Annie Benveniste (Former President – French Association of Anthropologists)
Niko Besnier (Former editor-in-chief of American Ethonologist)
Nurit Bird-David (Former President – Israeli Anthropological Association)
David Bogopa (Former President – Pan African Anthropological Association)
João de Pina Cabral (Former President – European Association of Social Anthropologists)
Luis R. Cardoso de Oliveira (Former President – Brazilian Association)
Milka Castro Lucic (Former President – Latin American Association of Anthropology)
Yuri K. Chistov (Former President – Russian Association of Anthropologists and Ethnologists)
Freek Colombijn (Former Secretary of IUAES)
Virginia Dominguez (Former President – American Anthropological Association)
Benoît de l’Estoile (Former International Delegate – EASA)
Richard Fardon (Former Chair – Association of Social Anthropologists of the U.K and the Commonwealth)
Bela Feldman-Bianco (Former President – Associação Brasileira de Antropologia, ABA)
John Gledhill (Former Chairperson – Association of Social Anthropologists UK)
Miriam Grossi (Former President – Brazilian Anthropological Association, ABA)
Monica Heller (Former President – American Anthropological Association)
Shu-min Huang (Former President – Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology, TSAE)
Ellen R. Judd (Former President – Canadian Anthropology Society)
Karl-Heinz Kohl (Former Chairperson – DGV)
Susana Narotzky (Former President – European Association of Social Anthropologists, EASA)
Setha Low (Former President – American Anthropological Association)
Graeme Macrae (Former Chair – ASAA/NZ The Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa/New Zealand)
Saša Missoni – (Former Vice-President International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences)
Henk Pauw (Former president – South African Association, Former member of WCAA Organising Committee)
Ana Bella Perez Castro (Former President – Latin American Association)
Thomas Reuter (Former Chair – WCAA)
Robert Rowland (Former President – Associação Portuguesa de Antropologia, APA)
Danilyn Rutherford (President – Wenner-Gren Foundation)
Francine Saillant (Former President – Canadian Anthropology Society)
Noel B. Salazar (Former President – European Association of Social Anthropologists, EASA)
Yasumasa Sekine (Former President – Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, JASCA)
Mugsy Spiegel (Former President – Anthropology Southern Africa)
James B. Waldram (Former President – Canadian Anthropology Society)
Terence Wright (Former President – Anthropological Association of Ireland)
AB Permanent Council
Isaac Nyamongo (Pan African Association of Anthropologists – Past Chair 2020-2023)
Carmen Rial (Associação Brasileira de Antropologia – Past Chair 2018-2020)
Chandana Mathur (Anthropology Association of Ireland – Past Chair 2016-2018)
Vesna Vučinić-Nešković (International Association for Southeast European Anthropology Past Chair – 2014-2016)
Michal Buchowski (Polskie Towarszystwo Ludoznawcze / Polish Ethnological Society – Past Chair 2012-2014)
Thomas Reuter (Australian Anthropological Association – Past Chair 2009-2012)
Junji Koizumi (Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology – Past Chair 2005-2009)
Gustavo Lins Ribeiro (Brazilian Association of Anthropology – Past Chair 2004-2005)
Gordon Mathews
WCAA, Co-Chair WAU Steering Committee
Gordon Mathews is a Research Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is the Deputy Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations. He has written What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds (1996), Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (2000), Hong Kong China: Learning to Belong to a Nation (2008, with Lui Tai-lok and Ma Kit-wai), Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong (2011), The World in Guangzhou: Africans and Other Foreigners in South China’s Global Marketplace (2017, with Linessa Dan Lin and Yang Yang) and Life After Death Today in the United States, Japan, and China (2023, with Yang Yang and Miu Ying Kwong). He has co-edited books on consumption in Hong Kong, the Japanese generation gap, pursuits of happiness around the world, and globalization from below. He has been involved with the Hong Kong Anthropological Society for several decades, as well as with the East Asian Anthropological Association, and has been co-editor of WCAA’s Déjà Lu since its founding, and also of Asian Anthropology. He has been teaching a weekly class of asylum seekers in Hong Kong for the past fifteen years, and also composes and performs electronic music: https://www.youtube.com/@gordonmathews2647/videos
Clara Saraiva
WCAA, Deputy Chair WCAA
Institute of Social Sciences- University of Lisbon (ICS-UL)
Helen Macdonald
Helen Macdonald is Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. A social anthropologist with a BA, BCom and MA from the University of Otago in her native New Zealand, and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Drawing on 25 years of research, she recently published with Routledge Witch Accusations from Central India: The Fragmented Urn. This book positions witchcraft in light of current dialogues around modernity, post colonialism, violence and where alternative beliefs to those imagined as rational can and should be engaged, yet extends the conversation beyond the African continent where very little attention has been focused. For the last decade she has led a research project entitled The Social Markers of TB that has worked with ethnographic research methods to understand TB infected persons, their families, care providers, and social networks. This international Medical Humanities project in partnership with community led NGOs in both South Africa and India was an important and valuable foundation in bridging anthropology with other disciplines to try to bring further insight to the controversial issues surrounding TB. Her new research interests look at the way parents have allied (or not) with their transgender children and with many others to better understand, explain, and undo structural transphobia and the intersection with gendered and racialized discrimination. She is the WAU Treasurer.
Michel Bouchard
Michel Bouchard is a Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Northern British Columbia in Canada. He served as President of the Canadian Anthropology Society/Société Canadienne d’Anthropologie (CASCA). He has researched ethnicity and nationalism, particularly in Eastern Europe and Russia. He has studied the history of French-speaking populations in Western North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. This past decade, he has studied Métis ethnogenesis and has published a number of books examining historical Métis communities. These include Bois-Brûlés: The Untold Story of the Métis of Western Québec. Vancouver: UBCPress, 2020. Co-authored with Sébastien Malette and Guillaume Marcottehttp://www.ubcpress.ca/bois-brules as well as the winner of the 2020 Prix du Canada Prize Les Bois-Brûlés de l’Outaouais. Une étude ethnoculturelle des Métis de la Gatineau. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval. Co-authored with Sébastien Malette and Guillaume Marcotte. https://www.pulaval.com/produit/les-bois-brules-de-l-outaouais-etude-ethnoculturelle-et-juridique-des-metis-de-la-gatineau.
He is serving as WAU Secretary.
