The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has presented a Presidential Award to Maynooth University academic Dr. Chandana Mathur for her “leadership in uniting global anthropology under the World Anthropological Union”. Dr. Mathur is one of the five anthropologists from around the world who received a Presidential Award this year from AAA President Professor Alex W. Barker at an Awards Luncheon at the annual AAA meetings, held in San Jose in November 2018. Founded in 1902, the AAA is the world’s largest scholarly association for the discipline of anthropology. It currently has more than 12,500 members, includes 40 different scholarly societies, and publishes more than 20 scholarly journals. In Professor Barker’s words, the Association’s awards are intended to honour “colleagues whose scholarship and leadership has been particularly noteworthy, meritorious and influential. Of these awards one of the most prestigious is the President’s Award”.
Dr. Mathur stepped down from her position as the Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA) in July 2018 at the conclusion of her two-year term. She has previously served as Deputy Chair (2014-16) and Secretary (2012-14) of the WCAA. Her 2016-18 tenure as WCAA Chair saw the unification of the two major global bodies in the field of anthropology, the WCAA and the IUAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences). Since November 2017, the two have come together to form the World Anthropological Union (WAU), a bicameral organisation with separate WCAA and IUAES chambers. Prior to becoming the WCAA Chair, Dr. Mathur had been a member of the joint WCAA-IUAES Task Team that had steered this process from 2013 onwards, formulating a unification strategy that would safeguard the interests, achievements, histories and distinctiveness of the two organisations.
The AAA award recognises Dr. Mathur’s contribution to the process of the establishment of the World Anthropological Union (WAU), and to the forging of a strong global voice for the discipline of anthropology. Her contribution has also been acknowledged previously, in July 2018, in the form of a Distinguished Service Award from the IUAES (https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/maynooth-academic-honoured-international-union-anthropological-and-ethnological-sciences).
Photo: Josh Gold Photography