ASA Events

The ASA organises an Annual Conference on a specific theme, which is usually held during the Easter vacation or at the end of summer vacation at a UK university. Every ten years the ASA holds a Decennial Conference which is more international in scope. The conferences have their own sub-sections within this website, with panel/paper proposals and registration done online. Panel/paper abstracts are made available online, and can be edited by the convenors/authors via the Login link above.

If you are considering applying to organise an ASA conference, please see the Conference guidelines.

Forthcoming events

PeopleFest: Public Anthropology Festival 2024
The ASA is delighted to invite contributions to its first anthropology festival to be held in Manchester 5-7 April 2024. The festival is designed to celebrate anthropology and bring new audiences to our work, and is one of a number of new initiatives to encourage more people to be curious about our work, and to appreciate what social anthropology can bring to the world. Alongside the festival, we will hold the annual Firth Lecture, and we encourage ASA networks to bring their annual meetings to Manchester as well.
Click for more details.

Past ASA events

ASA2023 in London
Title: An Unwell World? Anthropology in a Speculative Mode
Convened by: the Department of Social Anthropology
Location: SOAS, University of London, 11-14 April 2023
Click here for more details.

ASA2022 online
Title: Anthropology Educates
Convened by: the ASA committee
Location: asynchronous online confeerence during much of 2022
Click here for more details.

ASA2021 in St. Andrews
Title: Responsibility
Convened by: Melissa Demian, Christos Lynteris and Mattia Fumanti
Location: University of St Andrews, 24th March - 1st April 2021
Click here for more details.

ASA2020 online
Title: How to Live Through a Pandemic
Convened by: the ASA committee
Location: online, 27th August 2020
Click here for more details.

ASA19 in Norwich
Title: Anthropological perspectives on global challenges
Convened by: Emma Gilberthorpe
Location: University of East Anglia, Norwich, 3-6 September 2019
Click here for more details.

ASA18 in Oxford
Title: Sociality, matter, and the imagination: re-creating Anthropology
Convened by: David Gellner and colleagues
Location: University of Oxford, 18th-21st September 2018
Click here for more details.

ASA17 in Adelaide: a joint ASA/AAS/ASAANZ conference
Title: Shifting States
Convened by: Alison Dundon and Richard Vokes
Location: University of Adelaide, 11th-15th December 2017
Click here for more details.

ASA16 in Durham
Title: Footprints and futures: the time of anthropology
Convened by: Elisabeth Kirtsoglou and Bob Simpson
Location: University of Durham, 4-7 July 2016
Click here for more details.

ASA15 in Exeter
Title: Symbiotic anthropologies: theoretical commensalities and methodological mutualisms
Convened by: Samantha Hurn, Ann Kelly, Tom Rice, Katharine Tyler
Location: University of Exeter, 13th-16th April 2015
Click here for more details.

ASA14: Decennial Conference in Edinburgh
Title: Anthropology and Enlightenment
Convened by: The STAR consortium
Location: The Surgeons' Hall, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, 19th-22nd June 2014
Click here for more details.

There was no annual conference in 2013, as the ASA supported the IUAES2013 world congress in Manchester:
Title: Evolving Humanity, Emerging Worlds
Convened by: John Gledhill, University of Manchester
Location: University of Manchester, 5th-10th August 2013
Click here for more details.
The plenaries/keynotes were filmed and are available online. This includes the Firth Lecture, by Lourdes Arizpe (National Autonomous University of Mexico), "Arbitrating Collective Dreams: Anthropology and the New Worlding".

ASA12 in Delhi
Title: Arts and aesthetics in a globalising world
Convened by: Susan Visvanathan and Parul Mukherji, JNU
Location: Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 3rd-6th April 2012
Click here for more details.

ASA11 in Lampeter
Title: Vital powers and politics: human interactions with living things
Convened by: Penny Dransart, Prifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant / University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Location: Prifysgol Cymru y Drindod Dewi Sant / University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 13-16 September 2011
Click here for more details.

ASA10 in Belfast
Title: The Interview – theory, practice, society
Convened by: Dr Jonathan Skinner, and Dr Dominic Bryan, Dept of Anth, Queen’s University Belfast
Location: Queen's University , Belfast, 13th-16th April, 2010
Click here for more details.

ASA09 in Bristol
Title: Anthropological and archaeological imaginations: past, present and future
Convened by: Dr David Shankland, Dept of Arch and Anth, University of Bristol
Location: University of Bristol, 6th-9th April, 2009
Click here for more details.

ASA08 in Auckland
Title: Ownership and appropriation
Convened by: Professor Veronica Strang and Dr Mark Busse
Location: University of Auckland, New Zealand, 8th-12th December, 2008
Click here for more details.

ASA07 in London
Title: Thinking through tourism
Convened by: Professor Tom Selwyn and Dr Julie Scott
Location: London Metropolitan University, England, April, 2007
Click here for more details.

ASA06 in Keele
Title: Cosmopolitanism and anthropology
Convened by: Professor Pnina Werbner and Dr Sean McCloughlin
Location: Keele, England, 10-13 April, 2006
Click here for more details.

ASA05 in Aberdeen
Title: Creativity and cultural improvisation
Convened by: Professor Tim Ingold and Dr Elizabeth Hallam
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland, April 4 - 7, 2005
Click here for more details.

ASA04 in Durham
Title: Locating the Field: Metaphors of Space, Place and Context in Anthropology
Convened by: Dr Simon Coleman and Dr Peter Collins
Location: Durham, England, March 29-April l, 2004
Click here for more details.

Future Fields - national conference on fieldwork for graduate students and junior researchers
Location: Oxford, December 17-19, 2003
This was partially funded by the ASA.
Click here for more details.

ASA03: Decennial Conference in Manchester
Title: Anthropology and Science
Convened by: Profs Penny Harvey, Peter Wade and Dr Jeanette Edwards
Location: Manchester University, 14th - 18th July.
Click here for more details.

ASA02
Title: Perspectives on Time and Society: Experience, Memory, History
Convened by: Professor Wendy James and Dr David Mills
Location: Arusha, Tanzania, 8 - 10 April.
Click here for more details.

The following earlier conferences do not have further information available online.

ASA 2001
Title: Rights and Entitlements
Convened by: Drs. Richard Wilson and Jon Mitchell
Location: University of Sussex Mar 30th - Apr 2nd.

ASA 2000
Title: Participating in Development: Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge
Convened by: Drs. Paul Sillitoe (Durham), Johan Pottier (SOAS) and Alan Bicker (Kent)
Location: SOAS, University of London.

ASA 1999
Title: Elite Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives
Convened by: Drs. Cris Shore and Steve Nugent
Location: Goldsmiths College.

ASA 1998
Title: Indirection, Intention and Diplomacy
Convened by: Prof. Joy Hendry and Dr. Bill Watson
Location: University of Kent.