Dental Anthropology Association – Annual Report from Officers and Committ
March 2022
OFFICERS REPORTS
Report from Daniel Antoine, out-going President of Dental Anthropology Association
Dear colleagues and fellow members of the DAA, I am sorry that I have, once again, been unable to attend. The repercussions of the pandemic has made travel from Europe more complex. Nonetheless, on behalf on myself and the officers of the Dental Anthropology Association, we hope that you are all safe and well, and welcome you back! For the first time in two years an actual annual meeting was possible, and I would like to thank my colleagues for their efforts in preparing this year’s meeting, and for running online events over the past year, including our annual workshop in a hybrid form earlier this week. I would also like to thank those who have continued to support the organization during this difficult period and hope that, as we move forward out of the pandemic, more in person collaborations, research, discussions, and meetings will emerge.
I pass on the gavel (virtually as it’s still in London) to Marin who will be an excellent and dynamic President. Although COVID has, over the past year, continued to impact much of what we hoped to deliver, I anticipate that, under Marin, the DAA will continue to successfully promote dental anthropology over the coming years and broaden our membership and audiences. With the help of existing and new officers, as well as our committee chairs, the DAA will offer a focal point to support students and researchers interested in dental anthropology. Finally, I would like to thank all of the DAA officers for your help, work, and support over the past three years. See you next year, fingers crossed!
Report from Marin Pilloud, President of Dental Anthropology Association
Thank you so much to Daniel Antoine for leading us through a very difficult couple of years!
I am so sorry that I could not be there with you all at the Business Meeting
I am so excited to take over as president and have lots of ideas about how to grow the Association of the next three years and to continue to make it more inclusive and be an example of an ethical organization
I plan to:
increase our engagement efforts
revisit our ethical standards (to include behavior of members and work with human remains)
review our current awards and ensure they are reflective of our values as an Association
discuss with the Journal Editor how we can work together to promote ethical research
Over the next several months, I will work with the officers to outline our goals and establish working groups to assist, so reach out if you want to volunteer or have any other ideas (mpilloud@unr.edu)
Report from Kathleen Paul, Secretary of Dental Anthropology Association
I took over the role of Secretary from Amelia Hubbard on September 1, 2021. Thank you, Amy for your service and for assisting me and Christina with the transition!
As of this month, we currently have 177 members (based on payment of dues). Of the active membership, 63 (36%) are students and 114 (64%) are faculty, instructors, or dental professionals. Forty-six of these individuals are new members as of April 2021. I will note that our recent membership count is 310, which includes 133 memberships that have lapsed since 2019. I think this is a noteworthy statistic, because 2020 was the first year that the AABA/DAA meetings were either cancelled or moved to a remote/hybrid format due to COVID-19. For many, these meetings, and associated events are key reasons for and reminders to renew membership. Without these in-person events occurring, I believe there was a sharp decline in active membership starting in 2019. My hope is numbers will rebound starting this year. For this reason, I have kept all email addresses for recently lapsed memberships subscribed to the DAA Mailchimp campaigns. I will also send out reminders to renew lapsing memberships on an individual basis starting in April.
Amy recently held the position of Secretary-Treasurer. Last year, this position was divided into two. Since September 2021, Christina and I have worked together to figure out a system to divvy up tasks in an effect way. We check in with each other on a monthly basis to ensure that our membership/donation records match incoming funds. For this reason, all information on accounts and spending will be presented in the Treasurer’s report.
Report from Christina Nicholas, Treasurer of Dental Anthropology Association
Christina took over the role of Treasurer from Amelia Hubbard September 1, 2021, and would like to thank Amelia for her assistance and years of service. All accounts are up to date. As of 3/21/22, the DAA reserves sit at $19,995. This is the highest level since 2018 (as far back as the accounting the Treasurer has access to goes). From April 2021 to March 2022, DAA spent a total of $1250.66, while bringing in $4658.78, for a net of $3408.12. Costs incurred include DAJ journal charges, CrossRef charges, fees to host our website, fees associated with our online payment system, and the 2021 Dahlberg prize. Expenditures in the 2021-22 year were relatively low, due to the lack of conference expenses in 2021 (2022 conference-associated costs have not been reconciled yet). Past annual conference expenses were on the order of $1600-3000.
Christina and Amelia met with a Chase banker to discuss the process for transferring the account and will be drawing up documentation describing the process for future use. Christina will confirm this, but it seems likely that foreign DAA members will not be able to hold the Treasurer position due to the need for the Treasurer to be the authorized representative for the account; the group will be updated on this point in the near future. Moving forward, Christina would like to differentiate general operating funds and Dahlberg funds into separate sub-accounts (all funds are currently commingled) and work with the officers to identify spending priorities as well as potential avenues for revenue.
Report from Rebecca George, Executive Board Member of Dental Anthropology Association
I took over office from Katie Zejdlik on September 1, 2021 – thank you, Katie, for your service!
Under Marin’s guidance as the EBM before Katie, booked rooms for all of our events and coordinated with Burke and Assoc. to ensure correct set-ups for all of our events, including the workshop and business meeting
Looking forward to seeing how I can help Marin and the visions of our other officers for DAA come to fruition in the coming 2.5ish years left in my term
Report from Diana Malarchik, Communications Officer of Dental Anthropology Association
I took over office from Emma Lagan on September 1, 2021 – thank you, Emma, for your service!
Future goals with our social media presence:
I would love to do more “Tooth Tuesdays or Thursday” but also a busy graduate student – so please feel free to send me (Facebook or dmalarchik@ucdavis.edu) your papers or publications and I can promote them. Professors, send me your students’ work so we can put the spotlight on our students.
Researcher spotlights. Do you have a great project you want to share? Do you have a great professor/advisor/colleague you want to promote? Send me names and I would love to send out little bio questionnaires and we can start promoting our own.
If you would like to get involved or have any other ideas – I am open to hear all about it.
Report from Emily Moes, Student Member of Dental Anthropology Association
My term is ending this year (contact Christine Lee for nominations by March 30).
This year I planned a successful networking event and happy hour at Wood’s Boss Brewing, we had a great turn out of both students and professors and it was wonderful seeing everyone in person again!
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Report from Marin Pilloud, outgoing Editor of Dental Anthropology
Editorial Board:
Board members: Heather J.H. Edgar, Alistair R. Evans, Scott D. Haddow, Nicholas P. Herrmann, Jaime M. Ullinger, and Cathy M. Willermet
Book review editor: Daniel Temple
Editorial assistant: Rebecca George
Production assistant: Daniel Erhlich
Publications:
We are still on track to continue with two issues a year: winter and summer
2021:
34 (1) – four articles and a book review
33 (2) –four articles and a book
2022:
35(1) – three articles
35(2) – on track to have around 3 articles
Since the last meeting – we have had 11 submissions– 7 of which were declined (63% acceptance rate)
Working on the issue with emails going to spam – so, please check your spam.
If you are interested in serving as a reviewer for the journal, you can create an account on the website, which will make it easy for the Editorial Board to find you. The website is here: http://journal.dentalanthropology.org/index.php/jda/user/register
Notable achievements and News!
Registered in Directory of Open Access Journals
Our application to be indexed with SCOPUS has gone through one review, and all I need to do is update the ethics statement on the website, then it can be reviewed again
In my last year, I would like to work on getting us indexed and getting an impact factor.
January 2022 was my last issue – ending my 6-year term as Editor
Happy to announce that Toby Hughes will be taking over as Editor, and I am so excited to see what he does with the journal!
Report from Toby Hughes, Editor of Dental Anthropology
Nothing to report.
Report from Cathy Willermet , Chair of the Student Prize Committee
Hello from the Student Prize committee! I have the best job — handing out awards. There are two prizes that the DAA awards.
The Christy G. Turner II/Cambridge University Press prize was evaluated virtually this year. It was opened to students who submitted a dental anthropology-related poster accepted via peer review at any professional meeting from the past year. Applicants submitted a .pdf of their poster and a three-minute video walk-through presentation. The nice thing about this format is that we can open it to more students, and we can see all presentations, which was hard to do sometimes in person.
We had many excellent submissions! Ultimately, the judges chose these three entries. Winners will receive $100 book credit provided by Cambridge University Press. Once again, we thank our friends at Cambridge University Press for their continued support of this prize.
The three winners are (in alphabetical order):
Dori Kennessey, University of Nevada, Reno, Identifying Candidate SNPs Shaping Dental Morphological Trait Expression
Tisa N. Loewen, Arizona State University, Pictures? Comparing Observer Error for Dental Morphology from Direct Observations and Photographs using ASUDAS
Diana Malarchik, University of California, Davis, Examining Heavy Metal Exposure in Two Historic San Francisco Cemeteries
The Albert A. Dahlberg Prize is awarded annually to the best student paper submitted to the Dental Anthropology Association. Dr. Dahlberg was among the first modern researchers to describe variations in dental morphology and the endowed fund continues to support student research. We encourage our members to donate to the Albert A. Dahlberg Fund to continue this prize. The winner of the Dahlberg Prize will receive a cash award, a one-year membership in the Dental Anthropology Association, and an invitation to publish the paper in Dental Anthropology, the journal of the Association.
This year, we award the Dahlberg Prize to TWO students!
Hannah Cantrell, from University of New Mexico, is awarded for her paper The Root of the Problem: Dental Health Disparities in New Mexico. She is an undergraduate student advised by Heather Edgar.
Sayf Muhammad Alaydrus from Universitas Airlangaa, Indonesia, for his paper The Impact of Chewing Betel Nut on Human Dentition in Indonesia. He is a graduate student advised by Mita Ataria.
Report from James Watson, Chair of Workshop Committee
This year we held a successful workshop, led by Dr. Anna Hardin (Strategies for Estimating Heritability with Teeth)
Looking for someone new to take over if anyone is interested in chairing the committee
Please continue to submit ideas for workshops (watsonjt@email.arizona.edu)
Report from Christine Lee, Chair of Elections Committee
· Student Member position open
· Contact for nominations (March 30)