In July 2003, the Commission took part in the 15th Congress of the IUAES in Florence, Italy with a day-long session of papers by 15 Commission members. This was followed by the Business Meeting of the Commission. A second set of papers and presentations was also organized by Emmanuel Marx in a nearby town. Most of these papers have since appeared in special issues of numerous journals including our own journal Nomadic Peoples. The IUAES organizers also published proceedings of that Congress.
We are now preparing to take part in the delayed 16th IUAES Congress in Kunming, Yunnan, China to be held July 26th – July 31st, 2009. The Commission has been granted an Academic Session which is being divided into three panels. John Galaty and Michael Bollig are organizing a panel on Resilience to Resistance: Pastoralist Strategies in Response to Contemporary Political and Ecological Disruption and Change in Africa with 20 papers; Elliot Fratkin and Anatoly Khasanov are organizing a session on Pastoral Development: a Global Assessment with 15 papers; and Fachun Du and Julia Klein are organizing a panel on Ecological Resettlement : Local Participation and Policy Improvement with 20 papers. For more details wee the Commission on Nomadic Peoples website, http://users.ox.ac.uk/. The Academic Session will run continuously from 15:20 July 27th through to 18:30 July 30th. The Business Meeting of the Commission will be held on July 29th between 19:00 and 21:00. There will be a Dinner hosted by Professor Fachun Du for all Commission participants on July 30th at 19:00.
The Editors of the journal Nomadic Peoples have changed since 2003 when Carol Kerven agreed to serve as Co-Editor along with William Lancaster. In 2005, William Lancaster decided to step down as Co-Editor. Since then Steven Dinero and Kenneth Bauer have both agreed to assist Carol as Co-Editors. They have since resigned as Co-Editors. In April 2009, Carol Kerven withdrew from editing the journal. In May 2009, Saverio Kratli was appointed as the Editor of Nomadic Peoples for an initial term of five years. This appointment will be ratified at the CNP Business Meeting, July 29th, 2009. Further information about the journal and about submissions can be found at www.berghahnbooks.com.
At the July 2003 Business Meeting of the Commission, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to both I.M. Lewis and Walter Goldschmidt. A new round of nominations and votes are being managed at the present time by Kathleen Galvin, the Chair of the Lifetime Achievement Awards Committee. We intend to announce the recipient of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Awards at the CNP Business Meeting, July 29th, 2009 in Kunming Yunnan, China.
In 2006, the edited book Nomadic Societies in the Middle East and North Africa: Facing the 21st century was published by Brill in their Handbook of Oriental Studies Series (Leiden: E.J. Brill). With over 36 chapters contributed mainly by members of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples it is an important milestone of the Commission.
The Commission now has over 160 registered members who are part of an email distribution list, or listserve, making communications much easier than in the past. As a loosely structure organization of individuals interested in nomadic peoples, the web site and email distribution are important means of communication among Commission members and other interested individuals.
In 2010, the Commission expects to tie full membership to subscription to its journal Nomadic Peoples. This change will require the election of a second officer for the Commission, a vice Chair or Secretary to manage the additional obligations that would emerge from this change of policy. Full members will receive the journal as well as a bi-annual electronic newsletter, and be eligible for discounts on registration fees to IUAES congresses and inter-congresses. They will also be able to post announcements on the Commission website and its email listserve. The Commission will continue to manage the email listserve with its free registration.
Dawn Chatty
July , 2009