We are pleased to announce that Dr. Dána-Ain Davis and Dr. Sameena Mulla have been selected to serve as Editors-in-Chief of the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) flagship journal, American Anthropologist, effective January 1, 2027. They will take over for Dr. Elizabeth Chin, who has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal since 2020.
Published quarterly, American Anthropologist advances the AAA’s mission by publishing articles that add to, integrate, synthesize and interpret anthropological knowledge; commentaries and essays on issues of importance to the discipline; and reviews of books and multimedia work.
Dr. Dána-Ain Davis is Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College, on the faculty of the PhD Programs in Anthropology and Critical Psychology, and the director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of six books: including the award-winning, Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth (2019); and Feminist Ethnography: Thinking Through Methodologies, Challenges and Possibilities with Christa Craven (First Edition 2016; Second Edition 2022). She is also currently on the editorial board of American Anthropologist. Dr. Davis is the recipient of several awards, including the American Anthropological Association’s Gender Equity Award, and over the last 30 years has worked with a number of national reproductive justice organizations and on various social justice issues. Davis is the past vice-president of the Bronx Council of the Arts; past president of the New York Foundation founded in 1909; and past co-chair of New York NARAL. She is currently president of Aubin Pictures, a documentary filmmaking organization. She has been co-editor of Transforming Anthropology and Feminist Anthropology.
Dr. Mulla is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University and Associated Faculty in the Department of Anthropology. She is the Director of Emory’s Program in the Studies of Sexuality. In 2022, she chaired the Executive Program Committee for the AAA’s Annual Meeting, which was held in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of two books: The Violence of Care: Rape Victims, Forensic Nurses and Sexual Assault Examination (2014) and the collaborative ethnography Bodies in Evidence: Race, Gender, Science and Sexual Assault Adjudication with Heather Hlavka (2021). She was the recipient of the 2017 Margaret Mead Award and the 2022 American Ethnological Society’s Senior Book Prize. Dr. Mulla is also co-editor of Police/Worlds: Studies in Policing, Crime, and Governance, book series at Cornell University Press. With Dána-Ain Davis, she was co-editor of Feminist Anthropologist.
In conversation with AAA members, Dr. Davis and Dr. Mulla noted that a journal is a community: “As editors, our goal is to build on American Anthropologist’s legacy of rigorous and engaging content alongside the excellent leadership of its former editors and deepen its resonances with its current and potential readers. Building on our successful launch of the journal Feminist Anthropology, we will cultivate an interdisciplinary anthropology that retains the heterogeneity and diversity of thought that resides within the discipline.”
AAA Executive Director Ady Arguelles-Sabatier adds, “Dána-Ain Davis and Sameena Mulla bring exceptional intellectual depth, collaborative leadership, and a profound commitment to our scholarly community. Their vision for American Anthropologist builds on its legacy while embracing new voices and exploring new possibilities. I am excited to see how their stewardship will drive the journal’s evolution, fostering a dynamic and engaged discipline.”
Dr. Davis and Dr. Mulla will spend the year shadowing Dr. Elizabeth Chin, the esteemed scholar who will be completing her sixth year as Editor-in-Chief of American Anthropologist. They hope to build on Chin’s deep commitments to the authors and reviewers of the journal, and to approach American Anthropologist’s next era with the curiosity and playfulness required to strengthen the community that makes the journal possible.