Lova Annual Report 2020

For printing

Board
In 2020 the board consisted of: Marina de Regt until July 1 and Jasmijn Rana since then (chair), Filipa Oitavén (secretary) until October 1,  Roxane Kroon (secretary since October 1), Ina Keuper (treasurer), Jasmijn Rana until July 1 and Maria-Elena Planas since then (LOVA Journal), Bernardo Soares (PR), Tine Davids. The board met four times: on February 11, May 13, September 16, and November 19. The General Members’ Meeting was held online, on June 25 via Zoom. This meeting had been scheduled for June 19 after the LOVA Webinar of that date but had to be postponed by a week because of technical problems. During this meeting Marina handed over her position as LOVA chair to Jasmijn; Marina has been chair for nine years. 

LOVA Workshop Feminist Canine Ethnography
On January 17 a workshop on Feminst Canine Ethnography took place at the University of Amsterdam. It was organised by LOVA members Irene Arends and Reinhilde Sotiria König and consisted of three panel-sessions with a total of ten paper presentations in the morning hours and a workshop followed by a keynote lecture in the afternoon. About forty people attended and a report was published in LOVA Journal 41 of December 2020.

LOVA Photo Competition 2020
LOVA member Mara Lin Visser organised the third biennial LOVA Photo Competition with Gender in turbulent times as central theme. In the period of April 13 to July 2 the call for contributions and various messages about the submissions were posted on the LOVA Facebook page. A total of fifteen pictures by nine photographers have been submitted and all these were posted on Facebook. A jury of three experts in visual anthropology/ethnography selected five best pictures which were published in LOVA Journal 41, including the photos receiving the Jury Award and the Audience Award. 

LOVA Webinar Choosing between success and safety? The challenges of the fieldworker
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic the annual LOVA Day was replaced by a webinar in the afternoon of June 19. LOVA members Janne Heederik and Lise Zurné had initiated this workshop to call attention for more awareness and preparation of Master and PhD students regarding their vulnerabilities during fieldwork in places and situations unfamiliar to them and improve institutional support systems for students with bad experiences. Two expert presentations, information of seven affiliates of Master and PhD programmes of most universities in the Netherlands, and a discussion on four basic questions formed the programme. About thirty persons attended the webinar and most of them also filled in a short online survey after the webinar. A report of the webinar and the results of the survey were published in LOVA Journal 41. As a follow up, Janne and Lise created a LOVA working group on Safety in the field, and will keep this topic on the agenda of LOVA Network.  

The LOVA International Conference on Ethnographies of Gender and Technology, scheduled for June 18-20, 2020 had been announced with a call for papers by LOVA Mail Service in December 2019 and a reminder in February 2020. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic this event had to be cancelled.

Website and Facebook
Many messages were posted regularly on the LOVA Facebook page and the website. In November Bernardo announced his wish to find another task in the board and the board decided to distribute a  vacancy for the PR position early 2021 and to spend finances in 2021 for an expert to reconstruct the technical aspects of LOVA website and to create a digital public archive of the journal. 

Journal
LOVA Journal #41 was published in December. A call for submissions was sent around in the spring. As Jasmijn Rana took up the position of LOVA chair a new editor-in-chief was found in the person of Maria-Elena Planas, from July 2020 on. Kitti Baracsi, Stefana Biervliet, Ina Keuper, and Charlotte Knoors were involved as editors. The journal contained two research articles, two essays, three fieldwork reflections, two book reviews, an interview by board member Roxane with Marina and Jasmijn as leaving and incoming chair, reports of LOVA events and the Personalia rubric. The journal was sent to all members well before the Christmas holidays. For the first time, LOVA Journal was printed and distributed from Leiden University. 

LOVA Mail Service
In 2020 a total of 48 LOVA Mail Service messages have been distributed among LOVA members, announcing vacancies (17), meetings and events of LOVA and of other organisations, as well as calls for papers and other contributions to various journals and conferences. The sending of messages was done quite regularly, and the list of addressees has been kept updated. 

Finances
Like last year we had a positive result in 2020 and again 107 members did pay their annual membership fee. Expenditure for the journal concerns the printing costs of the December 2019 issue. The Annual LOVA Day costs were spent on the Feminist Canine Ethnography workshop in January, as no other physical meetings were organized due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown since March. Organisation expenses concern mostly bank account costs and flowers for leaving board members, the organisor of the photo competition, and for retiring long-time LOVA members. The Paypal account was ended as it was not used anymore. In the figures below a division is made between the LOVA regular fund and the LOVA Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award Fund to make clear that the latter fund is meant for the Awards only.