Lova Annual Report 2021

For printing

Board
In 2021 the board consisted of: Jasmijn Rana as chair; Roxane Kroon as secretary; Ina Keuper as treasurer; Maria-Elena Planas as editor-in-chief of LOVA Journal until March; Tine Davids for general affairs and since March also as chief editor of LOVA Journal; Bernardo Soares until January for PR and until September for organizing events; Juliette Roussel since April for PR.

The board had five meetings: January 9 (only about PR and website, small group), February 10, April 26, July 7, September 22; all meetings were held online.

The General Assembly of members was held during the LOVA Study Day of November 17 at Radboud University Nijmegen.

LOVA Journal
This year the LOVA Journal was a special issue on the theme of harassment in the field. It has been produced by guest editors Janne Heederik and Lise Zurné of the LOVA working group Safety in the Field. Board member Tine Davids acted as editor-in-chief for this edition, since Maria-Elena Planas had to step down. Following Maria-Elena’s suggestion Janne, Lise and Tine organised a webinar in May on the theme of harassment in the field; calls for journal contributions and participation in the webinar have been sent around in April.

After five years it was time to refresh the graphic design of the LOVA Journal. We are very happy that visual communication expert Willy Cremers was available for creating a new format. She did a very good job and we hope to use the new design for several years to come.

Because of all these changes and other obstacles, the publication of LOVA Journal #42 of December 2021 was delayed to May 2022. We received positive comments on its content and the new design. 

LOVA Study Day: Who’s Afraid of Feminisms? Decolonizing and Queering Feminist Ethnography
This year’s annual LOVA Study Day was held on November 17. Board member Bernardo Soares initiated to organise a study day on taking stock of the current situation of feminist anthropology in the Netherlands by also reflecting on the past and looking towards the future. As Bernardo left the board in September Jasmijn and Tine took over the task of organizing the day and decided to integrate the event with a class in the course on Gender, Power and Frontiers at Radboud University Nijmegen that Tine was teaching together with Kathrine van den Bogert. In two sessions five presentations were given in a hybrid way in the classroom and online because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. A report of the study day was published in LOVA Journal #42.

LOVA Webinar Harassment in the field: Reflections on safety and vulnerability during fieldwork
This two-day webinar took place on May 27 and 28 and was organised by Janne Heederik, Lise Zurné and Tine Davids of the LOVA working group Safety in the field as a follow up of the LOVA webinar Choosing between success and safety? The challenges of the fieldworker of June 19, 2020, and to enhance contributions to the special issue of LOVA Journal. The non-prep webinar consisted of a keynote lecture by Mindi Schneider and two interactive workshops with each two presentations and lively discussions. In LOVA Journal #42 a report of the webinar has been published.

LOVA International Winter School
After seven editions of LOVA International Summer School from 2013-2019 and none in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Irene Arends and Emmy de Wit organised a Winter School with a new central theme: Motherhood: The unfinished business of feminism? The event was held December 9 to 12, 2021, in Amsterdam, mostly in classrooms of the International Institute for Research and Education and one session in a dance studio. The call for applications was sent around in October and the school was organized in a hybrid form because of the pandemic restrictions. Nine of the sixteen participants attended the meetings physically in Amsterdam and seven online. Board member Tine Davids opened the event and a key lecture was given by Andrea O’Reilly. Six other lectures, a panel session by Tine, three workshops, and various reflection sessions completed the programme. A report of the event can be found in LOVA Journal #42. Like previous years the school was highly evaluated by participants and organisers.

LOVA Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award 2021
Organiser and coordinator Marina de Regt received fifteen submissions in response to the calls of December 2020 and early February 2021. A jury consisting of Fenneke Reysoo, Kathrine van den Bogert, and Kim Knibbe read all the theses of which three were selected for a prize. The award ceremony was held online on May 28 at the end of second day of the webinar on harassment in the field. Hannah Schild was awarded the first prize, Maya Lane won the second prize, and Sinine Nakhle received the third prize. The speech of Fenneke with the information about the theses of the prize winners presented at the award ceremony has been published in LOVA Journal #42.

LOVA Mail Service
In 2021 a total of 39 LOVA Mail Service messages have been distributed among LOVA members, regarding vacancies (21), invitations of meetings and events of LOVA and of other organisations (9), and calls for papers and other contributions to various conferences and other meetings. Messages have been sent quite regularly and the list of addressees has been kept updated. 

PR: Website and Facebook
Regularly messages have been posted on the website and  the LOVA Facebook page. As announced in the 2020 Annual Report a technical expert, Nabiha Omar, was hired to improve the website and to create a digital public archive of the journal. As this process only started in the second half of 2021 it will continue in 2022.

Finances
LOVA has been able to close the year 2021 with a positive net balance as 99 members paid the 2021 membership fee and 9 members also transferred the delayed 2020 fee. Expenditure for the journal concerns the printing costs of LOVA Journal #41 of December 2020  and some shipping costs. For the LOVA Study Day of November we paid traveling costs of some presenters. The revenues and expenditures for the International Winter School ended with a small positive result. Costs for PR were somewhat higher this year as we increased the number of email-addresses we use and covered the costs of a poster for the Winter School. The prize winners of the LOVA Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award 2021 received a donation each and the coordinator and jury have been rewarded with flowers for their contribution to LOVA. The separate Savings Account was ended in 2021 because of new extra administration costs for this charged by Triodos Bank.