Section Contributing Editor Information

For sections, the Anthropology News website offers a way to highlight the expertise of section members to a broad audience beyond section and AAA membership, to boost the section’s presence in the association, and to take part in creating a great anthropology publication. Section contributing editors—appointed by their section—write or solicit, edit, and submit content to the editor.

For authors, the Anthropology News website can highlight them and their work to a large and broad audience. They also get the benefit of detailed editorial support and input as they develop their piece.

We ask section contributing editors to develop stories, photo essays, or interviews grounded in interesting research, fieldwork experiences, current events, career advice, or hot topics in the profession based on the interests of their section.

  • Story: A short-from exploration of an interesting topic with detail and depth. 1,600 words (not including captions, image descriptions, etc.) + one to three visually compelling images.
  • Photo essay: Six to eight high-quality, visually compelling images + up to 750 words introductory text.  
  • Interview: A conversation of up to 1,600 words. Take care to ensure these are really engaging first-person dialogues on the issues, not just a promotional vehicle for an interviewee’s new book, film, exhibit, and so on. Authored by the interviewer and interviewee. If you wish to undertake an interview, please contact us with a brief proposal.

We encourage you to use the many other section and AAA avenues (social media, email lists, Communities, etc.) to share timely news about goings-on in a section (new initiatives, award announcements, message from the section president to section members, and so on).

All section submissions must be written by current section members. You can check member status by looking at your section’s page in Communities, which includes a list of members at the bottom.

Previously published work is not considered. This includes stories that have appeared on the section website, content on personal or institutional blogs, and abridged versions of scholarly articles. Your contributor may have written on the same topic elsewhere of course, but make sure the story they are developing for you is original work.

We will ask you to sign a section contributing editor agreement and to send a signed author agreement (signed by the author of the story, if not you) for each story you submit.

We are here to support you—get in touch with any editing questions or for advice. The editor runs a final copyedit of section content (and will line edit if needed) and might follow up with you with any questions before publication.

2026 schedule

You can publish up to four pieces each the year: one per quarter. Please try to submit by these deadlines; it helps us to spread out our editing commitments and our content to maintain a flow of stories to the website.

Note: beginning in 2026, we are no longer asking that you solicit pieces based on issue themes.

  • Q2 – May 1 (publish by end of June)
  • Q3 – August 1 (publish by end of September)
  • Q4 – November 1 (publish by end of December)

Your role, what to develop, how to solicit, editing  

Section content is the only content to come through contributing editors. The submitted content should be well-crafted, high-quality work that you deem interesting, topical, or important and ready for publication. Familiarize yourself with Anthropology News stories, tone, and styles.

Think in terms of producing content to tell stories and convey arguments. What kinds of stories do you find interesting? What topics and tales would appeal to anthropologists of many kinds and people interested in anthropology? What kinds of inspiring, impactful, exciting, and critical work are your section members doing; who has a good story to share? Is there something happening in the world that members of your section are particularly well-placed to comment on? Or are there particular topics you think important and want to develop content about?

It can be worth taking the time to invite people you would like to write for your section. You might also want to put out calls for pitches to your section membership (general or on specific topics that you want to address). You might also ask for input, support, and recommendations for contributors from your section board.

When inviting people to write, be clear about why you are reaching out to them, what it is about their work and experience that you find exciting, and what story/topic you would like them to write about. Give them a sense of what Anthropology News is and our reach. Some details you might pick and choose from to share: a publication with a broad audience of anthropologists right across the profession and those interested in anthropology; content is open to the public (the Anthropology News website is not gated); ~25,000 unique page views a month; inclusion in content email that puts their work directly into the inbox of +8,000 anthropologists; promotion via AAA social media.

Solicit with intention. Consider how diverse and inclusive your section’s submissions are. Are you reaching out to a range of section members at different career stages and pursuing different kinds of careers (practitioners, students, and professors [TT and NTT]), different kinds of workplaces and organizations?

You don’t need to say yes to every pitch that you receive. Use your best judgement. Is it coherent in terms of argument or focus? Does it outline something with a clear structure? Does it show promise of a well-written and engaging final product?

We do our best to build collegial relationships with authors based on collaboration and mutual respect. The piece is the author’s work, and they are the subject matter expert, but there is much a fine editor brings to a story. Editing can be a bit of give and take—decide what you think important to recommend, what you really want to push for. Most people appreciate editorial attention that helps to strengthen and fine-tune their work.

Edit a draft for development, providing an author with supportive, constructive suggestions and line edits on structure, narrative arc and cohesion, style and active voice, clear arguments or points, and so on. Does the story have a clear focus and argument? Does it provide a sense of what it is about or what the argument is very early on? Does it have a good kicker, bringing home the key point/s or argument at the end? Copyedit for clear language, punctuation, and grammar (AN uses the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition for most issues of punctuation and grammar). You might go a couple of rounds of edits/suggestions and revisions before finalizing a piece. AN uses the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for spelling. Use US spelling and punctuation. Familiarize yourself with the author guidelines. As part of AN’s commitment to accessibility, all images should include alt text (alternative text) and image descriptions. Use your editor: contact them for support at any stage.

Submit content using the online submission form. The editor will run a final copyedit. Sometimes this will involve correcting a few tiny copy errors; sometimes it will mean line edits or a developmental request for more substantial changes. The editor will email these back to you and the author. It should give you a chance to ask any questions, make sure everyone has signed off on any substantive changes, help you to see any recurring issues, and get a handle on common copy errors.

Some reasons the editor might return a submission for further revision or reject a submission: 

  • The submission was incoherent and poorly structured. 
  • The submission was an abridged journal article or has been previously published elsewhere. 
  • The submission contained ad hominem language. 
  • The submission was way over the word limit. 
  • The submission was written by someone who is not a member of your Section. 
  • The submission was a CFP for your section journal or promotion for a special issue edited by the author/s.
  • The submission was a report of section events at the last AAA Annual Meeting. 

Working together

Developing stories is quite an undertaking but one we hope is fun. Our inbox doors are always open—be in touch with anything you would like to ask or discuss via email or Zoom, and especially if any problems arise. Reach out to the editor with any special requests, ideas, assistance you need, or anything AN-related. Looking forward to a year of collaborating and developing some stellar content for the AN website.  

Author Information

Here is some information and advice you can share with prospective authors:

  • Familiarize yourself with Anthropology News—read an issue or browse section contributions on the website. Think popular science venue—writing with a bit of scientific bite and for a broad audience (low on scholarly jargon, high on storytelling).
  • What is your point? What is the story here? Why are you writing this piece? An AN magazine/website story is not an overview about anthropology. It should express your fresh, interesting, even surprising viewpoint on the subject you are writing about, focusing outward rather than inward on the discipline. Vignettes and creative approaches to the essay form are welcome.
  • Limit the core points you wish to make; this is mid-form writing and readers are more likely to absorb and remember your piece if you help them to focus.
  • An intro that gets to the point. The first paragraph or two should draw the reader in, providing context for the story and a clear sense of your main point/s (without giving the whole argument away and avoiding the metadiscursive frame (where one tells readers what one is about to say/write/do/argue). Set the scene with a provocative opinion, a topical argument, a descriptive ethnographic vignette, or similar.
  • Remember that you are telling a story. Craft a narrative arc. Bring research, incidents, experiences, and interlocutors to life.
  • Support your assertions and views by embedding links to relevant published research articles, reports, news articles, podcasts, films, and other works.
  • Towards the end, bring your main point to a close or sum up your argument. You might have a final point or “kicker” to end your piece on a strong note. It might be a quote from an interlocutor or an experience that brings home your point. It might be a witty remark that makes the reader laugh. It might be a return to a vignette or episode with which you began. It might emphasize what is at stake. It might be a call to action (but avoid the somewhat overused and empty “anthropologists need to do more…”).
  • Include a short bio of ~50 words at the end of your essay, including your institution or company, your role, your area of focus, a recent or pertinent publication, and any other information that you would like to highlight. Embed links if you wish.
  • Include up to six keywords (for SEO) identifying the central themes of the piece.
  • Anthropology News author agreement (PDF)

Image Information

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