The 2025 NEAA Annual Meeting

Bridgewater State University: April 4-5, 2025

NEAA 2025 Annual Meeting

Before we begin, we would like to thank Board Member Peter C. Little and Rhode Island College for hosting our 2024 Annual Meeting, “Repairing and Caring: Working and Advocating in the Present.” Thanks to the hard work of Peter, the rest of the NEAA Board, and our student volunteers, the 2024 Annual Meeting was a great success, and we look forward to seeing you again at the 2025 Annual Meeting.

The Northeastern Anthropological Association is pleased to announce that our 2025 annual meeting will be at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, MA from April 4-5, 2025.

The annual meeting invites students, undergraduate and graduate, scholars and practicing anthropologists to share their research in a multidisciplinary setting that relates to the topic of that year and to contemporary issues in anthropology, such as “Finding the Good Path: Resolving Fundamental Ethics Issues in Anthropology.”

This year’s theme is:

The Anthropology of Fun and Play

Life on earth for human beings is, especially lately, full of stress and conflict - a global pandemic, political polarization, war and conflict, and the looming specter of climate change. Our conference topic for last year’s Annual Meeting addressed this, through anthropology’s growing commitment to renewed visions of repair and care and realignments of values and reinforcement of core values. However, part of that repair and care is looking at how we as human beings find “release valves” for that pressure - through fun, laughter, play, and enjoyment.

This is the focus of the 2025 Northeastern Anthropological Society Annual Meeting - to find those areas where we can look at how societies use fun and play in cultures, or how we ourselves can use fun and play to understand the human condition - via gamification and game based learning, or simply by giving ourselves “a chance to explore the world and its possibilities in an imagined environment or construct” (Hamayon 2016). For this year’s annual meeting, we invite studies of fun, playfulness, sport, games, and ways in which human beings find a way to find the joy amidst the chaos.

Let’s come together for the NEAA’s annual meeting April 4-5 at Bridgewater State University to rethink anthropology in a world that needs more (not less) fun!

How to Participate and Join the Conversation

The NEAA meeting is open to everyone (faculty, students, partnering organizations and advocacy groups, artists, etc.) and we strongly encourage your participation, either as a paper presenter, panel organizer and/or discussant, an artist anthropologist wishing to share your creative work, an organizer of a film viewing and discussion, or as a member of an organization wishing to share the work you do and how anthropologists might get involved! Working and advocating in the present is extremely diverse, so let’s ensure that the 2025 NEAA meeting reflects that diversity!!   

While all anthropological topics are relevant to working and advocating in the present, those interested in submitting a paper/panel/artistic work/etc. can use the following list of topics to guide their ideas for submission:

  • Games and gamification in climate change policy making

  • Games and gamification in health interventions

  • The Anthropology of Childhood

  • Archaeogaming (the archaeology of and in video games)

  • Games and gamification in the study and teaching of archaeological method and theory

  • Engagement in decision-making

  • Play and social control: How play relates to social control

  • Play as meta-communication

  • Settler colonialism and decolonization in games

  • Forming cultural abilities through play

  • Play as culturally molded behavior

Meet Our Keynote Speaker

Our keynote speaker for the 2025 Northeastern Anthropological Association Annual Meeting has yet to be determined.

Hotels and Restaurants in Bridgewater, MA

There are a number of hotels and restaurants within a short distance of Bridgewater State University. Please see below for information on hotels and restaurants, including distance from Bridgewater State University. Click on the picture to go to the hotel or restaurant website.

Residence Inn Bridgewater (11 minutes, 4.8 miles from conference)

Fairfield Inn & Suites Raynham Middleborough/Plymouth (14 minutes, 7.5 miles from conference)

Holiday Inn Express & Suites Middleboro Raynham (14 minutes, 7.5 miles from conference)

Courtyard by Marriott, Raynham (17 minutes, 9.6 miles from conference)

Residence Inn Brockton/Easton (18 minutes, 8.2 miles from conference)

Home2 Suites by Hilton, Raynham/ Taunton (18 minutes, 10.0 miles from conference)

Fiesta Taqueria (3 minutes, 0.7 miles from conference)

Bridgewater State University Dining, Multiple Locations on Campus

The Chatta Box (7 minutes, 2.4 miles from conference)

Restoration Coffee (3 minutes, 0.8 miles from conference)

Crispi’s Italian Cuisine (3 minutes, 0.7 miles from conference)

Bridgewater State University is located in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, accessible via interstate 495, and via public transportation. For a campus map, please access this link. Detailed directions to and from the campus may be found at this link.

Want to attend, but not interested in submitting a paper, poster or session? You can also use the button above to register for the conference once registration opens up!