Program areas at AAA
Annual meeting - the Association's annual meeting is the largest gathering of anthropologists in the world with more than 4,500 attendees. The Association members and invited guests present scholarly papers and research at more than 900 sessions. In addition to paper sessions there are roundtables, posters presentations, networking opportunities, a career expo, and an exhibit hall with more than 50 booths.
Sections - the Association has 40 sections representing disciplines, affinities and interests within the anthropology community. Membership to the Association must include membership to at least one of these sections.
Publications - the Association advances its core goals of furthering the professional interests of anthropologists, disseminating Anthropological knowledge and its uses to address human problems, promoting the entire field of anthropology in all its diversity, and representing the discipline nationally and internationally, in the public and private sectors through, among other things, its publishing program with over 20 titles published in print and online. The Association is the largest single publisher of Anthropological journals in the world through its partnership with wiley periodicals inc. journal content is made available in electronic format to the Association's members and subscribers.
Research and professional development - aaa advances its goals of furthering the professional interests of anthropologists by outreach to academic Anthropological departments and anthropologists who are in the practicing field. The career center is the largest job board for the field of anthropology.
Public education - the Association assists the membership in identifying issues within the public arena that would benefit from the application of Anthropological knowledge and contribute to improving the well-being of society. The Association's current public education program is the race exhibit. A new public education initiative focuses on immigration, migration, and displacement.
Communications & public affairs - the outreach arm of the aaa, coordinating external communications, partnerships, and programs to promote the interests of the anthropology community to congress and federal regulatory agencies, ngo's, and humanities-based professional and advocacy organizations, as well as the public at large. In addition, this department provides research and response support to the membership on matters of policy affecting anthropology.
Membership - the Association's membership department provides customer service support to members and prospective members, develops and implements recruitment and retention programs, and coordinates the member benefit programs.