Comfort Zones and Their Dangers: Who Are We? Qui Sommes‐Nous?

  This Presidential Address examines contemporary U.S. anthropological rhetoric regarding the profession of anthropology and related habits of professional self‐understanding that warrant a second look. It is most concerned with aspects of our widespread self‐understanding that often function (esp. in conversation and in writing) to assert and reassert a truth we tell ourselves about ourselves, even in the absence of sustained research. Arguing for moving beyond comfortable zones of self‐understanding and dwelling instead on “zones of discomfort” (and not just in “the field”), it specifically queries the common notions (1) that anthropologists constitute a “progressive” (or liberal or left‐of‐center) discipline, (2) that anthropology is in decline or on the verge of disappearing (what I call the “doom and gloom” scenario), and (3) that the AAA exists to serve anthropologists in the United States yet is open‐minded enough, liberal enough, globally oriented enough, and anti‐imperialistic enough to keep its “Americanness” at bay. [ the profession of anthropology, comfort zones, racism, disability, international(ism) ]