This is a letter to inform you that the 16th Congress of IUAES (The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) will be held in the City of Kunming, China, from July 15-23, 2008. The Congress’s Organizing Committee is trying to make it the most successful congregation of anthropologists and ethnologists around the world. Your participation is especially welcome!

We are now at the stage of calling for proposals to organize academic Panels/Sessions. If you or your organization has an intention to organize and chair a session, please fill the attached application form or contact us immediately. At the moment, we have 215 session proposals at hand, but we need more for making the organizing work better.

It is our suggestion that each session could have 3 panels (i.e., smaller groups) and each panel could be consisted of 5 paper presenters. If a session has 3 panels and a total of 15 speakers from 3 countries/regions around the world, the session leader is to be granted 1 waiver of registration fee (check website:http://www.icaes2008.org for details). This measure is to encourage each panel/session be international.

If any of your friends is willing to serve as a session leader, please advise him or her to load the application forms at website http://www.icaes2008.org and simultaneously sent it to iuaes2008@hotmail.com.

The Organizing Committee is now raising funds to create a basis of financial support to cover travel and/or lodging for a selected group of individuals from the developing countries in special financial needs and for scholars whose roles are crucial to the success of the 16th Congress of IUAES. Details will be announced when we have a clear idea of how much funding will be at our disposal.

You may also recommend other scholar as session leaders. For more information and the welcome letter, please visit the website http://www.icaes2008.org If you have suggestions and inquiries, please contact us by this email address or phone call.Thank you for your attention!