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2016 News

An Archaeological Mystery In Ghana: Why Didn't Past Droughts Spell Famine?
NPR piece featuring the research of Amanda Logan


Katie Amato Appointed to CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program
Congratulations to Prof. Katie Amato, who has been named to the Humans & Microbiome program of the inaugural cohort of the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research Azrieli Global Scholars program.


Congratulations to Jessica Winegar, Erin Waxenbaum and Peter Locke, who have been named to the ASG Honor Roll.


Anthropology Department 2016 Newsletter is HereStaff Wins Commendation
Will Voltz was awarded a Service Excellence Commendation by Northwestern University.


Congratulations to Shalini Shankar on being Promoted to Full Professor


Ford Foundation 2016 Dissertation Fellowship
Congratulations to Dario Valles who has received a Ford Foundation 2016 Dissertation Fellowship. This prestigious award is sponsored by the Ford Foundation and administered by the Fellowships Office of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.


Earle Dissertation Research Grants
Congratulations to Vanessa Watters and Bilal Nasir as inaugural recipients of the Earle dissertation award.  With the generous support from the Tim and Eliza Earle Endowment, the Department of Anthropology is able to provide funding for their dissertation research projects in 2016-17.


“Amateurs Play Doctor for World's Poor”
Noelle Sullivan was featured in an article in the Daily Beast On June 1, 2016. The article was written by an NU undergrad, Megan Fu, who is interning with them this quarter.


Graduate Student Vanessa Watters Awarded Research Fellowship
Watters has been awarded the Buffet Center’s 2016 Global Politics and Religion Summer Graduate Research Fellowship.  Her project, “Prosperity on the Periphery: Christian Social Welfare in Coastal West Africa” examines the coastal West African region as an important historical corridor for Catholic and Pentecostal institutions, as well as contemporary exchanges and transformations in Christian communities. Vanessa will conduct preliminary fieldwork with religious organizations in the capital cities of Accra, Lomé, and Cotonou to consider how the shifting centers of global Christian membership are managed transnationally through the promotion of economic and social welfare programs.


Associate Professor Mark Hauser  has been Elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a venerable and distinguished group, founded in 1707, with interests in the material past and offices, archives and library alongside the Royal Academy and Royal Society in central London. Prof. Hauser joins Tim Earle, Matthew Johnson and Cynthia Robin as Fellows.


Jessica Winegar Presented New Book
Her work, "Anthropology's Politics: Disciplining the Middle East," (2015) was among those celebrated at a new book event hosted by MENA on May 11, 2016. 


Noelle Sullivan has Received a Grant from the Alumnae of Northwestern University
The grant will bring the Canadian aboriginal artist Sonny Assu to campus to do a public talk, studio sit-in sessions with two undergraduate art classes and a guest lecture in an undergraduate indigenous studies course on campus during the spring quarter of 2017.


Anthropology Department Receives Green Office Certification
The certification is due to the hard work of Kat Catlin and the AGSA Green team. As part of the celebration, a new tree was planted on the grounds of 1810 Hinman.


Graduate Student, Morgan Hoke, Received the EE Hunt Student Paper Prize
She earned this award at the Human Biology Association Meetings for her paper titled, "Feeding babies, feeding inequalities: A Biocultural examination of changing economic activity, infant feeding, and early growth in Nuñoa, Peru."


Anthropology Professor Jessica Winegar in Truthout: The US must Stop Supporting Human Rights Violations in Egypt
Egypt's most important human rights nongovernmental organization recently received notification from the Egyptian authorities that it would be shut down. For over 20 years, the Nadeem Center has documented state violence and torture and helped its victims - if they remain alive.


Ashley Agbasoga: 1st Year PhD Student in Anthropology and Tepoztlán Institute Fellow
Ashley is the recipient of the 2016 Tepoztlán-Northwestern Graduate Fellowship. The recipient receives a stipend and attends the Tepoztlán Institute conference in Mexico City that takes place in July. As a component of the Fellowship, Ashley works as graduate fellow to the conference directors and assists with planning the conference themed “Racist Violence, from the Colonial Past to the Urgent Present.”


Faculty Receive Support to Create Innovative Curriculum
Professors Mary Weismantel and Ryan Dohoney will spend the summer developing two new undergraduate courses designed to draw connections and insights between historical and modern traditions in music and art. 


Posing as a Doctor is Illegal... Unless you go to the "Developing World"
Anthropology professor Noelle Sullivan discusses the differences between healthcare in developing countries and the United States. Her work was originally published in the Orlando Sentinel.


Economic Inequality and Environmental Change in Medieval Iceland
Graduate student, Kat Catlin has been interviewed by Polar Field Services for her research in Iceland.  PFS provides logistical support for NSF projects in the Arctic and run a blog about arctic research.  Read the interview here.


Big Picture Science - with all our Mites: Thomas McDade / our Microbe Guardians
by Gary Niederhoff on February 14, 2016


Debunking the GOP Candidates' Anti-Immigration Stance
Associate Professor Ana Aparicico argues that myths about immigration have “inspired immigration policies that are dangerous, as well as economically, politically, and morally wrong.”


Matilda Stubbs is the 2016 Recipient of the WCAS/TGS Teaching Fellowship
Anthropology graduate student Matilda Stubbs has been awarded a stipend for exceptional teaching skills at Northwestern University.  Ms. Stubbs will teach a WCAS 1st year Seminar in the Department of Anthropology titled “Auto Ethnography: The Anthropology of Cars.” The course will be offered during the 2016 Spring Quarter. The WCAS/TGS Teaching Fellowship is made possible with funding from The Graduate School and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.


Kat Catlin Earns Prestigious Fellowship
Graduate student Kat Catlin has been awarded a fellowship from the Leifur Eiriksson Foundation to help support her dissertation research in Ireland. Kat is researching connections between anthropogenic environmental degradation, re-use and abandonment of infrastructure, and social inequality in medieval Iceland.


Tara Mittelberg Wins Northwestern Circumnavigator Award
Weinberg junior and anthropology major, Tara Mittelberg was awarded the prestigious Circumnavigator Award, which will support her research across three continents.