Former Visiting Professor Ellen Messer Named 2009 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Anthropologist Ellen Messer has been awarded the distinction of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

Now a visiting professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, Dr. Messer had a full-time visiting appointment at the GW Anthropology Department in 2003-005 and has since taught regularly during summer sessions for the Elliott School of International Affairs, where she is a professorial lecturer.

Prof. Messer was elected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to the field of anthropology analyzing the relations of human rights to policies concerning poverty and hunger, and food aid and security. The honor was announced Dec. 18.

“I’m terrifically pleased to receive this honor, which recognizes my life-long efforts to connect research to action,” said Messer. “As a scholar-activist, I always hope that my research on the evolution of food systems and human-rights sensibilities will help improve communications among scholars, policy makers, and field practitioners.”

Messer is conducting research and teaching this year within the Sustainable International Development (SID) program at the Heller School. She was a core faculty member and director at the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Program at Brown University, where interdisciplinary teams sought to break the links between hunger and conflict.

Her current research continues to explore the “right to food” especially in the U.S. She also teaches rights-based development courses and directs field-based practicum placements in the SID program. She has participated in multiple task forces and committees of the American Anthropological Association, addressing world food crisis and human rights concerns.

Chris Garces (MA 1999) receives Mellon fellowship and completes doctorate

Chris Garces (M.A. Anthropology, 1999) has received a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell. He also finished his doctorate at Princeton University last May while teaching several courses at Sarah Lawrence College. Dr. Garces's dissertation tracks the use of charity as a modern political instrument in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Hom Pal student Tyler Faith published in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"

J. Tyler Faith (Hominid Paleobiology doctoral candidate) co-wrote an article in the November 23 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences exploring the mass mammalian extinction of the late Pleistocene. He and Todd Surovell, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming, examined "Synchronous extinction of North America's Pleistocene mammals" explores the mass extinction during the late Pleistocene. Faith and Surovell's findings indicate the mass extinction took place between 13.8 and 11.4 thousand years ago, a geological instant. Furthermore, the findings support the idea that human overkill, comet impact, or other rapid events caused this massive extinction, instead of a slow attrition.