Friday, May 7, 2010

Grad Student Matt LeDuc Receives Fulbright Award to Work in India

Matt LeDuc (MA 2010) was recently awarded a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research in India. He will explore the politics of cultural heritage and the effects of tourism in the town of Hampi, India. Once the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hampi provides an important case study of the overlapping and sometimes competing interests of cultural heritage preservation, economic development, and “archaeological tourism.”

Matt, an International Development concentrator and teaching assistant, got his B.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Michigan.

Heather Dingwall Wins Gamow Fellowship to Research Evolution of Human Gait

Heather Dingwall, a double major in Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, has received a George Gamow Fellowship to study what ancient footprints tell about the origins of human gait. Prof. Brian Richmond is her advisor. Heather is looking forward to going to Kenya, where a team that included Dr. Richmond discovered 1.5-million-year-old hominin footprints at Ileret.

More on Gamow Fellowships: http://www.gwu.edu/~fellcent/gamow.htm

More on Ileret footprints: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;323/5918/1197

Warren Awards Announced; Eight Students Funded for Summer 2010

The Departments of Anthropology and of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations are pleased to announce the 2010 winners of fellowships for archaeological research. This year, all the students will be working in Israel or Jordan. The winners are:
Joseph DiVirgilio (B.A. candidate, undeclared): Megiddo, Israel
Amanda Kemble (B.A. candidate, Anthropology): Megiddo
Samantha Malone (B.A. candidate, undeclared): Megiddo
Joseph Mazzariello (B.A. candidate, Archaeology): Megiddo
Clara Merchant (B.A. candidate, Anthropology): Megiddo
Katie Paul (M.A. candidate, Anthropology): Megiddo
Kyle Tomanio (B.A. candidate, Anthropology): Megiddo
Jonathan Warner (B.A., undeclared): Bir Madhkur, Jordan

This is the third year Warren awards have been made. The endowment was created by a generous gift from William Warren, a retired Foreign Service Officer, who received a B.A. in 1967 from what is now the Elliott School of International Affairs. He was American Consul in Adana, Turkey, served as Charge d'Affaires of the American Embassy in the Solomon Islands and in Samoa, and held other overseas posts. Warren established two awards, the Thomas and Ola Herbert Reidling Undergraduate Award for B.A. or B.S. candidates and the Zelma Reidling Warren Bannister and William Warren Graduate Fellowship Award for M.A. and Ph.D. candidates.

For more information, visit the Warren Fellowship page of the Anthropology Department website: http://www.gwu.edu/~anth/atgw/warren.cfm