Prof. Grinker awarded AAA's Anthropology in Media award

Prof. Roy Richard Grinker has been awarded the American Anthropological Association’s 2010 Anthropology in Media award. This award was established in 1987 to recognize the successful communication of anthropology to the general public through the media. It seeks to honor those who have raised public awareness of anthropology and have had a broad and sustained public impact at local, national, and international levels.

Since the publication of his book Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism in 2007, media attention has mostly focused on Grinker’s work on the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders. However, earlier books on anthropologist Colin Turnbull and relations between North and South Korea also attracted wide notice.

The AAA is recognizing Grinker both for his books and for his publications in major media venues. These include the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and New Scientist, and numerous broadcast appearances, including ABC’s 20/20 with Diane Sawyer, ABC’s World News Tonight with Charles Gibson, National Public Radio programs, and documentaries aired on PBS and distributed in movie theaters throughout North America.

Previous winners of the Anthropology in Media award are:

2009 John Noble Wilford
2008 James McKenna
2006 Eugenie Scott
2005 Meredith F. Small
2004 Melvin J. Konner
2002 John R. Rickford
1999 Donald C. Johanson
1997 Edward T. Hall
1996 Micaela di Leonardo
1995 Alan Lomax
1994 Katherine S. Newman
1993 Jonathan Benthall
1992 Jean Rouch, Jack Weatherford
1991 Ursula Le Guin
1990 Tony Hillerman
1989 Jane Goodall
1987 Stephen Jay Gould

Felicia Gomez (Hom Pal) Wins 2010 AAA Minority Dissertation Fellowship

Congratulations to Hominid Paleobiology doctoral student Felicia Gomez who recently was awarded the 2010-2011 American Anthropological Association Minority Dissertation Fellowship. Gomez, who is currently conducting research at the University of Pennsylvania, will use the fellowship to complete her dissertation on the evolutionary history of malaria-related genes. Her research includes examining genes that may have been affected by natural selection and identifying gene mutations that may be beneficial by making people less vulnerable to Malaria.

The Minority Dissertation Fellowship is awarded to one doctoral student annually and is intended to encourage members of ethnic minorities to complete doctoral degrees in anthropology, thereby increasing diversity in the discipline and/or promoting research on issues of concern among minority populations.

Click for more information

Hedwig Waters (BA 2009) receives Fulbright award

Alumna Hedwig Waters, who received a B.A. in Anthropology with Special Honors in January 2009, recently was awarded a Fulbright award to support eight months of research in Mongolia. She will travel to Mongolia in January 2011 to study women's health and the changing images of female beauty and body ideals. This summer, prior to starting her research, she will be studying intensive Russian and Mongolian.

New jobs for three recent M.A. graduates

Matt LeDuc (M.A.-Int. Dev. 2010) recently started working as a short-term consultant for the World Bank. Matt will assist in the preparation of a "Concept Note" on social sustainability in Bank-funded development projects. This study will lead to the development of a core training and certification program for social development specialists at the World Bank.

Maureen Moodie (M.A.-Int. Dev. 2010) is employed by the Neighborhood Farm Initiative (Washington, DC) and its sister organization, DC's Field to Fork Network. She is involved in promoting community gardens, home composting, and similar activities, and helps manage the Field to Fork Network's blog (http://fieldtoforknetwork.org/blog/).

Isaac Morrison (M.A. -Int. Dev. 2009) has joined the nonprofit group Innovation Networks (Washington, DC) as a full-time researcher. The group does research for other nonprofits on their performance, helps quantify their goals, etc. Isaac hopes to also keep teaching anthropology at Montgomery College.

Please send your news bulletins to anth@gwu.edu. Thanks.

Education and job bulletins, recent B.A. graduates

Mary Brown (B.A. Archaeology 2010) will attend the University of Liverpool for an M.A. in Egyptology.

Melissa Cradic (B.A. Archaeology-honors and Classical Humanities 2010) will attend Cambridge University for M.Phil., after which she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Anthropology at UC-Berkeley.

Robin Clay Lange (B.A. Archaeology-honors and Classical Humanities 2007) has completed her master’s degree in archaeology at the University of Durham and returned to New York.

Ashley Randall (B.A. Anthropology 2009) is back in Michigan after a tour as a Peace Corps community health development volunteer in Burkina Faso.

Jessica Ring (B.A. Archaeology 2010) has entered the Anthropology M.A. program at GW.

Please send your news bulletins to anth@gwu.edu. Thanks.

Matt LeDuc (MA 2010) is consultant at World Bank

Matt LeDuc (M.A.-Int Dev 2010) recently started working as a short-term consultant for the World Bank. Matt will assist in the preparation of a “Concept Note” on social sustainability in Bank-funded development projects. This study will lead to the development of a core training and certification program for social development specialists at the World Bank. The Note will include a set of recommendations regarding the main objectives of the training program, as well as its content, scope, and target audience. It will also identify gaps between existing training programs and the training needs of social development specialists at the Bank. Matt is involved in compiling the results of a questionnaire and assisting with a series of focus groups with Bank staff.

Dana Rosenstein (BA 2002) shares SAA poster award

Dana Drake Rosenstein (B.A. Anthropology 2002) and Prof. James Feathers shared one of the R. E. Taylor Poster Awards at the Society for American Archaeology 75th Anniversary Meeting in St. Louis for their poster "Luminescence Dating of Samples from Recent Contexts in South Africa."

As Sandra Lopez Varela, president of the Society for Archaeological Sciences, writes: "This prestigious award is named in honor of Professor Emeritus R. Ervin Taylor of the University of California at Riverside for his outstanding contributions in the development and application of radiocarbon dating in archaeological research and dedication to the founding of the Society for Archaeological Sciences. For more than a decade, receiving the Taylor R. E. award has enhanced the career of those who are now prominent young scholars and professionals." In more material terms, the winners receive a free subscription to the SAS Bulletin and a $100 bonus.

After graduating from GW, Dana went to South Africa, where she got a MSc in Archaeology from the University of Cape Town with a thesis on the technology and dating of BaTswana ceramics in northwestern South Africa. She is now a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona. Her dissertation will include the construction of a master archaeomagnetic curve for the last 500 years in northeastern South Africa using optically stimulated luminescence.