Alumna Casey McHugh Works for USAID in Liberia

Casey McHugh (M.A. Anth-ID 2011), was recently appointed to the position of Education Program Support Specialist at USAID/Liberia. She will be providing support on the conceptualization, design, documentation, and management of USAID education assistance projects in Liberia. Previously, Casey worked in Liberia as a research assistant for Prof. Steve Lubkemann.

2011 Lewis N. Cotlow Recipients

The Anthropology Department is pleased to announce the 2011 recipients of Lewis N. Cotlow Awards for anthropological research. The following students will conduct research during the coming months and will present highlights of their findings at the annual conference on student research, which is held on the Friday of Colonials Weekend in October 2011:

Tanvi Avasthi (B.A./M.A. Anth): Identity Politics among Progressive Indian Clinicians
Advisor: Barbara Miller

Carrie Benjamin (M.A. Anth): Talibés and Marabouts: Children's Rights, Development, and Local Perspectives in Saint-Louis, Senegal
Advisors: David Gow and Ilana Feldman

Heather Dingwall (B.S. Bio Anth and B.A. Arch): Analysis of Homo erectus Fossil Footprints from Ileret, Kenya, in the Context of Unshod Daasanach Experimental Prints
Advisor: Brian Richmond

Justin Greco (B.S. Bio Sci and B.A. Arch): Determining Site-Status via Analysis of Maya Ceramics from Say Kah, Belize
Advisors: Jeffrey Blomster and Linda Brown

Cheyenne Lewis (B.S. Bio Anth and B.A. Arch): Use of Dorsal Parturition Pits as a Female Characteristic on the Human Pelvis
Advisor: Douglas Ubelaker

Kate Markham (B.S. Bio Anth): Monitoring Nitrogen and Energy Balance in Wild Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) in a Peat Swamp
Advisor: Erin Vogel

Alicia O'Brien (B.A. Int Aff): Describing the Gap: The Impact of Identity and Culture for Individuals with Cognitive Disabilities after Transitioning from School
Advisors: Frances Norwood and Barbara Miller

Danielle Pelaez (B.A. Int Aff): 21st Century Pilgrims: Exploring the Transmutation from the Religious Pilgrim to the Secular Adventurer
Advisor: Catherine Allen

Claire Ragozzino (B.A. Intl Aff): West Meets East: The Effects of Western Commodification of Yoga on Indian Yogic Identity and Practice
Advisors: Barbara Miller and Frances Norwood

Rebecca Remis (B.A. Intl Aff): The Chinese Experience in the Organic Movement: A Case Study of Little Donkey Farm
Advisors: Barbara Miller and Robert Shepherd

Tatiana Reyes (B.A. Intl Aff): Working Women: An Ethnography of Tourism and Its Impact on the Women of San Juan del Sur
Advisors: Catherine Timura, Robert Shepherd, Barbara Miller

Kristina Short (M.A. Anth): Materializing Social identity: Ceramic Figurines at Middle and Late Formative Etlatongo
Advisor: Jeffrey Blomster

Since 1990, the Lewis N. Cotlow Field Research Fund has supported over 150 anthropological research projects by GW students in nearly 50 countries. The Fund was created by a $150,000 bequest from the estate of Lewis Cotlow (1898-1987), an explorer, author, and filmmaker who attended GW.

13th Annual Lewis N. Cotlow Conference

The Anthropology Department held its 13th annual Lewis N. Cotlow Student Research Conference on October 15, 2010. The annual conference provides students with an opportunity to present findings to an audience of fellow students and faculty members.

Presentations given this year by undergraduate and graduate students spanned a diverse range of topics:

• The militarization of Guam and Chamoru social movements

• The genetics of a Siberian population

• Gender ideology among Asians in Vancouver

• Punk Islam

• Spiritual healing in Brazil

• Educational and employment opportunities for woman in India

• Derussification in the Ukraine

• Asexuality

• Sugar daddy relationships in New York City

• Catholic and Muslim immigrants in Sweden

• Brain connectivity and myelin-associated proteins in human evolution

• West Coast Swing vs. Lindy Hop

• Bone structure and human locomotion

• Obstetric fistula surgery

• Fossil footprints

• Trabecular bone architecture in mammals adapted to speed and endurance

• Tracking age-related changes in endocrine function in primates

Abstracts for many past Cotlow Projects and information about the Lewis N. Cotlow Field Research Fund are available on the Anthropology Department website.

Since its establishment in 1990 by a bequest of $150,000 from the estate of Lewis Cotlow, an explorer, author, and filmmaker who attended GW. The Lewis Cotlow Fund has aided more than 150 students in conducting anthropological research throughout the world.

The faculty and staff of the Anthropology Department would like to congratulate all presenters on a job well done!

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.

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.

Alice McKeown (MA 2002) directs Vital Signs Online for Worldwatch Institute

Alice L. McKeown (MA Anth-ID 2002, BA Anth with Special Honors 2000) continues to research and publish for Vital Signs Online and other publications as part of her work at the Worldwatch Institute. She reports on such topics as the growth of organic agriculture, the mixed prospects for jobs related to biofuels, and the drastic decline in the size of coral reefs. Before going to the Worldwatch Institute in 2008, Alice worked for more than five years with the Sierra Club, where she became an expert on coal, energy policy, and air pollution.

For more, visit her Worldwatch profile.

Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala presents for the Global HIV/AIDS Program of the World Bank

Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala (MA Anthropology 1985, PhD University of Natal 2000) presented on “AIDS in Southern Africa: A socio-cultural interpretation from USAID's first AIDS anthropologist” at the World Bank on February 2.The presentation discussed some of the potential reasons why HIV prevention programs have not been successful in Southern Africa. Applying an anthropological lens, the presentation examined the common pattern of sexual practices in Southern Africa that makes people especially vulnerable to HIV and suggest ways to improve HIV prevention.

Suzanne is Senior Anthropology Advisor in the Office of HIV/AIDS in the Global Health Bureau of USAID.

Nisha Ramachandran (BA 2009) working for NGO in New Delhi

Nisha Ramachandran (BA Anth 2009) is working as an intern for Jagori, an NGO in New Delhi. She is focusing on an action research project regarding water and sanitation, with an emphasis on women's safety.

She reports:

"A lot of things that I learned in Barbara Miller's Anth 002 and Anth 154 classes are things that I am seeing everyday in my job here. I realize how much I know about our work and how to go about addressing these issues because of her classes."

We wish Nisha continued success in her endeavors.

Nicholas Lembo (MA 2009) joins US Chamber of Commerce, runs blog

Nicholas Lembo (MA Anth/ID 2009) works at the US-India Business Council, a wing of the Chamber of Commerce, where he handles business intelligence research and run our programming calendar.

Nick recently finished a consultancy at the World Bank working to maintain the organization's blog on youth and development. This blog can be accessed at: http://youthink.worldbank.org/

In addition, Nicholas's personal blog Zzzeitgeist can be accessed at http://zzzeitgeist.blogspot.com/ According to the site description, this is a blog that "seeks to identify, explain, and link the many disparate strands of international politics and economics. How does China’s internet firewall affect its trade obligations? What's the best way to regulate international credit markets? Do mosquito nets really promote development? How can the international community address climate change without disrupting global commerce? And, most importantly, why does all of this matter?"

Faculty News: Robert Shepherd publishes article on UNESCO and Cultural Heritage in China

Robert Shepherd, Assistant Professor in the University Honors Program and the Department of Anthropology, published an article entitled, "Cultural Heritage, UNESCO, and the Chinese State" in the spring 2009 issue of Heritage Management.

Abstract:
In the past two decades, the government of the People's Republic of China has become a strong supporter of UNESCO material culture preservation efforts within China, including ethnic minority areas such as the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). This article uses a range of materials including fieldwork findings, museum research, and anthropological studies of ethnicity and development in China to examine this shift in state policy from the "modernization" of minority peoples through state-directed development to cultural preservation. Major findings are that these policies serve development in a different way, by supporting political claims to regions such as Tibet through the promotion of historical and cultural ties between China and Tibet, and by fostering a rapidly expanding domestic tourism industry in minority regions.

Paula Hirschoff (MA 1996) completes second tour with Peace Corps

Paula Hirschoff (MA-Development 1996) and her neighborhood recently made headlines in the Washington post. The department tracked her down and inquired about her life. She writes:

"Africa is the continent that keeps calling me back. I recently completed a second tour of service with the Peace Corps, this time in Senegal with my husband Chuck Ludlam. (In the 1960s I served in Kenya.) Working mostly with women in the town of Guinguineo, Senegal, we helped to develop small businesses. After completing our service there, we spent a month each in Madagascar, Kenya and Ethiopia. During vacations, we traveled to Mauritania and to the heartland of vodou—Benin and Togo. One of our projects during service in Senegal was to propose and advocate for reforms in Peace Corps management, where standards have declined in the four decades since we last served. We flew home at our own expense to testify before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (Peace Corps Subcommittee) on reform of the agency, and we continue to push a reform agenda. In addition, I'm working on a couple books: a history of my family's immigration from Europe and a perspective on our PC service with the cross cultural currents of the marriage set in the larger cross cultural milieu of Americans in Africa."

Thanks for the update Paula. It is great to hear from you.

Alumni Updates: Geoffrey Cain and Sophia Lungu

Geoffrey Cain (BA Intl Aff and Anth 2008), now living in Phnom Penh, has a new job with the United Nations as a correspondent for their humanitarian emergency service, IRIN (http://www.irinnews.org/). His post is under the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He is excited about the job because it allows him to write about issues he cares about -- organ trafficking, land grabbing, etc. -- and have an audience that includes major decision makers in the UN and NGOs.

Also, he recently published an article on the front page of the Far Eastern Economic Review: http://www.feer.com/international-relations/2008/august/unleashing-the-nationalist-genie-in-cambodia

Sophia Lungu (BA Anth and Intl Affairs 2007) has a new position as of August as BDC Executive Agent in the Pentagon's ODP (Office of Defense Policy), Office of European, NATO and Eurasian Policy. She works to make sure that Bilateral Defense Consultation meetings between the US and European and Eurasian allies run smoothly.