CASHP Postdoc Dr. Erin Marie Williams Receives Prestigious Award

We congratulate CASHP post-doctoral scientist Erin Marie Williams (M.A. Anth 2007, Ph.D. HomPal 2011) on winning the 2012 L’Oréal USA Fellowship for Women in Science award. Dr. Williams will be able to study early hominin decision-making through their choice of tool-making materials. She and four other awardees will receive up to $60,000 for their postdoctoral research. This honor is awarded to bring recognition to female scientists working in the U.S. in science and to establish them as role models for young women in science.

National Geographic published an article about the award and the five fellows: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/09/15/researchers-examining-critical-world-issues-receive-loreal-fellowships-for-women-in-science/

More information about the award can be found at: http://www.lorealusa.com/_en/_us/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00001

Grad student Tanvi Avasthi Wins Social Sciences Poster Award

Tanvi Avasthi, B.A./M.A. in anthropology (concentration in Medical Anthropology) won first place award for best Graduate Student Poster in the Social Sciences at GW's Research Day 2 (Arts, Engineering, Humanities, Sciences and Other Topics) on April 2. Prof. Barbara D. Miller was her advisor.

Tanvi's research in India during the summer of 2012 was supported by an award from the Anthropology Department's Lewis N. Cotlow Fund. She studied the construction of the modern Indian identity within the discourse of economic progress and traditional revivalism at a hospital in Bangalore, India. Tanvi looked at individual doctors' representations of modernity, tradition, and personal beliefs concerning the validity of non-Western medicine that is deeply integrated into Indian culture.

For more information, see her website: http://sites.google.com/site/indianbiomed.

Senior Heather Dingwall Chosen as a CCAS Distinguished Scholar

Heather Dingwall, a double major in Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, has been selected as a 2012 Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Scholar. (Two students are chosen each year.) This is the highest academic honor that the CCAS accord our graduating students, and she will now be delivering an address at the graduation ceremony.

Heather’s research as a Gamow Fellow (2010-11), Vice President for Research Fellow (2011-12), and Lewis N. Cotlow Award recipient (2011), all excavating and analyzing ancient human footprints in Kenya under the direction of Prof. Brian Richmond. This work led to her being co-author of articles in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and PaleoAnthropology.

Heather will be entering a doctoral program next year but is still weighing her options.

Hom Pal student Kes Schroer wins Amsterdam GTA Award

Hominid Paleobiology Ph.D. candidate Kes (Katherine) Schroer has been selected as one of three winners of the 2012 Philip J. Amsterdam Graduate Teaching Award.

In its announcement, the GW Teaching and Learning Collaborative commented: "Katherine brings initiative, scholarship, and professionalism to her work as a graduate teaching assistant. Students and faculty alike appreciate her ability to combine intellectual excellence and approachability in the classroom. In helping the faculty revise the lab manual for Introduction to Biological Anthropology, Kes took the lead in redesigning lab activities. Her work as a GTA thus has a lasting effect on the GW curriculum. She also reveals a nuanced approach to innovation, blending traditional materials and multimedia in her teaching."

Kes has served as a GTA for the Anthropology Department (Biological Anthropology and Primatology), Anatomy (Gross Anatomy), and the Honors Program (Scientific Reasoning and Discovery). She is the second Anthropology GTA to win an Amsterdam Award; Alice McKeown (M.A. 2002) was honored in 2002, the first year it existed.

The award was established by the late Philip Amsterdam (B.A. Anthropology 1962), who also provided much financial support to the Anthropology Department.

Prof. Cline receives Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching

Prof. Eric H. Cline of the Classics, Anthropology, and History Departments is the winner of this year's Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching Excellence.

As a man with appointments in three departments, Eric teaches a wide variety of courses and gets sterling evaluations for them all. He is also very active in involving students in field work, especially in the excavations in Israel that the co-directs, and in arranging for funding. As the advisor for the Archaeology Major he has overseen its six-fold growth; the program now has 50 currently enrolled students.

Eric is a former winner of the Trachtenberg Prize for Scholarship, so he is a testament to the fact that faculty can excel at both research and teaching. He is the first person to receive both awards. He also received a Bender Teaching Award in 2008.

Prof. Sherwood receives Trachtenberg Scholarship Prize

Prof. Chet Sherwood has been awarded the 2012 Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Faculty Prize for Scholarship in recognition of his extraordinary record of research and publication.

Chet directs the Laboratory for Evolutionary Neuroanatomy, which is dedicated to research on the evolution of brain structure in primates and other mammals. One of only a small number of laboratories in the world to directly investigate brain evolution in mammals, the laboratory uses high-powered tools to collect information on the variations in the brain architecture in mammals.

Work in the laboratory has resulted in many publications. "Aging of the cerebral cortex differs between humans and chimpanzees," a recent article co-written by Chet in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, described how human brains deteriorate with age in ways chimp brains do not.

Chet's publication record is impressive -- 57 journal articles, proceedings papers, and book chapters since he received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 2003. They are also frequently cited by other scholars. Chet does a lot of interdisciplinary research with GW colleagues such as Tadeusz Zawidzki (Philosophy), Francys Subiaul (Speech and Hearing Science), and Lawrence Rothblat (Psychology), and with both graduate and undergraduate students.

Chet is the fourth member of the Anthropology Department to be honored with the Trachtenberg Scholarship Prize: Alison Brooks in 1994, Eric Cline in 2011, and Bernard Wood in 2003. Former GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg created the prizes in the early 1990s in memory of his parents. Each of the awards comes with a cash prize and the recipients are honored at the university-wide Commencement.

Professor Frances Norwood Receives 2011 Margaret Mead Award

Congratulations to Dr. Frances Norwood, Assistant Research Professor in the GWU Department of Anthropology, who was recently selected to receive the 2011 Margaret Mead Award for her book, The Maintenance of Life: Preventing Social Death through Euthanasia Talk and End-of-Life Care – Lessons from The Netherlands (2009). The Margaret Mead Award is presented to a younger scholar for a particular accomplishment such as a book, film, monograph, or service, which interprets anthropological data and principles in ways that make them meaningful and accessible to a broadly concerned public – skills for which Margaret Mead was admired widely. Past recipients of the Margaret Mead Award have included Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Alex Stepick, Paul Farmer, Susan Scrimshaw, Philippe Bourgois, and Leo Chavez.

The Maintenance of Life is about what has developed in one present-day society to address social death and modern dying. It is based on a 15-month ethnographic study of home death in The Netherlands with general practitioners, end-of-life patients and their family members. The book develops from two important study findings: (1) that euthanasia in practice is predominantly a discussion, which only rarely culminates in a euthanasia death; and (2) that euthanasia talk in many ways serves a palliative function, staving off social death by providing participants with a venue for processing meaning, giving voice to suffering, and reaffirming social bonds and self-identity at the end of Dutch life. Ironically, those who engage in euthanasia talk often choose not to die by euthanasia and instead live longer lives as active participants engaged in Dutch social networks even at the end of life.

Dr. Norwood weaves her story beautifully, with ethnographic excerpts opening each chapter telling the stories that make up end-of-life from the perspective of patients, families, and their physicians. Using theory from Michel Foucault and Clive Seale, Dr. Norwood illuminates concepts of discourse and social death through ethnography yet weaves an ethnographic story that is accessible to scholars, policy makers, and families alike. Her book takes a critical look at Dutch euthanasia policy and broader end-of-life practices from a cultural perspective in comparison with U.S. end-of-life practices and policies. It is a book that offers those on any side of the end-of-life debate and those from around the world valuable lessons for maintaining life at the end of life.

The book was recently translated into French and is now also available as Mourir un Acte de Vie (2010).

Click here to learn more about Professor Norwood's research.

For more information on the Margaret Mead Award and past winners visit http://www.aaanet.org/about/Prizes-Awards/AAA-Margaret-Mead-Award.cfm

Dr. Eric Cline Wins 2011 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award - Best Popular Book on Archaeology

Congratulations to Dr. Eric Cline, who was chosen to receive the Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) 2011 Publication Award - Best Popular Book on Archaeology for Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. This is the 3rd time that Dr. Cline, Associate Professor of Classics, Anthropology, and History and Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, has been honored with the BAS Publication Award for Best Popular Book on Archaeology. He previously received awards in 2001 and 2009 for, respectively, The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age and From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible.

Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction is published by Oxford University Press. For more information visit http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Archaeology/Biblical/?view=usa&ci=9780195342635

For more information on Dr. Cline's research and publications, visit http://home.gwu.edu/~ehcline/

2011 Rogers Excavation Scholarship Recipients

The Anthropology Department is pleased to announce the 2011 Rogers Excavation Scholarship recipients, who will participate in archaeological fieldwork at sites in the U.S., Israel, Mexico, Belize, Kenya, and Greece during Summer 2011.

Joaille Araujo (B.A. Anth / Intl Affairs)
Alexandria, VA. Director: Pamela Cressey

Rebecca Biermann (B.A. Anth)
Oaxaca, Mexico. Director: Jeffrey Blomster

Sarah Cahlan (B.A. Archaeology)
Tel Kabri, Israel. Director: Eric Cline

Charlotte Doney (B.A. Anth)
Say Kah, Belize. Director: Linda Brown

Gabriela Farias (B.A. Arch / Geology)
Tel Kabri, Israel. Director: Eric Cline

Cheyenne Lewis (B.A. Arch / B.S. Bio Anth)
Astypalaia, Greece. Director: Simon Hillson

Lisa Mangiarelli (B.A. Arch)
Say Kah, Belize. Director: Linda Brown

Katie Paul (M.A. Anth)
Tel Kabri, Israel. Director: Eric Cline

Laurel Poolman (B.A. Arch / Anth)
Tel Kabri, Israel. Director: Eric Cline

Madeline Shaffer (B.A. Arch)
Say Kay, Belize. Director: Linda Brown

Harrison Ward (B.S. Bio Anth)
Koobi Fora (Director: Brian Richmond) and Olorgesailie (Director: Alison Brooks), Kenya.

The Rogers Excavation Scholarship provides funding for undergraduate or graduate students to do fieldwork in archaeology. Preference is given to those participating in an excavation for the first time and to those working with GW faculty. This scholarship, administered through the Capitol Archaeological Institute, was established in 2011 through the generosity of alumni Deborah Lehr and John Rogers.

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.

Professor Eric Cline Receives 2011 Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Faculty Scholarship

Dr. Eric Cline, Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Language and Civilization and Associate Professor of Classics, Anthropology, and History, who was selected to receive the prestigious 2011 Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Faculty Scholarship.

In discussing Dr. Cline's selection, George Washington University Vice President for Research Leo Chalupa referenced Dr. Cline's contributions to the field of archaeology of the Middle East, including his co-direction of excavations at Megiddo and Tel Kabri, as contributing to his outstanding international reputation. This reputation is bolstered by Dr. Cline's outstanding publication record as author or co-author of nine books and more than 80 articles in scholarly and general audience publications.

The Anthropology Department offers a hearty congratulations to Dr. Cline for this well-deserved recognition of scholarly contributions.

Heather Dingwall Receives Luther Rice Collaborative Fellowship

The Anthropology Department would like to offer its congratulations to Heather Dingwall, undergraduate double major in Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, who received a Luther Rice Collaborative Fellowship for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Her project, to be completed under the direction of Dr. Brian Richmond, will involve conducting running and walking experiments using unshod Daasanach subadults in Ileret, Kenya in order to determine how gait, speed, and foot morphology influence the formation and morphology of footprints. Ultimately, the resulting data will provide a comparative context for the analysis of fossil hominin footprints (namely, the footprints from Ileret that have been attributed to H. erectus). In addition, she will assist with the further excavation of the fossil footprint surfaces at Ileret during Summer 2011.

The Rice Fellowships offer support for student-initiated research carried out in collaboration with, and under the guidance of, at least one faculty mentor.

Dr. Catherine Allen Awarded a Specialist Fulbright Grant

Dr. Catherine Allen, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, has been awarded a Specialist Fulbright Grant to spend a month at Catholic University in Lima. She will offer a five-week seminar on the subject of Thought, Action, and Landscape in the Andes, for students enrolled in the master and doctoral Program in Andean Studies. Additionally, she will offer one or more presentations on her current research as part of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Seminar to be held for one week in Pisac (Cuzco ) in 2011. Finally, she will meet with faculty and graduate students at PUCP (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru) who specialize in Andean visual and performing arts.

Hom Pal Students Awarded Cosmos Scholar Grants

Congratulations to Hominid Paleobiology students Andrew Zipkin, Amy Bauernfeind, and Katherine Schroer. Each recently received a Cosmos Scholar grant to support research in the upcoming year. Their projects are as follows:

Andrew M. Zipkin: Identification and Characterization of Archaeologically Relevant Malawian Ochre Deposits

Amy L. Bauernfeind: Energetics and Maturation of the Brain in Humans and Macaque Monkeys

Katherine E. Schroer: Geometric morphometric analysis of crown and root integration in molarized primate premolars

The Cosmos Scholar grant program program provides grants to meet specific research needs not covered by other supporting funds, including but not limited to special supplies, travel, and unanticipated expenses that would enhance the research being undertaken. More information can be found here

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!

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.

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.

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.