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MSU alum named Executive Director of the Hispanic Latino Commission of Michigan
In September 2021, the Hispanic/Latino Commission of Michigan (HLCOM) named MSU alumna Dr. Isabel Montemayor-Vazquez the executive director, and she began her role that same month. Dr. Montemayor-Vazquez received both her master’s and doctorate’s degrees from the MSU Department of Anthropology. “I was interested in this position because it marries my political science background and applied activist driven anthropology background perfectly,” Dr. Montemayor-Vazquez said. “In this position, I can advocate for the needs of the community, work with non-profit organizations serving the Latinx community, train different state agencies on structural and systemic inequities, and most importantly, contribute to policy change.”…
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Dr. Heather Howard publishes in Syndemic Magazine
Department of Anthropology associate professor Dr. Heather Howard recently published an article in Syndemic Magazine. The article is titled “First Nations, Contagion, and Canada: The Lineages of Pandemic Colonialism the Americas.” In examining the pandemic’s ties to colonialism, the article states: “If the overall “trick” of settler colonialism is to convince settlers they are natives of the lands they subjugate, in the pandemic a further trick consists of treating colonialism’s consequences as so many particular cases of “disparities,” “susceptibilities,” or “local emergencies.” What might be called a syndemic clustering of settler colonialism, systemic racism and gender discrimination has been systematically…
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Professor Emeritus Lovis Conferred Michigan Archaeological Society Merit Award
The Michigan Archaeological Society, the oldest and largest avocational archaeological organization for citizen scholars in the state of Michigan, has conferred its highest award on Professor Emeritus William A. Lovis. The MAS Merit Award honors individuals “for sustained, outstanding, and significant contributions to Michigan archaeology”. This award recognizes Dr. Lovis’ half century of research into Michigan’s past, with scholarship resulting in numerous books, monographs and journal articles, as well as his long-standing association with and support for Michigan’s avocational archaeological community. Congratulations Dr. Lovis!
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Team of Anthropologists organizes international ‘Teaching the City’ workshop
On April 8th, 2022, over 220 international scholars and professors came together online to engage with pedagogical questions and practical case studies for a day-long virtual workshop on “Teaching the City”. The workshop designed around two core questions: “How do we teach about the city? What sits at the core of our educational and pedagogical explorations of urban spaces and socialities within Anthropology and its sibling disciplines? The organizing team was composed of MSU Department of Anthropology assistant professor, Dr. Lucero Radonic, Dr. Suzanne Scheld from California State University Northridge, Dr. Angela Storey from University of Louisville, Dr. Megan Sheehan…
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Ph.D. student Kelly Kamnikar and Dr. Joe Hefner publish a chapter in Avances en Antropología Forense.
Department of Anthropology Ph.D. student Kelly Kamnikar and assistant professor Dr. Joe Hefner recently published a chapter in Avances en Antropología Forense. This chapter reviews population affinity estimation using macromorphoscopic trait analysis. The authors focus on the application of this method to Latin American groups and discuss refining broad categories used in population affinity estimation, like Hispanic. They aim to provide a starting point for investigation into biological distance and population affinity for practitioners working with Latin American populations to improve methodology used in identification of migrant remains at the Mexico-US border, and victims of violence that may occur in transit from…
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Ph.D. student Kelly Kamnikar and Dr. Joe Hefner publish in Forensic Anthropology
Department of Anthropology Ph.D. student Kelly Kamnikar, assistant professor Dr. Joe Hefner, and co-authors Dr. Timisay Monsalve, and Dr. Liliana Maria Bernal Florez recently published an article in Forensic Anthropology. The article is titled “Craniometric Variation in a Regional Sample from Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia: Implications for Forensic Work in the Americas.” This publication examines a sample from Antioquia, Colombia within a population affinity estimation framework. The authors aim to investigate intraregional variation via social labels within Antioquia and craniometric variation on a broad level, when pooled, as compared to other global, comparative samples. This research directly contributes to the refinement…
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MSU Anthropology alum finds success in the business world
“Rarely is there another person in any meeting room that I’m in that has the background that I have,” MIchigan State University alumnus Jeffrey Bennish laughed good-naturedly. Bennish is the Vice President of QuVA Pharma Inc., a 503B pharmacy drug manufacturer, who graduated with a degree in anthropology. “I think you can use a lot of the skills from an applied anthropology standpoint that translate incredibly well into business environments, and find yourself with a unique skill set amongst your peers and those business environments that make you stand out,” he said. Bennish attributes his success to his early training…
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Ph.D. students Micayla Spiros, Amber Plemons, and Jack Biggs publish in Science & Justice
Ph.D. students Micayla Spiros, Amber Plemons, and Jack Biggs co-authored a paper in a special issue of Science & Justice on the Future of Teaching, Training and Learning in Forensic and Crime Sciences. Their paper, entitled: “Pedagogical Access and Ethical Considerations in Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology” focuses on access, ethics, and pedagogy in fields using skeletal collections. It also incorporates the digital tools Spiros, Plemons, and Biggs created during their tenure as CHI fellows into the greater narrative. Read the full article at: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1erEk4q6IcubKw Abstract: “Traditional education in biological anthropology relies primarily on hands-on, highly visual experiences. Forensic anthropologists, bioarchaeologists,…
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Ph.D. Student Priyanka Jayakodi wins 3rd place in Shao Chang Lee Scholarship Fund Best Paper Competition
The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce that Ph.D. student Priyanka Jayakodi has been awarded the 3rd place prize in the Shao Chang Lee Scholarship Fund Best Paper Competition through the Michigan State University Asian Studies Center. The Shao Chang Lee Scholarship Fund was established by friends and colleagues of the late Professor Lee to provide scholarship awards for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at MSU who have made outstanding accomplishments in Asian studies and are pursuing or planning to pursue a program that includes Asian studies. Priyanka’s paper is titled “Chronicity of Militarism: Sri Lanka’s Militarized Response to…
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Ph.D. Student Priyanka Jayakodi wins Dr. Delia Koo Global Student Scholarship
The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce that Ph.D. student Priyanka Jayakodi has been awarded the Dr. Delia Koo Global Student Scholarship. The Dr. Delia Koo Global Scholarship is administered by the Asian Studies Center to provide scholarships to students from Asia and to further MSU’s interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body. Priyanka will use the funds during her fieldwork in summer 2022 in Sri Lanka, where she will investigate environmental and health issues related to water justice and water governance in the context of Chronic Kidney Disease of uncertain etiology. Following…