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Dr. Stacey Camp Participates in Virtual Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimage
This summer, Dr. Stacey Camp is participating in Tadaima! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage, which is a virtual pilgrimage to commemorate and remember Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the annual pilgrimages to WWII sites of Japanese American incarceration were cancelled this year. These pilgrimages provide important educational and community-building opportunities for descendants of the camps, the Japanese American community as a whole, and the wider public. Recognizing the profound significance of these pilgrimages, the National Park Service and the Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages (JAMP) are co-hosting this virtual pilgrimage in collaboration with numerous…
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New article in The Conversation co-authored by Associate Professor Gabriel Wrobel on epidemics in the archaeological record
Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Gabriel Wrobel recently co-authored an article in The Conversation with colleagues Dr. Charlotte Roberts (Durham University) and Dr. Michael Westaway (The University of Queensland) titled, “What the archaeological record reveals about epidemics throughout history—and the human response to them.” The article discusses what bioarchaeologists can reveal about diseases in humanity’s past by analyzing human skeletal remains. Read the full article at: https://theconversation.com/what-the-archaeological-record-reveals-about-epidemics-throughout-history-and-the-human-response-to-them-138408
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Associate Professor Ethan Watrall co-authors article on the Enslaved Ontology in Journal of Web Semantics
Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Ethan Watrall recently co-authored an article in Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web with several colleagues, including first author Cogan Shimizu (Kansas State University), corresponding author Dr. Pascal Hitzler (Kansas State University), and fellow members of MATRIX: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences. The article is titled “The enslaved ontology: Peoples of the historic slave trade” and presents the Enslaved Ontology (V1.0). The Enslaved Ontology is a modeling approach for the Enslaved: People of the Historical Slave Trade project, for which Dr. Watrall is a Co-Principal Investigator,…
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PhD candidates April Greenwood and Brian Geyer publish on photographic practices in rural Kenya and “relational objects” in CSCW/HCI
Department of Anthropology PhD candidates April Greenwood and Brian Geyer recently co-authored an article with Dr. Susan Wyche (MSU Department of Media and Information) in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction titled, “Exploring Photography in Rural Kenyan Households: Considering “Relational Objects” in CSCW and HCI.” The article discusses the photographic practices in rural households in Bungoma County, Kenya, and the concept of “relational objects” in computer-supported cooperative work/human-computer interaction research (CSCW/HCI). Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3392852 Abstract: “Domestic and personal photography are topics of longstanding interest to CSCW and HCI researchers. In this paper, we explore these topics…
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Dr. Gabriel Sanchez Awarded National Geographic Grant
The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce that Dr. Gabriel Sanchez has been awarded a National Geographic Early Career Grant in support of his research project, “Archaeology as Conservation Science: Investigating the Historical Range of California’s Endangered Coho Salmon.” Dr. Sanchez joined the Department as a College of Social Science Dean’s Research Associate and specializes in Indigenous and environmental archaeology. Working through the lens of historical ecology, he studies ancient fisheries along the Pacific Coast of North America and how data from archaeological sites can inform contemporary resource management and conservation. The National Geographic Society funds “bold, innovative, and…
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Assistant Professor Kurt Rademaker publishes in the journal Cell on reconstructing deep population history of the Andes
Department of Anthropology Assistant Professor Kurt Rademaker co-authored a recently published article in the journal Cell with colleagues around the world, including first author Nathan Nakatsuka (Harvard-MIT) and senior authors David Reich (Harvard) and Lars Fehren-Schmitz (UCSC). The article is titled “A Paleogenomic Reconstruction of the Deep Population History of the Andes” and discusses the changes to the genetic landscape in the Central Andes over 9,000 years. The article also investigates the correlation between changes in population structure and archaeologically detected periods of cultural, political, and socioeconomic shifts. Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.015 Abstract: “There are many unanswered questions…
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Fieldwork Photography Contest Winners 2020
The results of the 2020 Anthropology Fieldwork Photography Contest are in! Thank you to everyone who entered photos and to our judges from across the department. The photos were truly amazing and are a stunning reflection of the fieldwork in this department. Congratulations to our winners: ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
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PhD Alumna Kathryn Frederick, Alumna Rebecca Albert, and Professor Emeritus William Lovis publish on actualistic replication of acorn processing facilities
Department of Anthropology PhD alumna Kathryn Frederick, undergraduate alumna Rebecca Albert, and Professor Emeritus William Lovis recently published an article in the Wisconsin Archeologist titled, “The Green Site Acorn Parching Feature: Analysis and Actualistic Replication of an Early Late Woodland Acorn Processing Pit.” The article discusses the several experiments designed to replicate a 1200-year-old acorn parching facility, part of an ongoing project into indigenous Great Lakes subterranean food storage (MSUStore) protocols and practices. The full article is available from the authors. Abstract: “The Green site, in Shiawassee County, Michigan is an Early Late Woodland locale with a single deep, burned,…
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Congratulations to the Class of 2020
From the Chair, Dr. Todd Fenton: “On behalf of the entire Department of Anthropology, we offer our sincerest congratulations to the Michigan State University Class of 2020 graduates. We are so proud of all that you have accomplished during your time here and look forward to your future achievements. It has been an honor and joy to watch you grow, both academically and personally. As we entered your final spring semester here at MSU, we envisioned ending this journey as it began—together. Although we may not be gathered in one place, we are still celebrating you and your successes as…
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Associate Professors Stacey Camp and Ethan Watrall Awarded National Park Service Grant to build a digital archive of WWII Japanese internment and incarceration
The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce that Associate Professors Stacey Camp and Ethan Watrall have been awarded a 3 year National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant for $379,017 to develop The Internment Archaeology Digital Archive (IADA), an open digital archive that will host, preserve, and provide broad public access to digitized collections of archaeological materials, archival documents, oral histories, and ephemera that speak to the experiences of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II in the United States. This digital archive, which will be accessible to descent communities, scholars, students, and the general public, will…