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A Recap of the 2019 CAP Field School
This past May and June, the MSU Campus Archaeology Program (CAP) hosted a 4-week undergraduate archaeology field school on campus. Fifteen undergraduate students were enrolled in the course; thirteen undergraduates were from MSU or MSU alumni and the other two students commuted from the University of Michigan, Flint. The goal of this field project was to find artifacts in association with an historic homestead located next to Holmes Hall on the corner of Shaw Road and Hagadorn Road. The property was once occupied by the Toolan family from 1870 until approximately 1920. The property was rented out to several different…
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Exploring the History of Dr. Ruth Underhill’s Work
Over the course of the past few years, Dr. Mindy Morgan (left) has been exploring the history of anthropology and engaging in new conversations regarding our disciplinary past. Dr. Morgan is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and affiliated faculty member of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies program, as well as the Graduate Program Director for the Department of Anthropology, specializing in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology. Dr. Morgan’s recent work grew from her larger investigation into the periodical Indians at Work, which was published by the Office of Indian Affairs in the 1930s and contained articles authored by bureaucrats, tribal…
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New Research Associate: Dr. Gabriel Sanchez
The Department of Anthropology is pleased to welcome Dr. Gabriel Sanchez, who joins us as a Research Associate after completing his doctorate in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Sanchez is part of the inaugural class of the College of Social Science Dean’s Research Associate Program. This program promotes an inclusive scholarly environment, in which outstanding scholars in the social sciences support the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy. Dr. Sanchez became interested in anthropology during his first semester of community college following his discharge from the United States Army. He was attracted to the…
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Making a Case for a More Inclusive Shi’i Studies
Dr. Mara Leichtman is an Associate Professor of Anthropology affiliated with the Muslim Studies Program, African Studies Center and Asian Studies Center. Dr. Leichtman specializes in sociocultural anthropology and the study of religion, migration, transnationalism, humanitarianism, and economic development. One of Dr. Leichtman’s research projects, which culminated in her book “Shi’i Cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese Migration and Religious Conversion in Senegal,” investigated the location of Shi’i Islam in national and international religious networks, the tension between Lebanese and Iranian religious authorities in West Africa, and the making of a vernacular Shi’i Islam in Senegal. This work has prompted several new…
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Investigating Early Settlement in South America
Assistant Professor Dr. Kurt Rademaker is the Principal Investigator of a 3-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Archaeology project entitled, “Social Adaptation in a Highly Varied Spatial Environment,” which will close next year. This project focuses on some of the earliest archaeological sites known in South America to learn about the timing of initial settlement, the routes used to settle various ecological zones, and the formation of social connections between zones. At the end of the last ice age, hunter-gatherers successfully colonized nearly every ecological zone in the western hemisphere within a few thousand years. In South America, these environments included…
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New Department Chair: Dr. Todd Fenton
The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce Dr. Todd Fenton (Professor of Anthropology) as our new Department Chair. On behalf of the Department, we would like to thank previous Chairperson Dr. Jodie O’Gorman for her years of invaluable service. Dr. Fenton looks forward to continuing this legacy and building on this strong department. Dr. Fenton has served as a faculty member with the Department of Anthropology since 1998 and is a renowned forensic anthropologist. Over his career, Dr. Fenton has developed an internationally recognized PhD program focusing on forensic anthropology and established the MSU Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (MSUFAL) as…
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Dr. Hourani Receives Multiple Grants for International Research
Najib Hourani, Assistant Professor in both Anthropology and Global Urban Studies, received a Fulbright Fellowship and a Council of American Overseas Research Centers Senior Scholar Fellowship for his new research project working with Syrian refugees in Jordan. His project seeks to understand their needs and aspirations for the reconstruction of their neighborhoods, towns, and cities. The project, entitled Toward a Positive Peace?: Urban Reconstruction in Syria, will have him conducting research in Jordan from August 2019-August 2020, with funded follow up work the summer of 2021. Congratulations to Dr. Hourani! To read the full newsletter, click here.
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Featured Faculty, Dr. Kurt Rademaker
Dr. Kurt Rademaker started with MSU Anthropology in Fall of 2018. His research focuses on human biogeographic expansion into the Andes mountains and adds to our understanding of the timing and routes of initial human settlement of the Americas and the role of ecological variability in driving human adaptations and in understanding the relationships between humans and their environments. Learning about the human past is essential for understanding the history and evolution of the environments we inhabit. Dr. Rademaker’s current projects include excavations of archaeological sites from the Pacific Coast to the high Andes, as well as surveys in remote,…
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Ethan Watrall Receives DEADDA Grant
The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Ethan Watrall is part of a team recently awarded a European Cooperation of Science & Technology grant for the Saving European Archaeology from the Digital Dark Age (SEADDA) Project. The project is based on the premise that making archaeological data open and freely accessible is a priority across Europe because the digital realm lacks appropriate, persistent repositories. The result is that, due to the fragility of digital data and non-repeatable nature of most archaeological research, we are poised to lose a generation of research to a “digital dark age.” …
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Andean Girl Returns Home
Dr. William Lovis, Professor Emeritus of anthropology, Curator Emeritus of anthropology, editor of Midwest Archaeological Perspectives and research affiliate for Lithic Microwear Research Laboratory completed the repatriation to Bolivia of the 500-year old mummy of a young Andean girl. Her arrival at the Washington, D.C., Embassy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia marked the beginning of his retirement after a 45-year career at MSU. The mummy, nicknamed Ñusta, a Quechua word for “Princess,” had a long MSU history. MSU Museum records revealed she was donated to the MSU Museum in 1890 by then U.S. Consul to Chile and MSU Board…