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Featured Adjunct: Dr. Jamil Hanifi
Dr. M. Jamil Hanifi was born and raised in an urban Pashtun tribal social environment in preindustrial Afghanistan. He maintains native-level competence in Farsi and Pashtu- the two major languages of Afghanistan. He holds a BSc in police administration and MA in political science from Michigan State University. With innocent ambivalence and a novice academic interest in the contrast between his tribal background and hyper-modern American culture he continued his graduate studies in the combined anthropology and sociology program at MSU in 1963. Two events during 1963 and 1964 played a major role in causing him to follow his comparative…
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Alumna Dr. Julie Pelletier: Working with Indigenous Communities
Dr. Julie Pelletier’s planned to specialize in medical anthropology when she arrived at MSU. However, her academic career took a different direction when she was awarded doctoral research funding by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians to conduct a project on indigenous identity. She completed the PhD program in 2002, after being hired into a tenure track position in Anthropology at the University of Minnesota – Morris (UMM). UMM had actually been an Indian residential school in the late 1800s. To counter this history, Dr. Pelletier faculty in English and a senior professor in History to create a…
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Featured Retired Faculty: Dr. Ken David
Dr. Ken David decided on Anthropology during his senior year at Wesleyan University of Connecticut. His major was the College of Letters (CoL). The CoL taught you to be a critic of literature, of historical accounts, and of philosophical works; this experience incited Dr. David to work quite directly with peoples’ thoughts and activities. He chose the University of Chicago’s Anthropology program for his graduate studies, and his major faculty influences there were Victor Turner, McKim Marriott, David Schneider, and Clifford Geertz. Having studied South Indian Music at Wesleyan, Dr. David was attracted to South Asian studies. For doctoral fieldwork…
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Graduate Student Awards, Grants and Fellowships
Lisa Bright received a Cultural Heritage Informatics and a Campus Archaeology Program Fellowship Sylvia Deskaj was awarded a NSF subsidized grant to analyze a portion of her dissertation material using the Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum of Natural History, graduate student travel grant from Archaeological Institute of America, Alliances for Graduate Education and Professoriate grant, and MSU Graduate Dissertation Research Enhancement Grant. Hannah Feig received a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship from Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID). Julie Fleischman received the Golden Key International Honour Society Research Grant for pre-dissertation research and the…
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Alumna Dr. Marita Eibl: Explores Government Opportunities
Dr. Marita Eibl first became enamoured by the discipline when she did a sixth grade report on East African Anthropology. As an undergraduate at University of Notre Dame, she was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to learn about all four fields of Anthropology. During this time, she was able to conduct research in East Africa, which shaped her interests and led her to MSU, where she planned to focus on medical anthropology in Africa. Her dissertation research examined the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in Tanzania. Dr. Eibl explored how the different participants in the program…
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MSU Anthropology Undergraduates at UURAF
The annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) took place Friday, April 10, 2015 in the MSU Union. The Department of Anthropology was represented by five undergraduate students who presented their original research to the broader MSU community. All the undergraduates did an excellent job presenting their work. Presentations included: Rebecca Albert: “Burnt to a Crisp- Using Charred Food Remains on pottery to Reconstruct the Plant Diet” Allison Apland: “Pathways Between Food Insecurity and Serum Folate Status Through Coping Strategies: A Case Study Among Breastfeeding Women in Drought Stricken Northern Kenya” Kyla Cools: “Patterns of Change” Taylor Flaherty: “Determining…
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Returning to Aztalan
Dr. Lynne Goldstein has worked in and around Aztalan since 1976. Aztalan is a large Middle Mississippian site (ca. AD 1000-1200) located between the modern cities of Milwaukee and Madison, and is the most famous archaeological site in Wisconsin. During this past summer, Dr. Goldstein led an excavation of the site to address questions about its structure. The field school included students from Michigan State University, students from University of Northern Iowa led by Professor Donald Gaff, and students from UW-Madison led by Dr. Sissel Schroeder. The teaching assistants for the project included current MSU Anthropology graduate student Kate Frederick…
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New Publications
The Tie That Binds; Essays in Honor of Margaret B. Holman Margaret B. “Peg” Holman was for many years an Adjunct in the MSU Department of Anthropology, a Research Associate at the MSU Museum and former editor of The Michigan Archaeologist. The special tribute volume (Michigan Archaeologist Vol. 54) was co-edited by Dr. Janet G. Brashler and Dr. William A. Lovis. The volume contains contributions from over 20 of Peg Holman’s colleagues, friends, and former MSU students, attesting to her abundant impact on Michigan archaeology and the MSU Department of Anthropology. The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place: Ideology, Power, and…
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New Course: Exploring Equality and Diversity in the United States
This summer, the Department of Anthropology will be offering a new online Integrative Studies in Social Science course created by Dr. Adan Quan. The course explores social diversity and equality in the United States from the perspective of an international student. The goal is to introduce international and domestic students to the issues and debates surrounding social difference in the United States, and have them engage with the content using personal experience. Students will gain the skills necessary to examine and frame their own positions, values and experiences within the wider context of social, political and economic structures in this…
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Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys
Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys has been a two year effort at MSU and in our community, funded by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2013, Muslim Journeys Book-shelf brought a collection of 25 books and 3 DVDs on Muslim experiences and cultures to the MSU Libraries, the East Lansing Public Library, and Capital Area District Libraries. The three libraries hosted three films presented by MSU faculty; the MSU Anthropology Department lent its support for the screening of a French feature film at the East Lansing Public Library in November 2013. In early 2014, the MSU Libraries…