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Professor Gabriel Wrobel awarded research grant by the Alphawood Foundation
Department of Anthropology Professor Gabriel Wrobel has been awarded a research grant by the Alphawood Foundation. This funding is in support of a project based in Northern Belize titled “The Marco Gonzalez Archaeological Project: Exploring Ancient Maya Coastal Adaptations in Northern Belize,” and the research will run in conjunction with an MSU Education Abroad program. The funding will be used for research taking place during the summer of 2024, primarily to support graduate and undergraduate students from Belize that are participating in the project along with funding for specialized analysis. The Alphawood Foundation is a private foundation located in Chicago, IL.…
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Associate Professor Chantal Tetreault awarded MSU HARP Award
Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Chantal Tetreault was awarded a Humanities and Arts Research Development (HARP) Award for 2023 by Michigan State University’s Office of Research and Innovation. Professor Tetreault’s project is titled “What is Arabic Good For? Arabic Language Educational Reform in France” for which she is currently researching. HARP funding is designed to support MSU faculty in the development of projects that seem likely to enhance the reputation of both the faculty member and the university, per the website. Further information on the HARP award and 2023 awardees can be located at the link below: HARP Development Award…
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Associate Professor Mara Leichtman Awarded Institute of Advanced Study Fellowship at Durham University
Associate Professor Mara Leichtman has been awarded an Institute of Advanced Study fellowship at Durham University, UK, where she is in residence at St. Aidan’s College from January through March 2024. During this time, she will be working on her next book titled “Humanitarian Islam: Transnational Religion and Kuwaiti Development Projects in Africa,” which unpacks the micropolitics of Islamic humanitarian giving, and focuses on Kuwaiti Sunni and Shi’i charities operating in Senegal and Tanzania. During this residency period, Dr. Leichtman will also be collaborating with Dr. Christopher Bahl from Durham’s Department of History on a project entitled “An Interdisciplinary Rethinking…
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MSU Biomarker Laboratory for Anthropological Research is seeking mid-Michigan breastfeeding mothers for upcoming study
Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Masako Fujita, Director of the MSU Biomarker Laboratory for Anthropological Research, is looking for mid-Michigan breastfeeding mothers to volunteer for an upcoming study, “Exploring Human Milk Immune Specificity.” Qualifying volunteers will be asked to:• Come to Michigan State University East Lansing campus, if possible, with baby – about 2 hours• Pump about one ounce of milk (in a private office) and give blood drops via finger stick• Answer questions and have their body measurements takenWe ask volunteers to pump milk at campus, rather than donating frozen milk, to be sure that all the immune factors…
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Associate Professor Masako Fujita Awarded Wenner-Gren Research Grant
Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Masako Fujita, Director of the MSU Biomarker Laboratory for Anthropological Research, has been awarded the Post-PhD Research Grant by the Wenner-Gren Foundation in support of their new project, “Exploring Human Milk Immune Specificity.” Breastfeeding is good for children’s health in many ways. Immune factors in milk—including antibodies and other proteins, white blood cells, and even commensal microbes—protect infants against infections and may prevent allergies. Understanding how the “immune system of milk” responds to microbes is important to understanding how breastfeeding affects children’s health. This project will seek to understand how chronic stress mothers experience may…
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Associate Professor Joseph Hefner publishes in Bioarchaeology International
Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Joseph Hefner, along with Dr. Rebecca Redfern of Newcastle University, Professor Sharon N. DeWitte of the University of Colorado, and Professor Dorothy Kim of Brandeis University have published an article in Bioarchaeology International titled “Race, Population Affinity, and Mortality Risk during the Second Plague Pandemic in Fourteenth-Century London, England.” Abstract We investigate whether hazards of death from plague and physiological stress at a fourteenth-century plague cemetery (Royal Mint, London) differed between populations using N = 49 adults whose affiliation was established using macromorphoscopic traits. Compared to a nonplague cemetery (N = 96), there was a…
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Anthropology Undergraduate Sam Lavake awarded Forensic Sciences Foundation Grant
Anthropology undergraduate senior Sam Lavake has been awarded a Field Grant by the Forensic Sciences Foundation. This grant will be used to support her Dean’s Assistantship this year. Sam’s research proposal was titled “Validation of Three-Dimensional Photogrammetry Models to Document Cranial Trauma”. From the American Academy of Forensic Sciences website: Each year the Forensic Sciences Foundation (FSF) awards monies in the form of grants to members of the forensic science communities to help the investigator/researcher initiate original in-depth, problem-oriented research throughout the year. These grants are open to members and affiliates (at any level) of the American Academy of Forensic…
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New Book by Associate Professor Dr. Elizabeth Drexler: Infrastructures of Impunity: New Order Violence in Indonesia
Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Elizabeth Drexler announces the publication of her new book, Infrastructures of Impunity: New Order Violence in Indonesia, available now from Cornell University Press. From the publisher’s website: In Infrastructures of Impunity Elizabeth F. Drexler argues that the creation and persistence of impunity for the perpetrators of the Cold War Indonesian genocide (1965–66) is not only a legal status but also a cultural and social process. Impunity for the initial killings and for subsequent acts of political violence has many elements: bureaucratic, military, legal, political, educational, and affective. Although these elements do not always work…
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Department of Anthropology Ph.D Candidate Jeff Burnett Awarded Wenner-Gren
Department of Anthropology Ph.D candidate Jeff Burnett has been awarded the Wenner-Gren Enagaged Research Grant for his proposal titled “Oak Bluffs Historic Highlands Archaeology Project”. For this project Jeffrey will be conducting a landscape study that utilizes archaeological methods, archival data, and oral histories and stories to map the beginnings and growth of a Black vacationing community in the Highlands area of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. For more information on the Wenner-Gren Engaged Research Grant, please see the following description from their website: This program supports research partnerships that empower those who have historically been the subjects of anthropological research, rather…
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Department of Anthropology Ph.D. Candidate Emily Milton publishes in Bioarchaeology International
Department of Anthropology Ph.D. candidate Emily Milton, along with co-authors Dr. Jordi Rivera Prince of Brown University and Ph.D. candidate Melina Seabrook of Harvard University, have published an article in Bioarchaeology International. The article is titled “Reconciling Identity Narratives: Creating Collaborative Space with Isotopic Baselines.” The article provides a critical perspective on the use of isotopes for bioarchaeological identity studies. Abstract: Isotopic methods have provided breakthrough insights into bioarchaeological identity studies, yet merit more critical theoretical perspectives. Inspired by and in conversation with intersectional feminist, Indigenous, and environmental literatures, we interrogate with and for whom such research is conducted. Potential…