Department of Anthropology

  • Jessica Yann Wins Prestigious Paper Award

    The Department of Anthropology is very happy to announce that Jessica Yann, PhD Candidate in the department, has won the the Midwestern Archaeological Conference Student Paper Award for her paper entitled “Trade Relationships of the Ottawa Living along the Grand River, Michigan.” The paper examines the trade relationships between the Ottawa living along the Grand River in Michigan and the local traders, Rix Robinson and Daniel de Marsac during the early nineteenth century. Using a resource dependency framework, the paper examines the material transactions between these groups, giving special emphasis to the observation of power dynamics. The Midwest Archaeology Conference Student Paper Award was created to promote scholarly excellence among students conducting archaeological research in the Midwestern United States.

     

  • Dr. Mindy Morgan Speaks at Miami University

    The Department of Anthropology is pleased to share that Dr. Mindy Morgan, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Graduate Studies, was invited to give a lecture at Miami University in the Lectures in Contemporary Anthropology & Indigenous Speaker Series.

    Entitled “Untangling the Web: Indigenous Linguistic Knowledge and Cultural Knowledge & Americanist Anthropology,” the lecture explored the opportunities and challenges of repatriating intangible cultural property for American Indian communities in the United States.  In particular, the talk considered how Indigenous communities are using resources—especially language materials, gathered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—for linguistic and cultural revitalization and maintenance programs, detailing the steps that are necessary to make these materials relevant for contemporary use.

  • Dr. Joseph Hefner Awarded Major New National Institute of Justice Grant

    Dr. Joseph Hefner Awarded Major New National Institute of Justice Grant

    The Department of Anthropology is very please to announce that Dr. Joseph T. Hefner, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, and Dr. Nicholas Herrmann, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University, have received a National Institute of Justice award to improve the accuracy of age estimates for unidentified remains of children and adolescents.

    The project, “Investigation of subadult dental age-at-death estimation using transitional analysis and machine learning methods,” was funded for approximately $900,000.

    “As forensic anthropologists, we are routinely involved in the identification effort when unidentified human remains are discovered,” said Hefner. “Refined age estimates are a critical component of identification, especially when the skeletal remains under examination belong to a child.”

    The project focuses on tooth root and crown development to estimate age in children and adolescents using transition analysis and machine learning methods. The goal is to provide forensic anthropologists and odontologists an accurate and precise age estimation method using a large, demographically diverse, modern sample of children and adolescents. Current standard methodology based on tooth mineralization often underestimates age by one to more than two years as age increases.

    The project will use dental development data collected on radiographs from living children and adolescents from different populations in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and other locations around the world.

    The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio and Triservice Orthodontic Residency Program, 59th Dental Group will also collaborate on this research.

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  • Dr. Najib Hourani Invited to Speak at United Nations

    Najib HouraniThe Department of Anthropology is very pleased to report that Dr. Najib Hourani was invited to the United Nations Headquarters in NYC, by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations’ Middle East and North Africa section to give a talk on the post-conflict reconstruction of Lebanon and the lessons it holds for the current moment in Syria, and how the international community might positively support efforts toward peace and reconstruction in this delicate moment in the Syrian war. In attendance were staff from the Secretary General’s Office, Security Council Secretariat and the Sanctions Committees, UNDP (UN Development Program), The UN’s Syria negotiating team, Department of Political Affairs, Department of Peacekeeping, UNOCHA (UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights).

    Hourani is a well recognized expert in the Anthropology of civil conflict, “war economies” and post-conflict reconstruction, especially in the Middle East.

  • Welcoming Dr. Kurt Rademaker to the Department of Anthropology

    The Department of Anthropology is very pleased to announce that Dr. Kurt Rademaker is joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor.  Previously an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University, Rademaker is an interdisciplinary archaeologist interested in human-environment dynamics, hunter-gatherer colonization of South America, adaptations in extreme environments, and foundations of complex societies. In the past 15 years he has carried out archaeological research primarily in the Peruvian Andes and quaternary studies in Peru and Scotland. He has also worked as an archaeologist in the Eastern Woodlands and Great Basin regions of the U.S., in Mexico, and in Chile. In Peru his team searches for and investigates hunter-gatherer sites from the Pacific coast to the high-elevation Andes. His ongoing collaborations with earth science colleagues are producing high-resolution paleoenvironmental records for comparison with cultural sequences. Other current collaborative research with physical anthropologists and paleogeneticists is focused on understanding how humans have adapted to live in high-elevation mountain regions, some of the most challenging environments on Earth.  In addition to his faculty appointment at MSU, Rademaker is Affiliated Assistant Professor of Prehistory at the University of Tübingen,  Adjunct Research Collaborator at the University of Arizona, and Faculty Associate in the University of Maine Department of Anthropology.

    More information on his current project can be found at www.paleoandes.com. More details on his research and publications can be found at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kurt_Rademaker

  • Featured Faculty: Dr. Joe Hefner

    Featured Faculty: Dr. Joe Hefner

    Dr. Joe Hefner reading an articleDr. Joe Hefner joined the Department of Anthropology in the Fall semester of 2014 as an assistant professor in forensic anthropology. He currently teaches graduate level Human Osteology and Multivariate Statistical Analysis along with undergraduate Introduction to Physical Anthropology, Hominid Fossils and Time, Space and Change. Previously, Dr. Hefner worked as a contract archaeologist throughout the Southeastern United States and then at Mercyhurst College after completing his PhD in 2007 from the University of Florida.

    Joe reports stumbling into anthropology inadvertently during his undergraduate studies at Western Carolina University. As a philosophy/art/psychology major, he took an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course and became hooked, deciding to change his major and declare social/cultural anthropology. Eventually, he found himself enrolled in archaeological field school and the rest is history as they say. From that moment on, Joe knew he wanted to do something with archaeology for the rest of his life. A few years after this, he discovered forensic anthropology and headed to Florida. As a graduate student, the young Dr. Hefner struggled to understand how forensic anthropologists were estimating ancestry. Prior to his latest research, estimating ancestry was an experience-driven, subjective approach that did not sit well with him. First, Joe felt he was not patient enough to become an expert and second, he believes that subjectivity should have no place in the field of forensic anthropology.

    Dr. Hefner’s work investigates cranial morphology (cranial macromorphoscopic traits) as an indicator of geographic origin (i.e., ancestry in forensic anthropology). He examines modern individuals housed in skeletal collections around the world, collecting data on slight variations in the skull to estimate where these individuals originate from geographically. Because of the nature of estimation and classification in forensic anthropology, Dr. Hefner also works with statistical modeling. Traditionally that has included standard methods like discriminant function analysis, but computing power today has expanded new research horizons. Machine learning models are very popular now and, since he works with categorical data, many of those methods are more appropriate than traditional models that require a normal distribution.

    Joe’s favorite part of his research is his love for data analysis and coming up with novel approaches to old questions. These reasons are why he is constantly trying to develop better analytical methods for classification analysis. Forensic anthropologists have been using many of the same methods since the fields inception. While these methods have been tested and hold true, Dr. Hefner wants to break out of those familiar paradigms. This means reading a lot of the literature from numerical ecology and machine learning.
    Dr. Hefner enjoys the department and his colleagues. Dr. Hefner also enjoys the relationships he’s established with his graduate students, which allow them to work well together and “crank out” solid research. Joe hopes that the approaches he has developed have some staying power within the field and that someday, a young, new scholar will approach him at a conference and make it their goal “to spend their entire career trying to prove me wrong.”

    Aside from being a prolific publishing scholar and professor, Joe Hefner is also an avid reader and enjoys playing chess whenever he can, generally while also enjoying a nice small-batch bourbon. He has a new book coming out in August of 2018 entitled Atlas of Human Cranial Macromorphoscopic Traits from Elsevier, Academic Press. His newest publication, “The Macromorphoscopic Databank” should be out soon in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Dr. Hefner is collaborating on a variety of projects with colleagues the world over and working on tenure.

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  • Featured Graduate Student, Kehli Henry

    Kehli Henry pictureKehli Henry, PhD candidate, developed an interest in anthropology early on, deciding to pursue it as her major at Central Michigan University. The nuance of anthropological theory, as well as the attention to cultural factors gave her an appreciation for the complexity within the field. Her previous work with an American Indian tribe allowed her to see the utility of anthropological theory in the issues she dealt with. MSU provided the perfect fit for her graduate studies because of the faculty, and the focus on both medical anthropology and applied work.

    Since her undergraduate work, Kehli has been deeply concerned with using an applied and community-based approach to better understand education, drug and alcohol use in American Indian communities, American Indian data sovereignty and data protection, as well as criminal justice and historical trauma. Her dissertation research encompasses many of these topics focusing upon a Midwest American Indian community to document and understand the ways in which the discussions surrounding the “War on Drugs” represent drug and alcohol users, how these representations affect the lives of individual American Indian drug users, and how they affect their community.

    While at MSU, Ms. Henry received a University Enrichment Fellowship, giving her the resources to focus on her academic work and research. She also received the Susan Applegate Krouse Graduate Student Fellowship in 2016/17, and a Wenner Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, allowing her to quickly move onto the data analysis phase of her dissertation. Kehli hopes to graduate in the Spring of 2019.
    Ms. Henry hopes to offer very applied and practical research, evaluation, and information to the communities she works with, aligning her research with their wants and needs and contributing to the conversation around responsible conduct of research for both partners and participants. She wants to get at the underlying issues surrounding drug and alcohol use and treatment in American Indian communities, to provide information useful to tribal communities in making decisions and to contribute to the de-stigmatization of drugs and drug users for a more equitable approach to policy and treatment.

    Kehli reports that many teachers and mentors, both inside and outside of the academic world, have contributed to her success. Her husband, parents and grandparents have always been hugely supportive and influential in her approaches to complex issues. Kehli has also been fortunate that she has had the opportunity to learn from many tribal community members and elders. Her undergraduate advisor at CMU, Dr. Athena McLean had a huge influence in developing her anthropological thinking. Her dissertation committee at MSU has also been very supportive and influential. Dr. Heather Howard, chair of her committee; Dr. Mindy Morgan; Dr. John Norder and Dr. Django Paris have all helped Kehli to improve the ways in which she engages, interacts with, and holds herself accountable to the communities she works with. In addition, the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) and Indigenous Graduate Student Collective (IGSC) have both offered a multitude of opportunities allowing her to grow and learn with other scholars concerned with Indigenous issues and communities.

    Kehli gets the most enjoyment out of interacting with American Indian nations/communities in ways that are both useful for them and can inform and develop her own perspectives and understandings. She plans to work directly for American Indian tribes and stay engaged with anthropological scholars and professional organizations after graduation. Outside of her academic research, Kehli is passionate about animals (especially dogs), the performing arts, Major League Soccer, and reading science fiction & fantasy for fun.

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  • News Around the Department

    Marcella Oman on the Great Wall of ChinaCongratulations to Marcella Omans for her NSF Graduate Research Fellowship she received for her project entitled “La Mesa Barrio Chino, Tijuana, Mexico: China’s Gateway to Latin America.” Her work focuses on providing insight into how newly arrived Chinese immigrants and business people leverage preexisting Chinese networks to gain economic footholds in Latin America; and on revealing how perceived Chinese identity in Latin America and the mediation of the expectations associated with this have shaped the Sino-Latin American narrative. Through her NSF funding, she plans to conduct multilingual (Spanish and Mandarin Chinese) ethnographic fieldwork in La Mesa Barrio Chino, Tijuana, Mexico to provide an example of the growing Sino-Latin American relationship in a local context. Her work will help inform those who are concerned with the growing relationship between China and Mexico and its potential impacts on the community and the region in areas such as trade, urban planning and development, urban diversity and attracting foreign investment. We wish Ms. Omans safe travels as she begins her dissertation research.

     

     

    title of Forensic Anthropology journalDr. Joe Hefner was announced as Editor for Forensic Anthropology. This is a journal devoted to the advancement of the science and professional development of the fields of forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology. It primarily focuses on research, technical advancements, population data, and case studies related to the recovery and analysis of human remains in a forensic context. Topics such as forensic osteology, skeletal biology, and modern human skeletal variation are within the scope of Forensic Anthropology. In this first edition, Dr. Hefner and Dr. Todd Fenton have a multi-authored article, “Forensic Fractography of Bone: A New Approach to Skeletal Trauma Analysis.”

    Also in the first edition of Forensic Anthropology, alumnus Dr. Nicholas V. Passalacqua and Dr. Hefner have a multi-authored article, “Forensic Analysis: A Journal for our Discipline.”

    cover of American AnthropologistPublication of research in American Anthropologist is a noteworthy achievement for anthropologists, and we congratulate Dr. Laurie Kroshus Medina and Dr. Mindy Morgan for their recent contributions. Dr. Medina published “Governing Through the Market: Neoliberal Environmental Government in Belize” in 2015. Dr. Morgan’s article, “Anthropologists in Unexpected Places: Tracing Anthropological Theory, Practice, and Policy in Indians at Work” appeared in 2017.

     

     

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  • Message from the Chair: Dr. Jodie O’Gorman

    Dr Jodie O'GormanThis past spring semester in the Department of Anthropology has been a tumultuous time. We’ve celebrated great achievements and made important plans for our future, and at the same time we have been, and continue to be, stunned and outraged by the Nassar scandal. All across campus and in our department, faculty struggled to cope with the knowledge that the sexual predation that occurred was possible at MSU. Our hearts go out to the young women and their families who came forward and to those who have not yet found their voice. The well-being of our undergraduate and graduate students has been utmost on our minds. Inside and outside of classes, we have been checking in with our students and offering encouragement to come forth with their concerns and needs, but also encouraging them to try to stay the course of their studies. A working group of faculty are turning an anthropological eye toward the MSU community and we anticipate an insightful analysis to share with the world.

    We celebrated the amazing career of Dr. Lynne Goldstein in April at her retirement dinner with guests from across the United States. Symposia were held in her honor at the Midwest Archaeological Conference and Society for American Archaeology annual meetings. A new fellowship fund was initiated in her honor. The Lynne Goldstein Fellowship Fund was established to support Anthropology graduate students with their dissertation research, with preference given to those students who have participated in the Campus Archaeology Program. Contributions to the fund can be made through the department’s giving page http://anthropology.msu.edu/giving.

    Dr. William Lovis is preparing for retirement as well, and we will celebrate his contributions at his retirement dinner in September. Symposia in his honor were also held at the Midwest Archaeological Conference and the Society for American Archaeology annual meetings. Continuing the tradition of environmental archaeology, the department is proud to announce that we have hired Dr. Kurt Rademaker and he will join us in August. Dr. Rademaker’s primary interests are in hunter-gatherers, settlement of the Americas, lithic technology, geographic information systems, interdisciplinary collaboration and education. He conducts field research in the highlands of the Peruvian Andes.

    Our students continue to be a source of pride for the department. Our own Breanna Escamilla was the alumni commencement speaker at the College of Social Science Commencement in May. Be sure to read the story about our College of Social Science Outstanding Senior, Becca Albert, in this issue. And congratulations to all our accomplished undergraduate and advanced degree graduates!

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  • Congratulations Graduates!

    A heartfelt congratulations to all of our May graduates! You earned it.

    graduates and professors at graduationAdvanced Degree Ceremony (Left to Right):Seven Mattes, Todd Fenton, Caitlin Vogelsberg, Joe Hefner, Mindy Morgan, Bill Lovis, Kate Frederick, Susan Kooiman, Lynne Goldstein, Nicole Geske, Deon Claiborne (front center)

     

     

     

     

    Social Science Week phd graduation ceremony
    The College of Social Science PhD Recognition Ceremony was held at the Kellogg Center on May 4, 2018, and recognized the culmination of graduate studies and the transition from student to colleague.

    The College of Social Science also held its first annual PhD Recognition Ceremony for doctoral graduates. In attendance were Nicole Geske, Dr. Lynne Goldstein, Deon Claiborne, Dr. Todd Fenton, and Seven Mattes (not pictured).

     

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