Department News

DEPARTMENT NEWS

2023

Congratulations to Mandana Limbert who was elected a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences this year for her research in Southern Arabia. Nominated by the Institute for Social Anthropology, she is the first socio-cultural anthropologist to be elected as a corresponding international member (the highest recognition for international scholars) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 1945. The Austrian Academy of Sciences is a non-university scholarly institution boasting numerous Nobel Prize winners (in physics) among its members. For more information about this presitigious accomplishment, click here: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/oeaw-home/austrian-academy-of-sciences

2021

We are thrilled to announce that Professor Juan Luis Rodriguez Aponte's new book, Language and Revolutionary Magic in the Orinoco Delta, has won the 2021 New Voices Book Prize from the Society for Linguistic Anthropology. In this book, which focuses on the relationship between language and politics in Venezuela, Professor Rodriguez uses ethnographic research to explore the linguistic and semiotic strategies used by the revolutionary government of Hugo Chávez to produce forms of political participation and how the state is sustained by processes of translation between languages (Warao and Spanish) and the transformation of natural resources into political influence. Congratulations, Professor Rodriguez!

Congratulations to Professor Karen Strassler, who received a research grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for her project entitled “Image-Work and the Visual Politics of Breast Cancer”. Dr. Strassler’s project focuses on the ways people with breast cancer make and circulate images as part of the process of adapting to their changing bodies. Image-making practices have become integral to the ways people confront their experiences of breast cancer, including “cancer journey” chronicles shared with family and friends, images posted to social media groups for cancer survivors, private documentation of treatment, posing for professional pre- and post-mastectomy photo shoots, as well as art and explicitly activist images. In this project Dr. Strassler asks how, in making and circulating these images, people may also challenge the ways we as a society look at both women’s bodies and cancer. She is particularly interested in how issues of environmental toxicity and racial disparities in medical care, which are routinely screened out of public imagery and discourse about breast cancer, might be addressed in some of these images.

We were saddened to learn that Professor Emeritus Ed Hansen died of lung cancer on August 14 at his home in Amherst, MA. Professor Hansen joined the Department of Anthropology at Queens College in 1968 and retired in 2000. Click here to download a tribute to Professor Hansen written by another member of our department who retired that same year, Professor Ronald Waterbury. Professor Hansen's obituary in the Ames Tribune can be found here.

Professor Ed Hansen (right) with wife, Geraldine (middle), and Professor Ron Waterbury (left)

Congratulations to our most recent crop of outstanding anthropology majors earning Honors and High Honors and department awards! Our junior awards now consist of three named awards: the Frank Spencer Memorial Award, given to the most promising junior concentrating in biological anthropology, and two new awards in honor of the former colleagues we lost in 2020, the Warren DeBoer Memorial Award for the most promising junior concentrating in archaeology and the Edgar Gregersen Memorial Award for the most promising junior concentrating in linguistic or cultural anthropology. Our senior awards continue to include the Lynn Ceci Memorial Award for an outstanding graduating senior concentrating in archaeology, the Paul Mahler Memorial Award for an outstanding graduating senior concentrating in biological anthropology, and the Hortense Powdermaker Award for an outstanding graduating senior concentrating in cultural or linguistic anthropology.

Frank Spencer Memorial Award: Zacharia Farrell
Warren DeBoer Memorial Award: Rachel Tauber
Edgar Gregersen Memorial Award: Sajah Archer
Lynn Ceci Memorial Award: Anna Lelonek & Carolyn Mikowski
Paul Mahler Memorial Award: Daniel Yakubov
Hortense Powdermaker Award: Bridget McCann

For the complete list of 2021 awardees, including senior and junior honors, click here. Congratulations to all!

Zacharia Farrell receives the Frank Spencer Memorial Award. Rachel Tauber receives the Warren DeBoer Memorial Award. Bridget McCann receives the Powdermaker Award.

Sajah Archer receives the Edgar Gregersen Memorial Award. Anna Lelonek (left) & Carolyn Mikowski (right) receive the Lynn Ceci Memorial Award.

Daniel Yakubov receives the Paul Mahler Award.
Yakubov

Professor Murphy Halliburton recently wrote an editorial piece on COVID vaccine patents and the Indian pharmaceutical industry, published in The Hindu, one of the largest newspapers in India. Read the article here: "The AIDS fight offers a COVID vaccine patent pathway".

Miriam Fried, Class of 2020, was awarded the Joan Thornton McManus Memorial Prize for Academic Excellence, an award given annually to the Queens College graduate with the highest grade-point average. Miriam received the Lynn Ceci Award from the Department of Anthropology last year and is currently a first year PhD student in cultural anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Congratulations Miriam!

Professor Miki Makihara was tapped by CBS Sunday Morning for her expertise on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, in a piece about the first music school on the island: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rapa-nui-first-music-school-on-easter-island/

Excerpt from the interview:

In the late 19th century, slave raiders from Peru abducted about half the island's population, and left behind smallpox, which killed many of the remaining islanders. Only 111 Rapa Nui survived.

"We're talking about a place that's only been inhabited by humans for maybe 1,000 years?" Sanneh (interviewer) said.

"That is true, right, but a lot has happened," said Miki Makihara, a linguistic anthropologist at Queens College in New York, who has been studying Rapa Nui culture for 30 years. "It's a remarkable history of survival and reconstruction."

Sanneh said, "Those 111 people kept the language alive, and transmitted it to the next generation - it's a comeback story."

"Yes!" Makihara laughed.

The Department is pleased to announce Anthropology Peer Tutoring sponsored by the Anthro Society. For more details, see attached pdf.

Jemima Georges, Anthropology Adjunct Instructor, received a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation to support her PhD research in collaboration with Professor Tim Pugh. Her project “Food and Social Complexity” will investigate the social inequality of subsistence during early urbanization in the Maya world.
For more details see: www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2112519&HistoricalAwards=false

Katarina Evans, Anthropology Adjunct Instructor, received a research grant from the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation for her PhD research on “Evolution of the Coercive Pair Bond in Hamadryas Baboons” in collaboration with Professor Larissa Swedell.

Professor Jim Moore retired at the end of January 2021, after over 40 years of research, teaching, and service to the Queens College community. A historical archaeologist who worked in Sweden, Ireland, and the borough of Queens, Professor Moore’s work on the historic Bowne House in Flushing, much of it in collaboration with Queens College undergraduates, substantially revised the history of the initial settlement of Queens and New York and continues to enrich our understanding of the history of the African population in the borough. Professor Moore served as Department Chair for many years, and also chaired the Human Subjects Internal Review Board, laying the foundation for our current robust process of review. He also served for five years as archaeology subfield coordinator for the Anthropology doctoral program at the Graduate Center and in various other service roles for the discipline of archaeological anthropology. Among Prof. Moore’s most important service work was at a community level, as a founder of the Queens College School for Math, Science, and Technology (PS 499) and the Queens School of Inquiry (Q252). We are sorry to see Professor Moore leave us and we wish him all the best in his retirement!

2020

Professor Tim Pugh received a grant from the National Science Foundation for his project entitled "State Emergence and Hyperprimacy at Nixtun-Ch'ich', Petén, Guatemala." For this project, Dr. Pugh and a team of scholars will investigate dynamics in the development of cities and states in the polity surrounding Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Petén, Guatemala. Understanding the rise of states requires that we characterize their variations, not just study those that fit rigid stereotypes. This work will specifically address a possible case of hyperprimacy in the Middle Preclassic period (800-300 B.C.) Maya polity of Nixtun-Ch’ich’. Hyperprimacy occurs when the capital is massively larger than secondary and tertiary central settlements. Such capitals generally overdominate social, religious, and economic relationships within the polity. This research will involve a LiDAR survey and intensive excavations.

Professor Omri Elisha received a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for his project entitled "Enchanting Expertise: Knowledge, New Media, and Professionalism in Western Astrology." Dr. Elisha’s project explores how working astrologers in the U.S. incorporate secular and occult knowledge practices, ethics of professionalism, and new media strategies in their efforts to promote astrological expertise as a source of insight and cultural capital. Probing beyond tabloid horoscopes and Internet memes, this ethnographic project asks: How do modern astrologers project authority and cultivate public trust? What are the procedures for authenticating expertise when it comes to astrological skills, and how are they differentiated from cultural domains such as science, cosmology, psychology, and religion? What forms of ethical and historical consciousness are made possible, or impeded, by the metaphysical principles that underlie horoscopic forecasts?

We are proud to welcome Dr. Megan Rhodes Victor to the QC Anthropology Department! Dr. Victor received her Ph.D. from the College of William & Mary and most recently was a post-doctoral scholar at Stanford University. Dr. Victor is a historical archaeologist and her research focuses on colonialism, immigration, commensal politics, and gendered practices among historically marginalized groups. Most recently, she has been studying the archaeology of taverns, saloons, and social negotiation in 18th and 19th century colonial North America, including a project on "Molly Houses." Molly houses operated in secrecy in back rooms or upper floors of taverns and provided an opportunity for gay, transgender, and cross-dressing individuals in 18th-century England and the English Colonial World to meet with one another in a world where such actions were capital offenses. This project is the first to archaeologically examine these spaces of the LGBTQ+ community. In addition to her research and curricular contributions, Dr. Victor brings with her an extensive archaeological collection for student projects and an expertise in the intersection of archaeology and video games, including virtual reality of archaeological fieldwork and 3D scanning, referred to as "archaeogaming”!

Congratulations to all our QC Anthropology students who have recently received awards honoring their stellar achievements in our department! On May 26th, 2020, we held a virtual award ceremony (link to ceremony here) recognizing our wonderful students who have excelled in their academic progress, even in spite of the challenges that 2020 has presented. This year, we introduced two new awards in honor of former faculty members, Edgar Gregersen (1937-2020) and Warren DeBoer (1945-2020). The Edgar Gregersen Memorial Award is given to the most promising student specializing in anthropological linguistics or cultural anthropology. The Warren DeBoer Memorial Award is given to the most promising junior student concentrating in archaeology. For the complete list of students who earned Anthropology Honors and Awards this year, click here. (a few screenshots of awardees provided below):

Daniel Muras receives Powdermaker Award Wade Li receives Paul Mahler Award

Brittany Collins receives High Honors Lauren Kehoe receives Paul Mahler Award

Miriam Fried receives Lynn Ceci Award Kelly McLafferty receives Lynn Ceci Award

Fried Ceci

   We are deeply saddened by the recent loss of one of our professor emeriti, Warren DeBoer. Professor Warren DeBoer joined the Department of
   Anthropology at Queens College in 1972 and retired in 2012. Universally loved by students, Dr. DeBoer taught Introduction to Archaeology, Peoples of
   North America, and Archaeology of North America, foundational courses for our anthropology majors, for 40 years. With an infectious dry humor, he had
   the ability to walk into a classroom and simply start talking, and his analytical mind seemed to never stop turning. Dr. DeBoer was a prolific renaissance
   archaeologist whose many accomplishments were not confined to a particular area, time, or topic. He is best known for his ethnoarchaeological and
   ethnohistorical work in South America, where he studied modern behaviors of indigenous peoples to help to understand patterns observed by
   archaeologists. This work involved a range of topics such as cultural ecology, ceramic decoration and use-life, manioc consumption, feasting, ceremonial
   areas, and raiding. Dr. DeBoer also conducted archaeological research on ancient populations in North America, examining topics such as storage pits
   and the economic surplus, exchange networks and sacred journeys, and gambling. As a great writer, he was able to communicate to a broad range of
   scholars and his research will likely remain important to archaeology and beyond for generations to come. Many members of the Department of
   Anthropology today still regard Dr. DeBoer as a father figure and we were deeply saddened by his death from esophageal cancer on May 24, 2020. We
   have commemorated his legacy by offering an annual award to promising undergraduates at Queens College who may one day follow in his footsteps:
   The Warren DeBoer Memorial Award. If you would like to make a donation to this fund, in honor of Dr. DeBoer, follow this link.

Juan Luis Rodriguez's new book "Language and Revolutionary Magic in the Orinoco Delta" (Bloomsbury Press) will be available in Fall 2020 but is available for pre-order. The book, which examines linguistic practices and national politics in rural Venezuela, is described below:

Exploring the ways in which the development of linguistic practices helped expand national politics in remote, rural areas of Venezuela, Language and Revolutionary Magic in the Orinoco Delta situates language as a mediating force in the creation of the 'magical state'. Focusing on the Waraos speakers of the Orinoco Delta, this book explores center–periphery dynamics in Venezuela through an innovative linguistic anthropological lens.

Using a semiotic framework informed by concepts of 'transduction' and 'translation', this book combines ethnographic and historical evidence to analyze the ideological mediation and linguistic practices involved in managing a multi-ethnic citizenry in Venezuela. Juan Luis Rodriguez shows how indigenous populations participate in the formation and contestation of state power through daily practices and the use of different speech genres, emphasising the performative and semiotic work required to produce revolutionary subjects.

Establishing the centrality of language and semiosis in the constitution of authority and political power, this book moves away from seeing revolution in solely economic or ideological terms. Through the collision between Warao and Spanish, it highlights how language ideologies can exclude or integrate indigenous populations in the public sphere and how they were transformed by Hugo Chavez' revolutionary government to promote loyalty to the regime.

Congratulations to Anthropology major, Miriam Fried, for receiving two prestigious QC awards including the Raymond Taylor QC Scholars Endowment and the Brownstein-McDermott Scholarship in Humanities.

2019

Mandana Limbert gave this year's Fredrik Barth Memorial Lecture at the University of Bergen in Norway. Her lecture draws on ethnographic and archival work in a town in interior Oman and explores how ideas of and practices shaping categories of political home and identity, "nation" and "Arabness" have shifted over the course of the 20th century. More details on her lecture can be found here.

Kevin Birth was one of the guests on the November 1 edition of NPR's "The Pulse." In his first segment, which appears from about the 4:00-minute mark to the 8:30-minute mark, he explains the use of master clocks from around the world and how they’re used to help calculate time. He also explains about how time zones came to be, how the second came to be defined, and what a tropical or solar year is, and he talks about the “Frankenstein monster” of the different cultural backgrounds of elements of time measurement. He closes out the program too, beginning at about the 43:15 mark. He shares about how, when he lived in Trinidad, years ago, he stopped looking at his watch—knowing that certain stores would open as long as customers were there, or that he could catch interviewees during the day whenever he heard the theme from The Young and the Restless; especially the problem of trying to time cooking (the perceived need for Minute Rice, for instance); and when his interviewer asks him about favorite time-related objects, he mentions, among other things, Japanese Edo clocks and the “pissing baboons” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can listen to the podcast from this page: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381443461/the-pulse

Karen Strassler's new book, "Demanding Images: Democracy, Mediation, and the Image-Event in Indonesia" is an account of Indonesia's turbulent democratic transition, as well as an analysis of images in the era of digital media and neoliberal democracy. The book, available in February 2020, will be published by Duke University Press and is described below:

The end of authoritarian rule in 1998 ushered in an exhilarating but unsettled period of democratization in Indonesia. A more open political climate converged with a rapidly changing media landscape, yielding a vibrant and volatile public sphere within which Indonesians grappled with the possibilities and limits of democracy amid entrenched corruption, state violence, and rising forms of intolerance.In Demanding Images Karen Strassler theorizes image-events as political processes in which publicly circulating images become the material ground of struggles over the nation's past, present, and future. Considering photographs, posters, contemporary art, graffiti, selfies, memes, and other visual media, she argues that people increasingly engage with politics through acts of making, circulating, manipulating, and scrutinizing images. Demanding Images is both a closely observed account of Indonesia's turbulent democratic transition and a globally salient analysis of the work of images in the era of digital media and neoliberal democracy. Strassler reveals politics today to be an unruly enterprise profoundly shaped by the affective and evidentiary force of images.

Congratulations to all QC Graduates! And congratulations to all Anthropology major and minors, including our 2019 Departmental Awardees, for completing a successful semester.

2018

John Collins' new book, Ethnographies of U.S. Empire, co-edited with Carole McGranahan, was recently published by Duke University Press. Collins and McGranahan's edited volume is described below:

How do we live in and with empire? The contributors to Ethnographies of U.S. Empire pursue this question by examining empire as an unequally shared present. Here empire stands as an entrenched, if often invisible, part of everyday life central to making and remaking a world in which it is too often presented as an aberration rather than as a structuring condition. This volume presents scholarship from across U.S. imperial formations: settler colonialism, overseas territories, communities impacted by U.S. military action or political intervention, Cold War alliances and fissures, and, most recently, new forms of U.S. empire after 9/11. From the Mohawk Nation, Korea, and the Philippines to Iraq and the hills of New Jersey, the contributors show how a methodological and theoretical commitment to ethnography sharpens all of our understandings of the novel and timeworn ways people live, thrive, and resist in the imperial present.

Kevin Birth is working with Queens College administration to change the chiming sequence of the Queens College Clock Tower bells, memorialized as the Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner Clock Tower. His efforts were written up in this month's QView #25. While some of the bells are longer in operation due to mechanical issues, Birth is teaming up with Edward Smaldone from the Music Department to reimagine a new chime melody using the still functioning bells.

Congratulations to all our 2018 Departmental Awardees! Every year, awards are given to the highest achieving students who are Anthropology majors and minors. For a list of this year's recipients, click here.

QC Anthropology has a Facebook page! Like and follow our FB page, @QCAnthro, and get regular updates on new courses and upcoming events.

Kevin Birth has been invited to give a talk to the US Time Service at the United States Naval Observatory in mid-April. Additionally, he has been contacted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and asked to authenticate an Italian Renaissance clock (~400-600 years old) as well as speak to the clock's cultural uses. Between these activities, Dr. Birth is covering the range of clocks, from one of the oldest known mechanical clocks to the cutting edge of atomic timekeeping.

Students in the "Voices of New York" (Anth/LCD 288) class co-taught by Professors Makihara and Newman attended the Society for Linguistic Anthropology conference held at the University of Pennsylvania in Phladelphia on March 8-10. This trip was made possible by a Mellon Foundation grant. Students attended talks and workshops on language and social justice and met with scholars and other students. This was a great academic and professional development opportunity for all.

2017

Thomas Plummer received a 2017-2018 Research Enhancement Grant that will cover equipment costs for his ongoing research in Kenya.

Congratulations to Markos Papadatos, a former QC Anthropology minor ('07) turned acclaimed journalist, who was recently awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Hellenic News of America. Mr. Papadatos is the senior editor and the New York correspondent of the Hellenic News of America.

Are you also a QC Anthropology alum who would like share news about your life, career, research and/or family? Please refer to the Anthropology Alumni page for more on how to keep in touch with our department!

Jim Moore is the recipient of two prestigious awards, one for excellence in teaching and the second, for outstanding mentoring of junior faculty. He was selected for the QC Excellence in Teaching Award for full-time faculty, an award recognizing outstanding teaching in the classroom. The faculty selection committee made its decision upon review of letters by past students for the nominees. Dr. Moore has served the college since 1979 as an innovative teacher and dedicated mentor. He has played an important role in many students' lives, inspiring them to pursue careers in anthropology and education, and to be engaged with their communities. He continues to offer courses that go well beyond the discipline of anthropology to engage students to think about their world, and in particular, about issues concerning the environment and discrimination.

In addition, Dr. Moore also received the Mellon Mentoring Award which honors faculty members who help build a supportive academic environment at QC by fostering faculty-to-faculty mentoring.

Murphy Halliburton's book entitled "India and the Patent Wars: Pharmaceuticals in the New Intellectual Property Regime" has recently been published by Cornell University Press. This book contributes to an international debate over medicine costs and restrictions on access under stringent patent laws. From the Press website:

India and the Patent Wars contributes to an international debate over the costs of medicine and restrictions on access under stringent patent laws showing how activists and drug companies in low-income countries seize agency and exert influence over these processes. Murphy Halliburton contributes to analyses of globalization within the fields of anthropology, sociology, law, and public health by drawing on interviews and ethnographic work with pharmaceutical producers in India and the United States.

India has been at the center of emerging controversies around patent rights related to pharmaceutical production and local medical knowledge. Halliburton shows that Big Pharma is not all-powerful, and that local activists and practitioners of ayurveda, India’s largest indigenous medical system, have been able to undermine the aspirations of multinational companies and the WTO. Halliburton traces how key drug prices have gone down, not up, in low-income countries under the new patent regime through partnerships between US- and India-based companies, but warns us to be aware of access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries going forward.

Larissa Swedell was recently interviewed about her research and her work as a primatologist for "A Story of Us," a podcast developed by the Ohio State University Anthropology Department. To listen to the full interview, click here: Social Behavior and Social Conflict in Hamadryas Baboons (~20 min)

Kevin Birth will give a lecture entitled "Choosing a Clock: Regulation Cosmopolitanism and Humbuggery" on Tuesday, Sept. 5 (6:00-9:00pm) to the Horological Society of New York (HSNY) at the General Society Library (20 West 44th Street, NY, NY). His talk will focus on several cases concerning political uses of horology in contexts of time pluralism with each case exploring different ways in which horology and politics become intertwined. For additional information on this talk, including how to attend, follow this link to the HSNY website.

Timothy Pugh received a grant from the National Science Foundation to support his archaeological research in Peten, Guatemala. The research investigates the earliest known urban grid in the Americas (800-400 BCE) and its relationship to the development of social complexity in the Maya lowlands. For more information on Dr. Pugh's research in this region, check out the Itza Archaeological Project website at www.itzaarchaeology.com.

Thomas Plummer recently received numerous prestigious grants, including from the Leakey Foundation ($20,000) and Wenner-Gren Foundation ($20,000), as well as a CUNY Award ($6000) to continue excavations on some of the world's oldest archaeological materials from a newly discovered site, called Nyayanga, on the Homa peninsula in southwestern Kenya. This site, dated to 2.7-2.5 million years old, is notable for its preservation of abundant fossils as well as artifacts at this early age; fossil preservation is generally poor at most Oldowan sites. Among the most intriguing discoveries to date are surface collected bones with stone tool damage, showing evidence of hominin utilization of meat and marrow. Excavations will continue in summer 2017.

QC Anthropology student, Gabriela Zygadlo, who was awarded the "Most Promising Student" award at a department awards ceremony this past spring, has also been awarded the prestigious Queens College Brownstein-McDermott scholarship.

Gueorgui Milkov (QC/CUNY alum, Bachelor of Arts, Class of '97) discusses his inspiring career trajectory after graduating with joint major in anthropology and journalism:

I arrived as an international student at Queens College from Southeastern Europe, but over the years since graduating, I became a naturalized citizen. I chose to major in anthropology because I was fascinated by different cultures and customs, and living in New York City provided me with firsthand experience of the amazing human diversity there. I also loved attending lectures during which we discussed topics ranging from archaeology to human sexuality, while getting exposed to the ideas of Franz Boas and Margaret Mead. Meanwhile, in my sophomore year, I decided to minor in journalism as I had always been a news junkie, following political, cultural, entertainment and sporting events. It turned out that this choice would lead me to develop and pursue my passion for journalism, although the knowledge I obtained as an anthropology major has helped and served me as well.

I’ve been working in the field of print and digital media for more than 20 years. My journalism journey started with an internship at Newsweek magazine during the spring semester of my junior year. I primarily helped on the international news desk, and that was the first place where I professionally used my fluency in several languages. I ended up staying and working on that editorial staff in the summer after my junior year and then continued working there during my entire senior year. Upon graduation, I joined the editorial team at Esquire magazine, where I worked for about a year. I have been a member of ESPN The Magazine's editorial team since 1998, when this award-winning biweekly sports publication was launched. It was a great match for me because I love sports as a fan, plus I’m also active by nature (I swim and cycle daily). I’ve held different editorial positions over time, and six years ago I became the research chief. I manage a staff of 14 researchers/reporters, plus a few project temps and interns. I oversee staffing and recruiting of prospective employees for the research department, which is seen as an entry point to the world of digital and print media at ESPN. I’ve been working hard on setting the highest standards for accuracy and fairness while dealing closely with our legal team on investigative stories. These efforts have certainly assisted the editorial team, and this year ESPN The Magazine won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence for the third time in the publication’s history.

In my current position, I deal on a daily basis with providing researching, reporting and fact-checking help to our editors and writers. I also handle numerous statistical and data requests plus news clip packages for all stories that run in The Magazine along with the long-form pieces that appear on ESPN.com. My duties extend to assisting colleagues in other areas in the company as well, such as ESPN Films, OTL and many others. Last but not least, over the years I’ve also had contributions and acknowledgments in several books—ranging from sports encyclopedias to historical non-fiction titles—and ESPN 30 For 30 series, whose short film Barbosa: The Man Who Made Brazil Cry and accompanying Magazine piece about the tragic life of late Brazilian soccer goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa were based on my idea. Finally, as you can see on the photo (below)—my desk is uniquely decorated with a collection of sports-related items accumulated and obtained over time from various photo shoots, games and events. It is a must-see destination for people who come to the office.

Milkov at work - photo by Mackenzie Stroh

Photo of Gueorgui Milkov at work (by Mackenzie Stroh)

We love hearing from alumni! If you are also a QC Anthropology alum and would like share news about your life, career, research and/or family, or have questions about how to remain active in the department, please refer to the Anthropology Alumni page for more information.

Kate Pechenkina's research presenting the bioarchaeological evidence for the rise of male biased inequality in preimperial China has recently been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The article, entitled Shifting Diets and the Rise of Male-Biased Inequality on the Central Plains of China during Eastern Zhou can be access on the PNAS website. This research has also been featured on IFLScience!, ArchaeologyNewsNetwork, the Boston Globe, and most recently in Scientific American.

2016

Our updated Spring 2017 course schedule is now available.

John Collins was recently awarded the Leeds Prize from the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA) for his book Revolt of the Saints. The award is for the most exemplary book in Anthropology directed at urban issues, with particular attention to methodological innovation.

John Collins' translated edition of Brazilian Anthropologist Karina Biondi's ethnography of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), or a group Biondi argues is often incorrectly described as Latin America's largest criminal organization and hierarchically-organized prison gang, has been released by University of North Carolina Press as Sharing This Walk: An Ethnography of Prison Life and the PCC in Brazil.

We congratulate the following Anthropology majors for their high academic achievements! Congratulations to the following students: Presidential Achievers (3.9 GPA): Eleni Stellatos; Provost Scholars (3.75 GAP): Sydul Choudhury, Ryan Shinn, and Hodalis Rodriguez; Dean's List (3.5 GPA): Caressa Hillick, Olha Lysa, Eleni Pashos, Danisse Toro, Minn Chiu, and Samantha Gaviria. Recipients will be honored at the Presidential Achievement Award ceremony and reception on November 3.

Karine Tache's work was recently featured in an article published by Vermont's Indepent Voice - Seven Days: "For Archaeologists, New Tech for Old Sites."

Anthropology adjunct, Jemima Georges received a Young Explorers Grant from National Geographic to participate on Dr. Timothy Pugh's project, Urbanization at Nixtun-Chi'ich', Peten, Guatemala, which is funded by a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Kevin Birth's article "Calendar Time, Cultural Sensibilities, and Strategies of Persuasion" has recently been published in the edited volume "Time, Temporality and Global Politics". The entire book can be accessed here.

Our Fall 2016 course schedule is now available here.

Mandana Limbert is the recipient of a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant for her project "Oman, Zanzibar and the Politics of Becoming Arab," a book on changing notions of Arab identity.

2015
Timothy Pugh's project on Nixtun-Ch'ich' in Peten, Guatemala has been highlighted in the "World Roundup" section of the current issue of Archaeology magazine.

Dr. John Collins' book "Revolt of the Saints" on race, space, and history in Brazil has recently been published by Duke University Press. Below is a description of the book from the publisher's website:

In 1985 the Pelourinho neighborhood in Salvador, Brazil was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Over the next decades, over 4,000 residents who failed to meet the state's definition of "proper Afro-Brazilianness" were expelled to make way for hotels, boutiques, NGOs, and other attractions. In Revolt of the Saints, John F. Collins explores the contested removal of the inhabitants of Brazil’s first capital and best-known site for Afro-Brazilian history, arguing that the neighborhood’s most recent reconstruction, begun in 1992 and supposedly intended to celebrate the Pelourinho's working-class citizens and their culture, revolves around gendered and racialized forms of making Brazil modern. He situates this focus on national origins and the commodification of residents' most intimate practices within a longer history of government and elite attempts to "improve" the citizenry’s racial stock even as these efforts take new form today. In this novel analysis of the overlaps of race, space, and history, Collins thus draws on state-citizen negotiations of everyday life to detail how residents’ responses to the attempt to market Afro-Brazilian culture and reimagine the nation’s foundations both illuminate and contribute to recent shifts in Brazil’s racial politics.

Dr.Timothy Pugh's ongoing archaeological research on an ancient Mayan city in Nixtun-Ch'ich' in Guatemala has recently been featured on Yahoo News (May 1, 2015). Dr. Pugh and his team have uncovered the city's unique grid pattern, providing evidence of a powerful ruler who controlled this city and organized the layout. Read more about Dr. Pugh and his team's findings here.

Dr. Sara Stinson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, was the 2015 recipient of the Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award. This award honors members of the Human Biology Association who have made exemplary contributions to human biology in science and scholarship. Criteria for the award include a remarkable contribution by the awardee that transcends normal scientific achievement and that is worthy of recognition both outside of and within the profession of human biology.

Dr. Erika Eichhorn Bourguignon, distinguished anthropologist and alumnus of Queens College (class of ’45) died in Columbus, Ohio, on February 15, 2015. She was professor emerita of anthropology at The Ohio State University, where she taught for more than 40 years. She is best known for her contributions to psychological anthropology, anthropology of religion and anthropology of women.

Born in Vienna in 1924, Bourguignon arrived in the United States with her parents, Luitpold and Charlotte Eichhorn, in 1939; the family fled Austria after the 1938 Anschluss. She held a B.A. from Queens College, N.Y.C. (1945), and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, Evanston (1951). At Queens she discovered anthropology, working with H. Powdermaker. At Northwestern she was greatly influenced by A. I. Hallowell and M. J. Herskovits. Bourguignon conducted fieldwork among the Chippewa in Wisconsin (1946) and in Haiti (1947–48), where she met her husband, Belgian writer and artist Paul-Henri Bourguignon.

Erika Bourguignon published seven books and more than eighty professional articles. Arriving at Ohio State in 1949, Bourguignon was a founding member of what would become the Department of Anthropology. She led the Cross-cultural Study of Dissociational States (1963–68) under a grant from National Institute for Mental Health. In the early 1970s, Bourguignon taught the first course on the anthropology of women at the university, chaired a newly formed Council on Academic Excellence for Women and, in 1971, became the first woman to chair a department in OSU’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

After retirement from full-time teaching in 1990, she published, with Barbara Rigney, Exile: A Memoir of 1939 by Bourguignon’s aunt, Bronka Schneider. Bourguignon maintained her interest in Haiti, writing and lecturing on the subject. She also worked actively to promote the artwork of her late husband, Paul-Henri Bourguignon. Bourguignon’s honors include Ohio State’s Alumni Distinguished Scholar Award (1986), the Society for Psychological Anthropology’s first Lifetime Achievement Award (1999) and, from Queens College, the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa (2000) for her distinguished career. She is survived by a wide and diverse network of friends, colleagues and former students.

Contributions may be made in her name to The Paul and Erika Bourguignon Fund at the Columbus Foundation (www.columbusfoundation.org), Partners in Health (www.pih.org) or the Zusman Hospice (whv.org/Healthcare/Zusman-Hospice).

Our Fall 2015 Course Schedule is now available: Fall 2015 Classes.

Dr. Karine Tache co-authored a recent paper: Tache K., and O. Craig (2015) Cooperative harvesting of aquatic resources triggered the beginning of pottery production in Northeastern North America. Antiquity 89(343):177-190. Media coverage on this paper can be found at Science Daily (February, 3, 2015).

2014

Dr. Murphy Halliburton appeared on a television show in India discussing his research on the role of society and culture in mental health. The interview can be seen here: Mind Watch

In Fall 2014, the department welcomed our newest faculty member, Dr. Juan Luis Rodriguez. Dr. Rodriguez is a linguistic and cultural anthropologist interested in the semiotic relationship between language, materiality, and political gifts.

Contact Us:

For More Information about undergraduate studies at Queens College: