AnthropoLog - Spring 2015

This year as cherry blossoms give way to spring greenery, and graduating seniors order their caps and gowns, UW Anthropology faculty, staff, and graduate students are busy packing up books, files, collections, equipment, and belongings to move to Condon Hall, where the department will be temporarily housed while Denny Hall undergoes a thorough remodel. The prospect of moving prompts reflections on the work and the lives that have unfolded in this place over many years. This issue of Read more
The UW Department of Anthropology is moving. We will move back, but when we do it will not be to the same Denny Hall. Denny Hall is, as almost any visitor to the UW has heard, the oldest building on campus. Designed by Seattle architect Charles W. Saunders in the French Renaissance Revival style, the Administration Building (as Denny Hall was known until 1910) was completed in 1895. It was the first step in the university’s move from its overcrowded quarters in downtown Seattle. “What an… Read more
The Atlantic recently published an excellent interview with Bettina Shell Duncan, professor in the Biocultural Anthropology Program about her research of the past two decades on female genital cutting (FGC), known also as female genital mutilation or female circumcision. Duncan recently joined a research consortium that has been awarded $13 million by the UK’s… Read more
As its six cross-listings might suggest — ANTH 328 / GWSS 328 / JSIS 328 / ANTH 528 / GWSS 528 / JSIS 528 — Gender and Sexuality in China is no ordinary class. This past winter, Professor Sasha Welland set out to teach a course spanning from dynastic China up to present day, from Chinese women’s political tracts and activism in the early 1900s, to men’s writings on same-sex love and desires in early-to-mid-twentieth-century China, to gender queries posed by the contemporary… Read more
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Every year, thousands of students take courses in anthropology at UW. For most, this brief exploration into the many diverse ways of being human becomes part of their overall education as, we hope, thoughtful and well-informed fellow citizens. For several hundred students, this first course leads to many others, and to a major or minor in anthropology. For a small number it may eventually lead to graduate study and a PhD in anthropology. One of the students who took Anthropology 100 at UW in… Read more
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Many people in the Seattle area have heard of Danny Shelton, the first team All-American Husky football player who, as a graduating senior was just drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the NFL draft. Danny is not only an exceptional football player; he is also first team, All-American academic team, the first Husky to… Read more
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Last April, over 40 anthropology students, along with Department Chair Janelle Taylor, Director of Student Services Diane Guerra, and Academic Advisor Joni Marts, convened for an inaugural meeting to resurrect the University of Washington anthropology club. At this meeting, students expressed a desire for increased opportunities for social and academic networking, in order to transform a collection of students who are studying anthropology into a community of engaged and involved… Read more
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We would like to take this opportunity to thank those generous donors who contributed to our efforts this past year. We believe that anthropology makes a world of difference and we want you to know that you make a world of difference to us! Mr. David AgoadaAmerican Council of Learned SocietiesProf. Ann S. Anagnost and Mr. John BurgeMr. Jefferey L. BabautaProf. Jean-Loup Baer and Dr. Diane S. BaerMs. Diane E. BarryMs. Shelly R. BossermanRobert T. Boyd, PhDDr. Carol and Mr.… Read more
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Ann Anagnost is co-editor (with Lucy Jarosz in Geography) of a new UW Press book series called Food, People, Planet. The series publishes scholarly work that critiques the large-scale social inequities and environmental damage produced by international food production and distribution. Dan Eisenberg’s research on dopamine receptors was highlighted in a New York Times Sunday Review article (10/31/14)… Read more
GRADUATE STUDENTS Will Brown received an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant for his project, “Detecting Epidemiologic Transitions in Pre-Contact Kodiak.” The work involves joining statistical paleodemographic modeling and recording the prevalence of parasites in archaeological middens to better understand the population history of Kodiak Island, Alaska over the past 6,000 years. Darren Byler’s work was featured in a  Read more
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