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Dr. Brian Kelly has been studying the emerging methamphetamine epidemic in China. His project is focused on how the rise of methamphetamine is influencing China's HIV epidemic. Dr. Kelly has studied drug abuse and the HIV/AIDS epidemic for over a decade.
- Dr. Kory Cooper was awarded a $5,000 Purdue Library Scholars Grant to travel to British Columbia and the Northwest Territories to continue his investigation of prehistoric native copper technology and its relationship to prestige and social complexity in the Arctic and Northwest Coast. While on teaching release in fall 2010 he traveled to the Royal British Columbia Museum, the BC Heritage Branch, the University of British Columbia, and the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre to collect data on the archaeological distribution of native copper artifacts. Prof Cooper's research provides a new perspective on technological innovation and prestige among diverse types of Hunter-Gatherer societies.
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PhD student, Sarah Schrader, is currently doing fieldwork on Dr. Michele Buzon's NSF-funded archaeological research project in Tombos, Sudan. This season, Sarah and the team have been busy excavating Egyptian-style pyramid tombs and Nubian-style tumulus tombs that date to the Napatan Period (~700-300 BC). Exciting finds include infants buried in baskets, many intact figurines and a horse burial.
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Giorgi Bedianashvili received a prestigious Carnegie Research Fellowship to work in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University from September 2010 to this January. Giorgi is employed by the Tbilisi Archaeological Museum in the Republic of Georgia, so this was a great opportunity for our graduate students to get to know an international scholar. Bedianashvili pursued his project entitled "Sociopolitical Complexity and Change in Late Bronze Age Central Caucasus 1500-1000 BCE" under the guidance of Dr. Ian Lindsay.
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Department Head Ellen Gruenbaum recently lectured on Alan Paton's classic novel focusing on struggles with racism and injustice in mid-20th century South Africa. Her talk, which infused history, culture, and personal reflection into the literary commentary, was part of the annual Books and Coffee series. She spoke in the South Ballroom to an audience of about 75 community and university participants.
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Dr. Michele Buzon is giving a "Back to Class" presentation entitled, "Window to the Past: Nile Valley's Civilizations Share Valuable Lessons" for the 2011 Purdue Mollenkopf Weekend, Naples, Florida.
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Graduating Anthropology Senior, Britney Yount, has been admitted to the Teach For America program. She will begin teaching in South Dakota in early 2011.
https://www.teachforamerica.org
- Students in Anthropology's new Community Engagement course, Anth 404, taught by Professor Evelyn Blackwood, recently participated in the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebration hosted by the Purdue Latino Cultural Center at the local YWCA. They created and displayed a beautiful altar in memory of their deceased loved ones.(10/29/10)
- Dr. Melissa Remis and colleague Jean Bosco Kpanou had a paper published in the Africa Journal of Ecology titled,"Primate and ungulate abundance in response to multi-use zoning and human extractive activities in a Central African Reserve."online early http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2028.2010.01229.x/abstract
- Doctoral candidate Brandi Wren presented her research on the behavior and gastrointestinal pareasites of vervet monkeys (Cholorcebus [Ceropithecus] aethiops) at the meeting of the International Primatological Society in Kyoto, Japan, September 2010.
- Carolyn Jost Robinson and Dr. Melissa Remis presented their poster, "Interdisciplinary approaches for the development of sustainable hunting practices in a central African forest," at the Ecological Sciences and Engineering Symposium at Purdue University, October 27, 2010.
- Jessica Shafer (BA 02, Anthropology), Boatswain Mate 1st Class Petty Officer, US Coast Guard, was just named one of the Purdue Alumni Association's 40 under 40. Read more about Jessica on page 29 of the linked publication, Purdue Alumnus.
- Dr. Ellen Gruenbaum and Dr. Laura Zanotti visited Moi University, Eldoret Kenya this June. Dr. Gruenbaum and Dr. Zanotti were hosted by Dr. Susan Chebet and explored different participatory community projects in the area.
- Sarah Schrader has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Master's Thesis Award. Her thesis is titled, "A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Activity Patterns in New Kingdom Nubia" and utilizes a bioarchaeological approach to examine activity patterns at the Nubian site of Tombos. Human skeletal remains from the New Kingdom (1,550-1,069 BC) are analyzed for indications of osteoarthritis, vertebral degeneration and entheseal remodeling. Low levels of these activity patterns reflect an imperial community that was not participating in a mechanically strenuous lifestyle. These date suggest Tombos served as a colonial administrative center as the Egyptian Empire successfully consolidated Nubia into the imperial regime of the New Kingdom. Sarah Schrader is supervised by Dr. Michele Buzon.
- Dr. Sharon Williams is working with the World Health Organization to understand how people age throughout the world. Dr. Williams is traveling to South Africa, Australia and India to work with labs, train laboratory personnel and collaborate with other scholars associated with the WHO Study of Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE).
- Sarah Schrader has been awarded a PRF Research Assistantship (2010-2011) for the project, "Archaeology of the Everyday: A Bioarchaeological Approach to Activity Patterns and Diet of Ancient Nubians" supervised by Dr. Michele Buzon.
- Dr. Evelyn Blackwood has recently been promoted to Professor of Anthropology, effective August, 2010.
- Dr. Michele Buzon has recently been promoted to Associate Professor of Anthropology, effective August, 2010.
- Dr. Michele Buzon recently appeared in the program 'Nasca Lines: The Buried Secrets' on the National Geographic Channel discussing the skeletal and isotopic analysis of a decapitated individual. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/nasca-lines-the-buried-secrets-4477/Overview
- Evelyn Blackwood was the featured speaker at Bucknell University for their Social Science Colloquium "The Anatomy of Gender: Science, Sex and Culture in the 21st Century," March 29, 2010. Her talk was entitled "Global sexualities, or are there really lesbians and gays everywhere?"
- Dr. Kory Cooper was awarded $5,000 from the Purdue University Library Scholars Grant Program to support museum and archival research for his project "Indigenous Copper Metallurgy in Northwestern North America: Innovation in Hunter-gatherer Technology."
