The Department of Anthropology is thrilled to report that Klamath Henry (19C) is the recipient of the prestigious Marion Luther Brittain undergraduate student award at Emory University.  The Brittain Award, generally acknowledged to be the highest honor bestowed on a student by Emory University, is presented each year to two graduating students – one graduate and one undergraduate – from any of the nine academic divisions of the university. These students are considered to have performed the most “significant, meritorious and devoted service to Emory University, with no expectations of recognition or reward.” The award is made under provisions of a gift by the late Dr. M. L. Brittain, former President of Georgia Institute of Technology and an alumnus of Emory.

Klamath’s awards and accomplishments are numerous.  This Spring, Klamath was recognized as a “100 Senior Honorary” by the Emory University Alumni Association and as a “2019 Graduating Women of Excellence” by the Center for Women at Emory.  Last year she was awarded “Junior Student of the Year,” by the Department of Anthropology.    She received a full scholarship for graduate study in Anthropology at the University of California at Fullerton, which she will pursue starting this Fall.

Klamath’s academic research, public scholarship, community work, and personal mission in life is centrally concerned with issues of diversity, inclusion, and representation.  Klamath’s own background as a Shasta and Tuscarora woman guides her in this work.  The Brittain award serves as a wonderful affirmation that Klamath is making – and has made — a significant and lasting impact on Emory University at many levels, including student life, academic life, our relation to space, and our future as a more engaged ethical community. Her work has been essential in shifting the Emory landscape towards increased representation of Indigenous peoples at Emory.  This includes recognition of the Cherokee and Muscogee Creek people who flourished in this region and who took care of this land before the land dispossession and forced removals by the US government in the 1830s.

Just recently, Klamath’s experimental ethnography project – entitled Three Sisters Resiliency — was selected through juried review for inclusion in the annual Screening Scholarship Media Festival at the University of Pennsylvania.  The project examines contemporary Indigenous sovereignty in relation to Indigenous food ways.

Klamath is also an accomplished softball player and coach.  She has held leadership positions in Residence Life and in liaison with the Dean of Campus Life.  In addition, she is the creator of an extensive website and blogspace, entitled “Dancing with Synthetic Moccasins, Native American Engagement at Emory University“, the first website of its kind at Emory University.

Emory News Center article on Klamath Henry.

Please join us in congratulating Klamath Henry (Anthropology B.A., Environmental Science minor) as the 2019 undergraduate recipient of Emory’s prestigious Brittain award!