Emory Magazine reported about several Emory Global Health Institute projects, including the work of then graduate student Bonnie Kaiser (PhD, Emory Anthropology; MPH) on mental health issues in Haiti.
Author: emoryanthropology
Dr. Isabella Alexander: “The freedom to travel isn’t a basic human right. It depends on where you’re born.”
Anthropologist, Writer, Documentary Filmmaker, and Visiting Assistant Professor in Emory’s Anthropology Department, Dr. Isabella Alexander (PhD, Emory, 2016) published an article on GlobalPost Investigations highlighting problems in the migration crisis.
Professor Todd Preuss featured on NPR
An article featured on NPR discusses the complications that arise when rodents are commonly used to test medications intended for humans: namely, a disappointingly high failure rate once medications are tested on human subjects.
Todd Preuss, an anthropologist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University and Associated Professor of Anthropology, indicates that rats were initially studied to learn about rats. At some point they transitioned to “prototypical mammals.” Dr. Preuss points out that rodents have not only developed quite differently from humans, but the specific test subjects can also be described as lacking genetic diversity.
Bisan Salhi, MD, recognized on Doctors’ Day
Dr. Bisan Salhi is one of Emory’s medical faculty recognized on Doctors’ day. After reviewing 160 Emory physicians nominated by their peers, the recognition committee honored six outstanding faculty of the Emory School of Medicine.
Dr. Salhi is an emergency room physician at Grady Memorial Hospital, faculty in the Emory School of Medicine department of Emergency Medicine, and a PhD candidate in the Anthropology department. She researches homelessness, vulnerable populations, and emergency medicine.
Dr. Debra Vidali is a keynote speaker at Critical Juncture Conference 2017
Emory’s Critical Juncture Conference is an international conference spanning different disciplines involved in social justice. For the 2017 conference, themed “The Work of Art,” participants explored how works of art challenge injustices created by social constructions of gender, disability, race, and sexuality.
With Ken Hornbeck, Dr. Debra Vidali served as keynote speaker in the workshop “Constructing Realties: Theatre and Representation.”
Emory Anthropologists preparing for Archaeological Excavation in Jordan
Dr. Liv Nilsson Stutz (Emory Anthropology) and Dr. Aaron Stutz (Emory Anthropology at Oxford), along with Chantel White (Penn Museum) and a team of graduate and undergraduate students are preparing for their second round of excavations at the Mughr el-Hamamah site in Jordan. Dr. Nilsson Stutz talks about the well-preserved paleolithic plant remains at the site and describes the possibilities:
“We hope that the careful recovery of these unique remains and the following analysis of them will allow us to better understand how palaeolithic hunters and gatherers used plants for food, shelter and tool making during the period that coincides with the replacement of neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans in Western Eurasia. This is a very rare site, and we really think our work will be able to fill in some gaps in our understanding of palaeolithic hunter gatherer ecology, subsistence, and the demographic changes at this crucial point in human evolution.”
The project is entering its final stages of fundraising. For more information or to help crowd fund, please visit this website.
Fresh MARTA Market gaining traction
Hilary King, current Emory Anthropology Doctoral Candidate and Sustainability Minor Graduate Fellow, works on food access issues in Atlanta. Read about an exciting partnership that is bringing Georgia fresh produce to public transit around the city.
Read the full story on the destination healthEU site.
Listen to Dr. Jenny Chio’s recent lecture on ethnographic portraiture and filmmaking online
Listen to Dr. Jenny Chio’s recent lecture on ethnographic portraiture and filmmaking online.
As a Morphomata Fellow at the University of Cologne, Germany, Dr. Chio gave a public lecture on one of her current ethnographic film and research projects. The talk was titled “These Days, These Homes: An Ethnographic Portrait Film in Progress.” Dr. Chio addressed the question: What are the possibilities of portraiture in filmmaking, and how can biographical and ethnographic approaches be integrated in film practice and humanistic cultural research? Her talk discussed possibilities in the ethnographic and biographical representation of life experiences by rethinking the methods and theories of documentary film-making, biography, life history, and ethnography.
Dr. James Rilling: correlation between paternal nurturing and oxytocin
Emory’s eScience Commons reported on Dr. James Rilling’s research at the Laboratory for Darwinian Neuroscience. In order to study the neurological reasons for differing care-giving behaviors, Dr. Rilling administered either oxytocin or a placebo to fathers of toddlers. When shown photos of their child, those fathers who had received the oxytocin showed increased neural activity in areas of the brain that are associated with reward and empathy.
Emory researchers make breakthrough discovery in fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Ethnobotanist Cassandra Quave (BS, Emory Anthropology) and her team identified a refined extract of the Brazilian Peppertree berry that inhibits Quorum sensing in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In effect, this extract blocks the ability of MSRA to communicate thus preventing the production of toxins. The extract does not kill MRSA, rather it disarms the infection providing more time for other treatments and the immune system to fight off an infection. This discovery could lead to sweeping consequences for the treatment of so-called super bugs.
Read more about the research at Emory News, Nature, the Washington Post, and NBC News.
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