Katya Bobrek (19C) received NSF funding

Anthropology major Katya Bobrek was one of six recent Emory graduates to receive NSF funding and the only one to be awarded the prestigious grand right after receiving her undergraduate degree. She graduated in May with high honors in Anthropology and Human Biology. The title of her honors thesis was “Genomic Analysis and Natural Selection Scan of Mexican Mayan and Indigenous Populations” and her advisor was Dr. John Lindo.

“I’m so thankful for the opportunity given to me by NSF. What excites me the most about my research is its interdisciplinary nature. I would never have found this niche if not for the education I received at the Emory Anthropology department. There I discovered my love of anthropology, health, and scientific research. It’s because of Emory Anthropology that I found what I am most passionate about.” Katya Bobrek

Kristen Kaufman (19C) is recognized as student employee of the year

Kristen graduated in May with highest honors in Anthropology and also minored in Sustainability. She has worked with the Office of Sustainability Initiative on the zero waste policies.

“I have learned so much about how to make change happen thanks to the sustainability initiatives at Emory. Through collaborating with administrators, faculty, staff, and student peers in the process of working towards a sustainable Emory, I have met inspiring people across the University and forged connections that contribute not only to my sense of place but also to my professional development.

Through working as a student employee with the Office, I have also been able to understand the links between my education in the classroom and real-world translation and application. I think people are so fundamental to understanding sustainability and sustainable outcomes, so studying anthropology has been as necessary supplement to my sustainability work and a fundamental influence in my thinking. Both working with OSI and studying anthropology were invaluable for my skills development, my understanding of people and the world around me, and the evolution of my sustainable vision for the future.”

Congratulations Kristen!

Anthropology Major Farah Al Chammas receives prestigious 2019 Bobby Jones Scholarship

Al_Chammas_Farah (1) Anthropology and Human Biology Major Farah Al Chammas is one of four outstanding Emory seniors who will be attending the University of St. Andrews in Scotland on the Bobby Jones Scholarship.

“Emory has changed my life in every possible way and the Bobby Jones Scholarship is ensuring that that continues beyond my time at Emory. [At the University of St. Andrews] I will be pursuing a Masters in International Development Practice, which is an interdisciplinary degree that allows me to enjoy the taste of Emory’s liberal arts nature that I so loved and capitalized on as an undergraduate. It is an honor to be a representative for this institution that has opened my world so I can grow and give back to Emory itself and beyond.”

Congratulation Farah!

Isabella Alexander (16PhD) writes monthly column on Sapiens

Alexander_square.headshot_crop-252x252.jpg Isabella Alexander is writing a new monthly column for Sapiens called BORDERS. Check out her first article and check back every month for human stories from political crises around the world.

Douglas Falen (92C) publishes new book on African Science

Douglas Falen (C’92) is a cultural anthropologist at nearby Agnes Scott College in Decatur. His new ethnography, African Science: Witchcraft, Vodun, and Healing in Southern Benin (University of Wisconsin Press) examines the ways that Benin’s occult world blends notions of magic, science, and religion. In emphasizing the moral ambivalence of human acts, Beninois people compare African witchcraft to western technology, known as “white people’s witchcraft.” The books explains how “witchcraft” becomes a universal, all-encompassing term that allows Beninois people to incorporate foreign religions and esoteric traditions, including Hindu mysticism and Freemasonry, into a single category. Falen.AfricanScience.c.jpg

Kwame Phillips (14PhD) and Debra Vidali present ethnographic work at the British Museum in London

Kwame Phillips (14PhD and faculty member at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy) and Emory Department of Anthropology Professor Debra Vidali are presenting and installing experimental ethnographic work at the British Museum in London on June 2. Their project “Kabusha Radio Remix,” is an ethnographic sound installation that turns the tables on colonial soft power and creates a tribute to the late David Yumba, wise man of the Zambian airwaves. The installation re-purposes archived audio recordings from Yumba’s popular Radio Zambia program, Kabusha Takolelwe Bowa (a Bemba proverb meaning “The Person Who Inquires First, Is Not Poisoned by a Mushroom” or “The One Who Asks Questions, Never Goes Wrong”). Learn more about the remix project on the Bemba Online Project. Phillips and Vidali’s presentation Collisions of Memory, Voice, Sound, and Physicality though a Multi-sensorial Radio Remix Installation will be at the Art, Materiality and Representation conference, hosted by The Royal Anthropological Institute, The British Museum, and University of London SOAS.

“Naming the Forty-Seven.” Isabella Alexander (PhD 2016) puts names and faces to anonymous migrants drowning at sea

“What if we started reporting tragedies in the Mediterranean like we do any others – with names and not numbers? There were forty-seven humans lost in a single shipwreck. This isn’t the story of their shipwreck. It’s the story of them,” says Isabella Alexander (PhD 2016) .

Dr. Alexander writes about her work to identify the migrants who died when their boat capsized on February 4th while trying to reach Europe. She has become an expert on the migrant crisis through the research for her documentary The Burning: An Untold Story from the Other Side of the Migrant Crisis.

Isabella Alexander’s (16PhD) class is featured on Emory News

In Anthropology 385: The Migrant and Refugee Crisis Isabella Alexander combines classroom learning with creation of real-life solutions. Students interacted with people affected by the migrant crisis and created final projects that are aimed at having genuine impact, such as a mentoring program for young refugees.

“To the students, it was a heady experience, steeped in the thrill of identifying a problem and actually doing something about it. For their professor, it was an affirming case study in the power of engaged learning.” Emory News Center

Aubrey Graham (PhD 2016) is featured in The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

Aubrey P. Graham’s (PhD 2016) photographic exhibition created in coordination with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative will hang in the Harvard Asia Center from Nov. 2- 30, 2017. “High Ground: Disaster, Risk, and Resilience in the Philippines” explores the social dynamics that affect disaster preparedness across two distinctive communities: Sitio Kislap and Gawad Kalinga.

High Ground: Disaster Risk and Resilience in the Philippines Photo Exhibition

Q&A with Dr. Aubrey Graham, Photographer of “Disaster, Risk, and Resilience in the Philippines” Exhibit

Gabriela Sheets (PhD, 2017) receives the Society for Medical Anthropology’s Dissertation Award for her 2017 dissertation on “The Developmental Ecology of the Infant Gut Microbiome”.

Gabriela Sheets receives the Society for Medical Anthropology’s Dissertation Award for her 2017 dissertation on “The Developmental Ecology of the Infant Microbiome”.

The Committee describes Sheets’ work as “novel meshing of anthropology and biology to explore an emerging area of general interest,” and thought it was likely to “make important contributions well beyond the medical anthropology community.” One member called it an “exemplar in where science should go.”

“Recognition begs reflection, and reflection begs gratitude. The beast that this dissertation was to become invited me on a marvelous journey through the lives, stories and biologies of many Salvadoran families, for which I am forever grateful. Before my observing eye, life spilled out. She sometimes clumsily, but always excitedly, tripped over herself to whisper her secrets and to weave her tales through the human body. Even under and around the long shadows of death where meaning was mute, her whispers sounded. Thank you Emory for the opportunity to research questions that excite me, always supported by frameworks rooted in our anthropological and biological heritage. I hope to make even a small difference with the tools and drive that you provided for me.” Gabriela Sheets

EMORY ANTHROPOLOGY

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