Summer 2014
Field Notes
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Letter from the Department Head, Ellen Gruenbaum
Gathering momentum! The external reviewers who met with us for three
days in March for our 5-year program review were extremely pleased with
our department’s accomplishments and directions. We are a dynamic team
of scholars engaged with research on such things as human cultural and
primate adaptations to changing forests, exploring questions of ancient
complex civilizations and early mining and metallurgy, figuring out the evolution of the human diet, collaborating on research on human health, exploring the dramatic changes in gender roles and world cultures, and putting
anthropology to work on the Global Grand Challenges of our time. This
newsletter offers just a glimpse of the many activities of our faculty, students, and staff: undergrads involved in award-winning and hands-on research activities, a sample of grad student, faculty, and alumni research,
faculty hiring news, updates on degrees conferred, and a photo of the Class
of 2014.
At Purdue there has been a big move toward more study abroad this year,
and Anthropology jumped in with two field schools: Professor Laura Zanotti’s with the Kayapo people of Brazil and a new archaeology-focused
course in Peru, led by Professor Kevin Vaughn and recent Ph.D. Verity
Whalen. In addition, alumni generosity has enabled us to offer three small
stipends for graduate students and two for undergraduates to participate in
international research or field schools this summer. We know there is no
better way to learn about another culture or site than to go there and engage with people and research issues.
Dr. Laura Zanotti in a Kayapo community in Brazil. Field notes and body art
are all part of the experience on her study abroad course. She is currently
completing her a book on her research there and has published several chapters and journal articles.
As we move to the future, we are committed to engaging anthropology in
global problems and preparing our students to apply anthropology to the
many careers open to them. We are giving more attention to the practice of
anthropology by engaging in internships and service learning opportunities.
We are pleased to announce that we have hired two new faculty—Dr.
Sherylyn Briller and Dr. LaShandra Sullivan―to expand our offerings in sociocultural anthropology and its applications (see p. 3), as well as working on
curriculum revisions to strengthen student research and career preparation.
In the fall, Visiting Assistant Professor Ama Boakjewa, who did research in
Ghana, will be teaching three courses. We are also pleased to welcome Dr.
Kim Suiseeya to Purdue as part of the interdisciplinary cluster hire on Sustainability. Her appointment is in Political Science and she has a courtesy
appointment in Anthropology as well. The University Honors Program has
hired an anthropologist, Dr. Elizabeth Brite, whose presence will also enrich
our anthropology community.
I will be on sabbatical for the next 12 months—writing in Italy and Indiana in
the fall and research in Sudan in the spring. Professor Melissa Remis is Interim Head starting August 1.
Thank you for all your support of our anthropology students at Purdue!
2014 Faculty and Staff (l. to r., top to bottom) Myrdene Anderson, Brian
Kelly, Jill Aldridge, Elizabeth Rowe, Riall Nolan, Bryce Carlson, Audrey
Ricke, Ian Lindsay, Kory Cooper, Melissa Remis, Laura Zanotti, Ellen Gruenbaum, Evelyn Blackwood, Richard Blanton, Michele Buzon, and Brenda
Gunion. Not pictured: Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, Talin Lindsay, Kevin Vaughn,
Sharon Williams.
We are proud and delighted to feature some of our students and faculty
who have made great strides in their work during the past academic year.
This year’s winner of the O. Michael Watson Award for Outstanding
Graduating Senior is Katelyn Reavis, pictured here with her research
poster. Katelyn worked with Michele Buzon on her project for Honors in Anthropology. She was the recipient of the College of Liberal
Honors Colloquium Grand Prize for her Senior Honors Thesis poster,
Investigating Senescence in Ancient Nubia. (See photo, right.)
Two other Anthropology honors projects were also presented at the
colloquium by Michael Lockman and Tyler Pitts.
Dammon Dean’s Scholars. Faculty Bryce Carlson, Ellen Gruenbaum, and Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Wirtz mentored three first year honors students in the College of Liberal
Arts. Pictured here are Kate Yeater, Wirtz, Gruenbaum, Megan Morris, and Reed Fansler.
Grad students Marcela Poirier and
Shawna Follis (left) conducted
research in the Peruvian Andes
last summer, under the supervision of Prof. Kevin Vaughn. They
both completed their master’s
degrees in summer 2014! Other
recent graduate degree recipients
are listed below.
Recently Awarded Graduate Degrees:
MS:
Conner Wiktorowicz (Spring 2013)
Anahid Matossian (Summer 2013)
Zhenzhen You (Winter 2013)
Marie Beth Gravalos (Spring 2014)
Joshua Van Drei (Spring 2014)
Shawna Follis (Summer 2014)
Alyssa Kirschling (Summer 2014)
Marcela Poirier (Summer 2014)
PhD:
Brandi Wren (Spring 2013)
Sarah Schrader (Summer 2013)
Anjali Bhardwaj (Spring 2014)
Yuen Ki (Franco) Lai (Spring 2014)
Verity Whalen (Summer 2014)
Congratulations to Ian Lindsay, who received the Anthropology Department’s top
honor, the Outstanding Faculty Teaching
Award. Based on student nominations and
selection by a faculty committee, the award
was presented to him at our Annual Awards
Reception in April 2014. Lindsay is well
known for his enthusiasm for his courses—
in archaeology, general anthropology, and
technology and culture—and his innovations that incorporate more hands-on learning and technology. Also honored was
Michele Buzon, who was awarded one of
the Outstanding Faculty awards in the College of Liberal Arts.
Dr. Kory Cooper (center) and MS student Elizabeth
Carroll (far right) led hands-on demonstrations of
traditional copper-working techniques at the Culture
Camps for young people in two Ahtna (Northern
Dene) communities in Alaska (Chitina and Klutina)
last summer. The Ahtna traditional homeland includes a large portion of south central Alaska, and
their ancestors are credited with innovating copper
use and controlling the movement of this valuable
trade item prior to the arrival of Europeans. This
August Cooper travels to British Columbia with MS
student Garett Hunt to study copper artifacts in museum collections. Both activities are funded by
Cooper’s National Science Foundation research on
prehistoric copper innovation in Northwest North
America.
Faculty changes: Sharon Williams will be leaving to join a Washington,
DC-based policy research association this year. Riall Nolan has entered
partial retirement and will be away each year in the fall. Evelyn Blackwood will serve as Director of Graduate Studies this year. Three faculty
will be on sabbatical this year: Michele Buzon (spring), Ian Lindsay (fall),
and Ellen Gruenbaum (both semesters).
Dr. Sherylyn Briller (left) has been appointed Associate Professor of
sociocultural anthropology/applied and practicing. She holds degrees
from Carleton College (BA), and Case Western Reserve University (MA
and PhD). She most recently has been teaching Anthropology at Wayne
State University (Detroit) where she also served in the Institute of Gerontology and the Interdisciplinary Center to Advance Palliative Care
Excellence. This fall she will be teaching our course Global Health:
Anthropological Perspectives (Anth 340). She will be taking a lead role
in the development of our Master’s degree track in Applied and Practicing Anthropology.
Dr. Sherylyn Briller
Dr. LaShandra Sullivan
Dr. LaShandra Sullivan (right) will be joining us as assistant professor of
sociocultural anthropology a year from now, in fall 2015. She studied
Philosophy at Howard (BA), International Relations at Yale (MA), and
Anthropology at the University of Chicago (MA, PhD). Her doctoral
research was on labor, agribusiness, and land protest camps in Brazil,
and she previously did research and also worked as an economic attaché for the State Department in West Africa. She will expand our department’s curriculum on Latin America, rural-urban anthropology,
development, diversity and globalization.
Wilke Internships. Several anthropology faculty and students have taken advantage of the College of Liberal Arts Margo Katherine Wilke Undergraduate Research Internship program, as well as other opportunities for independent research
with students. The Wilke program provides small stipends and special training in
supervised research and communication. Here Vassi Hinova (Law & Society) displays her Wilke poster along with her collaborator Lama Abdullah (Anthro) and
their mentor Ellen Gruenbaum.
For the third year in a row, we participated in the AAA’s Grad
Fair held in November in Chicago, Illinois. Faculty, grads, and
staff helped out at our booth, where we had the chance to
tell interested prospective applicants about our growing
graduate program! Grad program assistant Talin Lindsay
above.
Anthropology Alumni News
Our newest Alumi—the class of 2014!
The group gathered for the 6th Annual Department of Anthropology Awards Reception on April 29, 2014.
Marah Brenneman (BA spring 2013) (right) just finished a year-long paid
internship with the archaeology program at James Madison’s Montpelier
estate in Virginia. She worked with other staff on excavations, artifact
processing, surveying, and supervising volunteers. In May 2014 she participated in a two-month education internship at Crow Canyon Archaeological
Center in Colorado, and then she took off for the 2014-2015 CongressBundestag Youth Exchange Program in Germany, a program that includes
intensive language training, a semester at a German university, and a fivemonth internship in her professional field. She plans to attend graduate
school after that.
Visiting Scholar Lane F. Fargher (left) will travel to Tlaxcala, Mexico in July
to begin work on a new project involving household excavations at the late
pre-Hispanic city of Tlaxcallan (AD 1250 – 1530). Discovered by the Purdue
NSF-National Geographic Society Tlaxcala Mapping Project (2006-2009),
this spectacular ancient city is reshaping the way scholars view preHispanic Mexico, as well providing dazzling finds, especially large amounts
of the world-famous Mixteca-Puebla codex style polychrome pottery.
Support Anthropology
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS
Department of Anthropology
700 W State Street
Suite 219
West Lafayette, IN 47907
765/496-7400
[email protected]
Gifts to Anthropology enable us to enrich the experiences of
our students through research support, teaching materials,
and recognition of student accomplishments. Looking forward, we would like to support student field trips to museums
and research sites, and scholarships in Anthropology.
Make a gift online on our website: https://donate.purdue.edu/
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