Graduating anthropology concentrators share memorable moments from their time at Brown ahead of Commencement.

The Department of Anthropology is delighted to welcome three new members who will officially begin their faculty appointments on July 1st. Meet Shanti Morell-Hart, Joshua Babcock, and Jordi Rivera Prince!

Earth Day 2023 is Saturday, April 22nd! To celebrate, the department asked Ph.D. Candidate Sarah Davenport about her work in environmental and food sustainability.

On Thursday, April 6th, students in Katherine Mason’s ANTH 1515: Anthropology of Mental Health course led a walking tour of three on-campus sites for the traveling exhibition, “Picturing the Pandemic: Images from the Pandemic Journaling Project.”

The Department of Anthropology announces its annual competition for the Watson Smith Prize for best student anthropology research paper. The cash award will be $250.00. If submissions merit it, there will be one prize given at the graduate student level and one prize given at the undergraduate student level. Prizes will be announced at commencement in May.

In this spotlight interview, the department caught up with Kelly Fan '23, a General Anthropology and Biology (Immunobiology Track) concentrator, to learn more about her experience in Anthropology's Research Apprenticeship Program. The Program aims to foster collaboration between students and faculty on faculty research.

Mariz Kelada's doctoral project "Behind the Seen" stems from two years of ethnographic research following the laboring lives of media's technical workers in Egypt.

Sarah Williams is a feminist scholar and medical anthropologist focused on reproductive rights and health. In this spotlight, she discusses what Women's History Month means to her and her research.

The recent alum and his co-authors were able to trace a mass poisoning event in The Gambia, a small West African country, using anthropological and epidemiological methods.

As a scholar in feminist activism and gendered mobilization in the Middle East, Nadje Al-Ali discusses what Women's History Month means to her and her research.

Alyce de Carteret completed her M.A. in Anthropology in 2013 with a thesis titled, "The Red Shift: Changing Tastes and their Implications at the Elite Maya Residence of El Diablo, Guatemala." She moved on to earn a Ph.D. in 2017, focusing again on Maya studies. In this spotlight, she delves into her career path after Brown.

The department recently caught up with Pandemic Journaling Project Co-Founder and Associate Professor of Anthropology Katherine Mason to learn more about the March 2023 arrival of the traveling exhibition.

In this spotlight, PhD student Chang He explains how her research engages with the anthropology of dance through a particular style that originated in Los Angeles in 1970.

"What is, or should be, the role of solidaridad within the (transnationally adoptive) family?" Co-authors Jessaca Leinaweaver, Brown University, and Diana Marre, Autonomous University of Barcelona, aim to uncover the answer in a recent study.

The Brown University Library and Brown University Center for Digital Publications have announced the selection of the next four scholarly works to be developed by CDS, including "Going through the Motions: Animations of Black Being in the Breaks" by Rebecca Carter, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies.

In this spotlight interview, the department caught up with Lauren Paradise '23, an Anthropological Archaeology concentrator, to learn more about her experience in Anthropology's Research Apprenticeship Program. The Program aims to foster collaboration between students and faculty on faculty research.

In 2023, two interdisciplinary courses selected by the Cogut Institute for its 2021 Collaborative Humanities Course Award will be taught in part by Paja Faudree (L) and Daniel J. Smith (R).

In this spotlight interview, the department caught up with James—a 2022-2023 DUG leader—to learn more about his experience in anthropology's Research Apprenticeship Program. The Program aims to foster collaboration between students and faculty on faculty research.

In this interview, Sarah Davenport shares her fieldwork experience and research in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

In this spotlight interview, the department caught up with Selena Sheth '24, a Medical Anthropology concentrator, to learn more about her experience in Anthropology's Research Apprenticeship Program. The Program aims to foster collaboration between students and faculty on faculty research. 

How do ordinary people repurpose the tools of demography? In a recent study, Jessaca Leinaweaver argues that Peruvian professionals caring for older people justify their committed work using demographic concepts.

Five Brown undergraduate students were selected to spend the summer in northern California studying Black/Indigenous land stewardship, land-based community-building, and conducting ethnographic research. The 9.5 weeks of immersive, applied learning was part of a summer fellowship program created by Myles Lennon.

Mark began fieldwork this summer at the ancestral archaeological village of Perage on San Ildefonso Pueblo lands.

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. recently announced that Professor Stephen Houston will deliver the 72nd A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts beginning in April 2023.

The department caught up with Argenis to learn more about his work this summer as a Predoctoral Trainee in Anthropology.

In July 2022, Michael Berman joined Anthropology as a Postdoctoral Fellow in International Humanities. His role serves as a joint position with the Cogut Institute for the Humanities.

The department congratulates Mason and VanValkenburgh on their promotions, effective July 1, 2022.

The Anthropology of Homelessness, ANTH 1301, taught by Irene Glasser, PhD, has been offered yearly through the Anthropology Department since the spring of 2014. This year, the class created a guide that can be used to help individuals in Rhode Island obtain permanent and affordable housing.

The Department of Anthropology caught up with Aisha, an undergraduate student studying Health and Human Biology, to learn more about her research on medical racism and structural violence embedded in medical institutions.

Caleb Ellis '24, Medical Anthropology concentrator, reflects on learning how the history of medicine is intertwined with histories of race and white supremacy through a Spring 2022 course with Professor Sarah Williams.

In Spring 2022, Jessica Katzenstein and three other Anthropology PhD Candidates successfully defended their dissertations. In this spotlight interview, Jessica delves into her research topic and explains more about her dissertation.

Anthropology trainee Argenis Hurtado Moreno has been named a 2022 Ford Foundation PreDoctoral Fellow. Students who receive this three year fellowship have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement and are committed to a career in teaching and research in higher education.

Adelaida Tamayo was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF) which will support her research advancement.

Join the Department of Anthropology on Friday, April 22nd for Undergraduate Senior Thesis Presentations!

The Department of Anthropology caught up with Courtney, an undergraduate student studying Medical Anthropology, to learn more about her research on Black doulas in South Carolina.  

In this spotlight interview, Melanie Kim discusses writing her debut book "Oil Paper Family." It tells the true story of her grandfather, Young Bok, and highlights Korea’s difficult and oppressive past through his eyes. The story is shaped by Young Bok's love for family and his dreams of becoming a doctor.

In March 2022, the Society for American Anthropology (SAA) hosted its first hybrid conference since 2020. A handful of Anthropology graduate students and faculty traveled to Chicago to present, network, and/or view new research from colleagues. This brief captures graduate student Morgan Clark's SAA presentation on her collaborative findings from an excavation at La Cuernavilla, Guatemala.  

Katherine Mason recently published "Blenders, Hammers, and Knives: Postpartum Intrusive Thoughts and Unthinkable Motherhood," which focuses on diagnosis, treatment, and experience of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) among birthing mothers.

A new grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) will allow Mason and Co-Principal Investigators Andrea Flores (Brown University) and Sarah Willen (UCONN) to follow a cohort of first-generation college students and their parents over a period of two years using the Pandemic Journaling Project (PJP) platform to collect monthly journal entries.

A generous gift from Martha and her husband Artemis Joukowsky made possible the creation of Brown’s Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

Adjunct Lecturer Irene Glasser, in collaboration with colleagues in Brown’s School of Public Health, reflects on research and advocacy over the years in, "Provide Help for Homeless to Quit Smoking" published in the Providence Journal on November 20, 2021.

Brown University invites applications for a 2-year, non-renewable International Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship in Anthropology or related field at the intersection of language and health, with a theoretically and ethnographically grounded approach to studying language in social contexts particularly relating to health, illness, medicine, or care, broadly understood.  

Congratulations Andrea on your new book! "The Succeeders: How Immigrant Youth Are Transforming What It Means to Belong in America,"

Brown University coverage of Professor Lennons' testimony on equity in renewable energy before U.S. House committee.

Congratulations Myles!
Myles's remarks begin at 28:21

Professor Rubertone's 90-minute podcast interview on her book, Native Providence, for the New Books in Native American Studies. The series is part of the larger New Books Network.

Congratulations Prof. VanValkenburgh for receiving this award!

Nigeria's 'Prosperity gospel' Pentecostal Churches May Reinforce Inequalities

Over the past few decades in Nigeria, many millions of people have joined Pentecostal churches, and the most popular brand in recent years is known as the ‘prosperity gospel’. But while these hugely popular churches promise economic as well as spiritual rewards, they are also controversial. Even as their leaders condemn corruption, critics see these churches as contributing to a political culture that perpetuates inequality.