Shanti Morell-Hart will join us from McMaster University as an Associate Professor. She is an archaeologist whose research centers on ancient ethnobotanical practices, gastronomic heritage, food resilience and agricultural sustainability in early societies, and transformations in human-environmental dynamics. Dr. Morell-Hart has a forthcoming book titled Gastronomic Heritage: Stakes in Antiquity and has co-edited the book Mesquite Pods to Mezcal: 10,000 Years of Oaxacan Cuisines. She is engaged in funded research in Mexico (Chiapas and Oaxaca) and works with ongoing projects in Honduras and Guatemala. She looks forward to introducing students to laboratory research in paleoethnobotany and to teaching courses like Anthropology of Food (ANTH 0680, fall 2023) and Environmental Archaeology: Sustainability, Catastrophe, and Resilience (ANTH 1560, spring 2024).
Joshua Babcock will join us from the University of Chicago as an Assistant Professor. He is a sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist whose research explores the intersections of language, race, and belonging in global Singapore. Dr. Babcock’s work has appeared in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Journal of Southeast Asian Media Studies, and New Directions in Linguistic Geography, among others, and is forthcoming in American Anthropologist and Signs & Society. He looks forward to involving students in new and ongoing work on language in politics/politics of language (Talking Politics 2023: Silences + Voices in Global Media) and on scholar-activist intersections in Singapore (Doing Being Other in Global Singapore: A Scholar-Activist Showcase). He’ll offer Sounds and Symbols: Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology this fall.
Jordi Rivera Prince (she/her/ella) will join us from the University of Florida as a Visiting Assistant Professor. She is an anthropological bioarchaeologist and mortuary archaeologist who specializes in coastal fishing communities of the ancient Andes. Her research and publications focus on social inequality, maritime archaeology, materiality of the body, contemporary archaeological theory, and equity issues in archaeological practice. She looks forward to working with students on Andean (Bio)archaeology and archival research. She’s also looking forward to teaching courses like the Human Skeleton (fall 2023 and spring 2024), and Introduction to Archaeology (fall 2023).
Welcome to the community Shanti, Joshua, and Jordi!