I’m writing at more or less the midpoint of my term as chair of the anthropology sociology department to provide an update on what’s been going on and where we are headed. The big news is that Sociology and Anthropology have merged and are progressing well in implementing this endeavor. The disciplines of Anthropology and Sociology are similar in many ways, and the main reason for bringing the two departments together is that it allows the departments to capitalize and build on similarities. For example, currently, the departments are redesigning a number of our classes so that they will be relevant for students in both programs, and this will significantly increase our offerings at the upper division level. In short, there will be more classes at the upper division level, something that students in both anthropology and sociology have been requesting for a long time.
Some examples of innovative new classes we have already rolled out are:
- ‘Every Campus A Refuge,’ (Macdonald) in which students have welcomed a new refugee family to campus and are working with the family to help them adjust to life in the US.
- “Latin American Foodways” (Foster) in which students traveled to Peru to learn about the ecology, history, and culture of foodways in a Latin American country.
- “Health and the social sciences” (Head and Stromberg) in which we are developing a combined anthropology/sociology approach to understanding health and health care.
Our undergraduate students continue to make a lot of news.
- We now have four Odell Fellows in Anthropology: Jillian Romano, Skye Simmons, Molly Gardner, and Rachel Plassmeyer.
- Sateza Safi (an Anthropology minor) was recently awarded a $10,000 Sparking Change Grant from the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) to develop a peer support and mentoring program for Afghan Students at TU called Afghan Student Empowerment in the United States (ASEUS).
- Madeline Jennings is presenting a paper this April at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology and one at the Oklahoma Archaeological Conference. (Travel and research supported by the Odell Foundation).
- Emma Miller (BA, 2023) published a book chapter with Belmaker. This was an outcome of an independent study.
- Abigale Rogers (BA, 2023) presented as co-author at the 4th Paleontological Virtual Congress (This was an outcome of her senior research project).
- Patty Williams (BA, 2023) was awarded a National Science Foundation Scholarship for Archaeological Training from the Society for American Archaeology.
And the graduate students, not to be outdone:
- Nicholas Gala published a first-author paper in American Antiquity and co-authored two additional publications with Briggs Buchanan.
- Graduate students routinely presented at international conferences such as the Society for American Archaeology, the Geological Society of America, the Paleoanthropological Society, and the American Association of Biological Anthropology and local conferences such as the Oklahoma Archaeological Conference.
- Emily Schumacher received the Love of Learning award from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
- Recent Ph.D. Nkem Ike has been hired as an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Anthropology and Sociology have welcomed several speakers to the department this year, all funded by the Odell Foundation: Michelle Bebber and Metin Eren (Kent State University), Reuven Yeshurun (Haifa University), April Nowell (University of Victoria) and Aja Marie Lans (Johns Hopkins). Lambda Alpha (the Anthropology student club) has co-sponsored several of these speakers and has undertaken several other activities such as collaborations with True Blue Neighbors and afterschool activities in Kendall Whittier school for 4th – 6th graders on World Anthropology Day.
Facilitating broad discussion requires not only the mental space to do so but the physical space as well. In addition to sprucing up the department, and adding lounging furniture, snacks, and drinks, the civic data lab has been established on the second floor of Harwell Hall. This is a space for all students to get together, brainstorm, complete group projects, and hang out. To complement our exciting labs in Archaeology, software that is especially helpful in working with sociological data sets will be available on the computers in the lab.
Research and comparative collection is growing in Anthropology and Sociology. The Paleoecology and Zooarchaeology collections (Belmaker) have partnered with the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv and are receiving skeletal specimens of near-eastern fauna contributing to making this collection the premier faunal collection with old world taxa in the tri-state area. A micro3D scanner has been added to the Surface Imaging and Tribology lab.
In addition, the development of permanent and rotating exhibits on anthropology and sociology in Harwell Hall has begun. Exhibits dedicated to the history of archaeological research are available on the second floor of Harwell and other cabinets with ethnographic objects.
Learn more about the Anthropology and Sociology programs here.