This annual Fellowship is intended to encourage members of ethnic minorities to complete doctoral degrees in anthropology, thereby increasing diversity in the discipline and/or promoting research on issues of concern among minority populations. Dissertation topics in all areas of the discipline are welcome. Doctoral students who require financial assistance to complete the write-up phase of the dissertation are urged to apply.  A nonrenewable dissertation fellowship of $10,000 will be provided annually to one anthropology graduate student.

Kerry's abstract:

A?k'ida;a; 'da hooghanée (They used to live here): An archaeological study of
19th century Navajo households By Kerry Thompson

The Navajo Nation is the second largest American Indian tribe and has the largest land base of the 562 federally recognized tribes in the United ...

Kay M. Orzech was recently notified that she will receive funding from the Haury Graduate Fellowship in the form of a $5,000 scholarship in 2008-09 academic year. One of the high points of the Anthropology Diamond Jubilee Celebration during 1989-90 was the endowment of the Haury Fellowship Program to honor the many contributions of Professor Emil Haury to the training of graduate students over the years.

Kay's Dissertation Abstract:

Adolescent sleep deprivation in the United States has a variety of negative consequences, including lower grades, more negative mood, and reduced concentration and motivation among teens. This dissertation investigates adolescent sleep in the context of American culture, which tends to minimize sleep needs.

This project documents teen perceptions of sleep and actual determinants o...

Congratulations to Anton T. Daughters on being selected as the 2008-2009 Haury Dissertation Fellow. This is a one-year fellowship that includes $15,000 stipend, plus a full tuition waiver. 

Title: “¿Chileno o Chilote?” Labor reciprocity and the shaping of identity in southern Chile’s archipelago of Chiloé.

For the past three decades, policy-makers in Santiago, Chile, have pushed laissez-faire free-market reforms on most sectors of the Chilean economy. On the archipelago of Chiloé in southern Chile, these reforms have had the effect of introducing wage labor, on a massive scale, to communities that once relied primarily on collective practices of unpaid, reciprocal labor (mingas).

My research examines the role of these changing labor practices and livelihoods in the shaping of local identities. ...

By Ed Stiles, College of Engineering
April 23, 2008

Read the original article here: http://uanews.org/node/19441

Students in Pamela Vandiver’s class, “Materials Science of Art and Archaeology,” recently traveled back to the Bronze Age by reproducing what would have been a cutting-edge technology 5,000 years ago.

During the process, they gained direct, hands-on experience with copper smelting and casting as it was practiced in the Near East.

Setting up the smelter, making a pair of hand-operated bellows and creating a pottery crucible was a lot of work for one class, but well worth the effort, says Vandiver, a professor of materials science and engineering at The University of Arizona.

“A chapter in a book might put students ...

Karin Friederic is awarded a P.E.O Scholar Award for her dissertation write-up of: Frontiers of Violence: Women's Rights, Family Violence, and the State in Ecuador (supervised by Dr. Linda Green).

P.E.O. (philanthropic educational organization), one of the pioneer societies for women, was founded on January 21, 1869, by seven students at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Originally a small campus friendship society, P.E.O. soon blossomed to include women off campus. Today, P.E.O. has grown from that tiny membership of seven to almost a quarter of a million members in chapters in the United States and Canada. The P.E.O. Sisterhood is passionate about its mission: promoting educational opportunities for women. The sisterhood proudly makes a difference in women's lives with five international philanthropies: P.E.O. Educational Loan Fund, Cottey College, ...

Steven Cole will receive $15,000 from the National Science Foundation for a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for his project entitled "The Consequences of Income Inequality in Rural
Zambia." Ivy Pike is his advisor for the project.

Steve's project will examine the relationship between income inequality and health in rural Zambia and hypothesizes that income inequality will be negatively associated with health, even after controlling for social capital. The project will : 1) study a population of maize growers in rural Zambia (Chewa) where differential access to farming inputs impacts both a household's food security and income level; 2) assess multiple indicators of individual health status in 200 randomly sampled households; 3) estimate income inequality by using data collected on wealth at the household level; 4) measure social capital by asking ...

For five days in late February, Dr. Ware, the director of the Amerind Foundation, an archaeological research center in Dragoon, Ariz., was host to 15 colleagues as they confronted the most vexing and persistent question in Southwestern archaeology: Why, in the late 13th century, did thousands of Anasazi abandon Kayenta, Mesa Verde and the other magnificent settlements of the Colorado Plateau and move south into Arizona and New Mexico?

Read the full article in the New York Times.

One of Anthropology's graduate students, Thea Randina Strand was selected to
receive a dissertation write-up award during the 2008-2009 academic year
from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The AAUW Education
Foundation supports aspiring women scholars around the world; and the
American Fellowship supports women doctoral candidates at the dissertation
phase.

Thea's dissertation title is "Varieties in dialogue: Dialect use and shift
in rural Valdres, Norway," co-supervised by Jane Hill (Regents' Professor in
Anthropology) and Norma Mendoza-Denton (Associate Professor in
Anthropology). She will receive a stipend of $20,000. Our congratulations to
Thea for this deserved recognition!

For more information check out:
[ read more ]

By Jeff Harrison, University Communications
March 31, 2008

See the original article at UA News.
 
Anthropology Professor Mark Aldenderfer led an excavation in the Peruvian Andes that uncovered the earliest gold jewelry dating back 4,000 years.

Gold has long been more than a fashion statement, and wearing jewelry and other adornments made of it often connotes prestige. And it did not take long for ancient people to figure that out.

A team of scientists led by an archaeologist from The University of Arizona has unearthed what is, to date, the oldest collection gold artifacts found in the Americas.

The finding suggests that even early groups with limited resources recognized the value of status symbols. The research is published in the current iss...