Yolanda Moses, vice provost of diversity and conflict resolution and professor of anthropology at University of California, Riverside, and Michael Blakey, NEH professor of anthropology and director of the Institute for Historical Biology at the College of William and Mary, were featured guests on “The Kathleen Dunn Show” on Wisconsin Public Radio on May 16 for a special program on the RACE: Are We So Different? project. To listen to the interview, click here.

Alejandro Lugo, professor of anthropology and Latina/Latino studies associate at University of Illinois, Champlain-Urbana, contributed a letter to the New York Times in response to the May 4 editorial, “Hard Times at the Golden Door.” In the letter, Lugo highlights the economic displacement caused by U.S. immigration policies and argues for the legalization of the millions of workers who have contributed to a competitive U.S. economy.

Daniel Halperin, senior research scientist and lecturer in international health at Harvard University School of Public Health, was featured in an hour-long call-in show on the BBC for his new research on HIV prevention, which was published last week in the journal Science. To listen to the interview, click here, then select "Listen Tuesday." 

Holly Dunsworth, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Anthropolgoy at Pennsylvania State University, read her essay called "I Am Evolution" on NPR's "Weekend Edition" on Sunday, May 11 as part of NPR's "This I Believe" series.  In the essay, Dunsworth examines how her work documenting evolution as a paleoanthropologist has affected her understanding of the phrase, “I believe in evolution.”  

Bonnie Bade, professor anthropology at California State University, San Marcos and Sarah B. Horton of the University of Montana discussed health care for undocumented migrants in California in the recent New York Times article, “Illegal Immigrants Turn to Traditional Healing.”

Indiana Jones: Saving History or Stealing It? 
As the buzz builds surrounding the May release of the new Indiana Jones movie, NPR's "All Things Considered" takes a look at the world's most famous fictional archaeologist from an academic perspective. Winifred Creamer, a professor of anthropology at Northern Illinois Unviersity, offered critical perspective stating, "Indiana Jones walks a fine line between what's an archaeologist and what's a professional looter.” Creamer also offered some insight into the realities of an archaeological dig and shares some comments on the impact of Indiana Jones on her students. 

A Gun in One Hand, A Pen in the Other
Newsweek magazine covered issues surrounding the U.S. military’s Human Terrain System this week with an article profiling several civilian anthropologists employed (or previously employed) in the Pentagon’s $40 million program. AAA president Setha Low responded to the article with the following letter.

The Petition: Israel, Palestine, and a Tenure Battle at Barnard
Atlantic Monthly's Jane Kramer wrote an article on Nadia Abu El-Haj and the events surrounding her controversial bid for tenure at Columbia University. Abu El-Haj came under fire last fall when Columbia University alumna Paula Stern launched an online petition to deny Abu El-Haj tenure based on what Stern claimed to be flawed scholarship and anti-Israeli bias in Abu El-Haj's doctoral dissertation, "Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society." The Atlantic Monthly article also quotes AAA President-Elect Virginia Dominguez, who served as Abu El-Haj's advisor. Columbia University announced that Abu El-Haj was awarded tenure on November 1, 2007.

U.S. Academic Defends China, Citing Progress
Susan Brownell of University of Missouri was profiled for her research on China’s sports culture and the Beijing Olympics in a recent Wall Street Journal article. In the article, Brownell, formerly a nationally-ranked U.S. track-and-field athlete counters stereotypes of China as an “evil medal machine” and explains China’s sporting tradition of horse racing, wrestling and martial arts. She stated: "When you see the enthusiasm, the idealism and the faith in a better future and then when you look at the perception abroad -- that it's propping up a regime, air pollution, child-athlete factories -- there is a disjuncture." Brownell is the recent author of “Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China,” published in February 2008.

Ancient Gold Necklace Discovered in Peru
The National Academy of Science announced in late March the discovery of the oldest gold jewelry made in the Americas. Pieces of the 4,000-year-old gold necklace were discovered in a burial site near Lake Titcaca in Southern Peru. Anthropologist Mark Aldenderfer of University of Arizona described the discovery as “a complete shock” in an Associated Press article. Heather Lechtman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the discovery, described the design as “very interesting for such a very early piece of jewelry.”

No Trash Talking at This Museum to the Clean Team
Robin Nagle, a professor at New York University and “anthropologist in residence” at the New York City Sanitation Department, was profiled in the New York Times for ethnographic research on the world of garbage collection. The article describes Nagle’s work developing “Loaded Out: Making a Museum,” a six-week sanitation museum, which she developed with the help of her NYU students. 

Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University was interviewed by NPR for a piece on the tensions between biology and culture for U.S. women who delay motherhood until their thirties and later.

Robert Kemper, professor and chair of anthropology at Southern Methodist University recently contributed to a five-part series on the migration of the indigenous Purepecha people from the rural hill–towns of central Mexico to South Seattle.  The audio of the program and other links are archived at http://www.kuow.org/pvf/pvf_immigration.asp.

Rick Stepp, associate professor of anthropology and Latin American studies at University of Florida, was featured on NPR in a re-airing of “Vanishing and Re-emerging: Reviving Biological and Cultural Diversity,” from a public media project that involved interviews conducted at a major international conference on biocultural diversity held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in April 2008. 

Kathleen Mossman Vitale was featured in a Vallejo Times-Herald article for her Endangered Threads documentary, “A Century of Color.”  In the article, Vitale discussed some of the challenges of creating a documentary that spans 100 years of history of Mayan weaving. Vitale was also spotlighted as an outstanding woman in film on the Web site, "Women Who Light the Dark.”

Winifred Creamer, a professor of anthropology at Northern Illinois University, offered an anthropological perspective on the famous Hollywood archaeologist Indiana Jones in a recent NPR piece titled, "Indiana Jones: Saving History or Stealing It?" Creamer stated, "Indiana Jones walks a fine line between what's an archaeologist and what's a professional looter.”

Newsweek magazine covered issues surrounding the U.S. military’s Human Terrain System this week with an article profiling several civilian anthropologists employed (or previously employed) in the Pentagon’s $40 million program. AAA president Setha Low responded to the article with the following letter.

Nadia Abu El-Haj was the focus of a recent Atlantic Monthly article about Abu El-Haj's controversial bid for tenure at Columbia University last fall.  The Atlantic Monthly article also quotes AAA President-Elect Virginia Dominguez, who served as Abu El-Haj's advisor.

Susan Brownell of University of Missouri was profiled for her research on China’s sports culture and the Beijing Olympics in a recent Wall Street Journal article. In the article, Brownell, formerly a nationally-ranked U.S. track-and-field athlete counters stereotypes of China as an “evil medal machine” and explains China’s sporting tradition of horse racing, wrestling and martial arts.

The National Academy of Science announced in late March the discovery of the oldest gold jewelry made in the Americas, recently discovered in a burial site near Lake Titcaca in Southern Peru. Anthropologist Mark Aldenderfer of University of Arizona described the discovery as “a complete shock” in an Associated Press article. Heather Lechtman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the discovery, described the design as “very interesting for such a very early piece of jewelry.”

Robin Nagle, a professor at New York University and “anthropologist in residence” at the New York City Sanitation Department, was profiled in the New York Times for ethnographic research on the world of garbage collection. The article, "No Trash Talking at This Museum to the Clean Team" describes Nagle’s work developing “Loaded Out: Making a Museum,” a six-week sanitation museum, which she developed with the help of her NYU students. 

Jennifer Jackson, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, brought a linguistic perspective to discussions on Barack Obama's "race and unity" speech by analyzing his oratorical strategies in a recent U.S. News and World Report interview.  < Read more.

Bill Bass, a retired professor of anthropology at University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, and founder of the Body Farm research facility at UT, was spotlighted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution for his work with the "Body Farm" novels, a crime series, which Bass and writer Jon Jefferson co-author under the pseudonym Jefferson Bass. The writing team's upcoming book is titled, "The Devil's Bones."  

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley and founding director of Organs Watch, spoke in early February at the first international UN Forum on Trafficking in Humans, where she called attention to the sale and theft of human organs for transplant surgery and the role of transplant surgeons in collaborating with criminal organ trafficking networks. This news story was covered by the Associated Press. < Read More 

Daniel Halperin, senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, was spotlighted in Time and Newsweek magazines last December for his breakthrough research on male circumcision and HIV transmission. Halperin's research on "male circumcision for HIV prevention," was listed as Time Magazine’s Top Medical Breakthrough of 2007. It was also listed as #15 in Discover magazine’s Top 100 Science Stories of 2007.  < Read More

Ted Bestor, chair of the anthropology department at Harvard University and an executive board member of the AAA, was featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes on January 13 in "The King of Sushi," a segment on the global tuna trade and the crisis of overfishing. < Read More

Robert Leopold, director of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, published a review of Dana Milbank’s recent mock ethnography, “Homo Politicus: The Strange and Barbaric Tribes of the Beltway.” Leopold describes Milbank’s satirical depiction of the Potomac Man as a “cheerfully wicked account.” < Read the review