We are pleased to invite you to attend a public talk by Susan Monge on "Poultry in Motion: The translocation of turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in ancient Greater Nicoya, Costa Rica"
Date: Wednesday, March 26
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: Morton Hall, 100 Auditorium
The trade and movement of animals was widespread and varied significantly throughout the ancient Americas, often requiring substantial efforts comparable to that employed in acquiring other material resources or prestige items. Research in the Greater Nicoya area of northwestern Costa Rica, the southernmost region where turkeys appear to have been translocated, suggests that these non-native birds may have been a restricted resource that served as indicators of social organization. Using osteological, ancient DNA, stable isotope, and iconographic data, Susan Monge’s research aims to understand and address social aspects of turkey translocation and management practices within ancient Greater Nicoya societies during a period of important sociopolitical changes, increasing social inequality, and the arrival of foreign groups into the area.
Join us for our World Anthropology Day celebration!
Reception: Social Gathering with food and Anthropology Displays
Date: Thursday, March 20
Time: 5 p.m., social reception followed by panel at 5:30 p.m.
Location: UNCW Library, Discovery Hall 1070
We are pleased to invite you to attend the alumni and professionals discussion panel. Take the opportunity to learn about local organizations' internship programs and career opportunities for anthropology majors/minors. Connect with your classmates, friends in the community, and faculty for a time of camaraderie. All are welcome!
We are pleased to invite you to attend a public talk by Dr. Wendy A. Vogt on "Everything is Different, Nothing has Changed: Violence and Profit along Mexico's Arterial Border."
Date: Tuesday, December 3
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: Cameron Hall 105 Auditorium
Co-sponsored by:
Honors College
Seahawks Advancing Interdisciplinary Learning
Reflecting on two decades of ethnographic fieldwork along transit routes across Mexico’s arterial border, Dr. Vogt examines the ever-changing dimensions of migration trajectories shaped by licit and illicit economies, political spectacles, and everyday serendipities. She discusses the broader political economy where narratives around sexual violence, criminality, and crisis become central to profitmaking and politics of migration.
Wendy A. Vogt is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, Indianapolis. Her book,Lives in Transit: Violence and Intimacy on the Migrant Journey, published in theCalifornia Series in Public Anthropology, chronicles the dangerous trajectories of Central American migrants crossing Mexico and is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in humanitarian aid shelters and other sites.
Congratulations to Katie Harris! She is the 2024 - 2025 recipient of The Williams Scholarship award for Anthropology majors at UNCW. This is a merit-based scholarship established two years ago by Chuck and Gina Williams. Past winners are Louis Iglesias, Gennaro Coppola, and Andie Roylance. The application for next year's competition opens December 1st. Details to come soon!
Dr. Alem Aleho Beldados joins our faculty this year as Lecturer of Archaeology. Dr. Aleho is an archaeobotanist specializing in plant macro and microfossil study to understand ancient farming, food systems, and palaeoclimate. He has published research results from Ethiopia, Sudan, and Nigeria and currently has a project in Southern Ethiopia focusing on past environment and human adaptation strategies. Next semester he will share his research expertise in his new class ANT 395 African Archaeology: From Foraging to Farming. Welcome Dr. Aleho!
We are pleased to invite you to attend a public talk by Dr. Asli Zengin on Violent Intimacies, The Trans Everyday and the Making of an Urban World.
Date: Thursday, Sept 26th
Time: Public Talk 5:00 p.m.
Location: Cameron Hall 105 Auditorium
Co-sponsored by:
Department of Gender Studies & Research Center
In Violent Intimacies, Dr. Aslı Zengin traces how trans people in Turkey creatively negotiate and resist everyday cis-heteronormative violence. Transness in Turkey provides an insightful site for developing new perspectives on statecraft, securitization, surveillance, family and kin-making, and political life. Dr. Zengin offers the concept of violent intimacies to theorize this entangled world of the trans everyday where violence and intimacy are co-constitutive. The dynamic of violent intimacies prompts new understandings of the world-making struggles of trans people in a Middle Eastern context.
Dr. Aslı Zengin is an Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University
Join us for the Anthropology Open House for food, fun, open labs, and getting to know the faculty, staff, and students. All are welcome!
Date: Wednesday, September 18th
Time: 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Location: Sartarelli Hall, First Floor
You are invited to attend a lecture by Dr. Leland Rogers on The Indigenous Taiwanese Diaspora.
Date: Tuesday, April 9th
Time: 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location: UNCW Library, 2047 Auditorium
Sponsored by:
The Asian Heritage Cultural Center
Department of Anthropology
The indigenous population of Taiwan has one of the most widespread ancient diasporas in the world, stretching from Madagascar off the east coast of Africa to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) off the west coast of South America. This presenta-tion will consider the ancient contributions of the indigenous Taiwanese people towards the populating of Oceania and be-yond including genetics, mate-rial cultures and technologies that originate from the little contentious island traditionally known as Formosa. It will also trace the ancient political de-velopments of the island in-cluding the colonial periods up to the present.
We are pleased to invite you to attend a public talk by Ahana Ghosh on Foods for afterlife from the burials of Dhaneti, Kachchh, Gujarat, India: New light on the Harappan mortuary archaeology of South Asia
Date: Thursday, March 21st
Time: Public Talk 5:00 p.m.
Location: Randal Library, RL 2047 Auditorium
Co-sponsored by:
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Harappan grave vessels have been subjected to several traditional ceramic studies, specifically under the typological lens covering forms, shapes, and designs. However, attempts to understand their utility are still relegated to ethnographic parallels or forced contextual associations. Research on the nature of mortuary food and vessels they were offered in using scientific techniques is in its infancy. This study goes a step beyond the above, as the twelve ceramic sherds from grave vessels of Dhaneti’s excavated human burials (Kachchh, Gujarat, India) have been assessed not only for their typo-technological peculiarities but also for their lipid content to evaluate the symbolic significance of food in mortuary rituals. It examines the relationship between ‘forms’ and ‘utility’ by considering functional groups like ‘cooking pots,’ ‘basins,’ ‘globular pots,’ and ‘dish on stand’ available within the sample set. Finally, this research, is from a broader perspective, makes an effort to contribute to the essentiality of considering the inclusion of the study of burial food practice within the corpus mortuary archaeology of South Asia.
Ahana Ghosh is presently affiliated as a Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Doctoral Researcher assisting Dr. Nora Reber at UNCW Department of Anthropology. Professor Kathleen. D. Morrison is the program's faculty host and academic advisor. Ahana is a doctoral scholar and teaching assistant pursuing her research at the Archaeological Sciences Centre, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, under the supervision of Professor Sharada Channarayapatna. Ghosh has published her research in multiple reputed national and international journals and presented her work at several prestigious international conferences.
Ahana Ghosh is also the founder of the online research forum ’Quest’ and has been successfully leading a team conducting online lectures and academic interactions since 2020.
Join us for our World Anthropology Day celebration!
Reception: Social Gathering with food and Anthropology Displays
Date: Thursday, February 15th
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: Cameron Hall, 105 Auditorium
We are pleased to invite you to attend a public talk by Dr. Rissa Trachman on Daily Life at the Ancient Maya City of Dos Hombres, Belize: Liminal and Transitional Spaces, Markets, and Ritual Economy.
Date: Thursday, February 15th
Time: Public Talk 6:00 p.m.
Location: Cameron Hall, 105 Auditorium
Dr. Michaela Howells gave a talk on Vampire Science: Bones, Blood, and Bodies Behind the Folklore on October 25th. See the link below for local news coverage on her talk of vampires and biology.
Watch News Coverage
We are pleased to invite you to attend a public talk by Dr. Peter Little on Anthropology Amidst Electronic Discard, Toxicity, and Technopower.
Date: Thursday, October 19th
Time: 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Location: Cameron Hall, 105 Auditorium
Co-sponsored by:
Department of Environmental Sciences
Department of Public and International Affairs
Department of International Studies
The global electronics industry and Big Tech have had a profound influence on social, political, economic, and environmental relations and politics. This talk draws on anthropological research in the Global North (New York) and South (Ghana) to unpack these complex relations and politics. It highlights the growing centrality of technopower on a warming planet and the need for anthropology in a world of mounting electronic discard, toxicity, and ecological dread.
Dr. Peter Little is professor and chair of anthropology at Rhode Island College. He is author of Toxic Town: IBM, Pollution, and Industrial Risks(New York Univ Press 2014), Burning Matters: Life, Labor, and E-Waste Pyropolitics in Ghana (Oxford Univ Press 2022), and Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology (Lexington Books 2023).
Join us for the Anthropology Open House for food, fun, open labs, and a chance to get to know your fellow classmates!
Date: Wednesday, October 4th
Time: 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Location: Sartarelli Hall, First Floor
Dr. Leland Liu Rogers is joining our faculty this year as Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology. His research specializations include Ancient DNA, Paleogenomics, Population Genetics, Ancient Population Mobility, and Animal Domestication. His geographic areas of expertise include Mongolia, Central Eurasia, East Asia, and Siberia. Welcome, Dr. Rogers!
Dr. Michaela Howells was one of the recipients of the Spring 2023 Chancellor’s Excellence Teaching Award. She also won an Honors Faculty Mentor Award in the Spring. Congratulations, Dr. Howells!
