All News

Caroline Krumholz ’10 never described her interest in different people and ethnicities as anthropology until she came to Hamilton. Once she identified anthropology as a distinct subject with its own title and terminology, her interest began to grow. Ever since, she has become increasingly committed to learning more about culture and tradition. This summer, she is interning in Hamilton’s Anthropology Department, working under the advisory of Assistant Professor Chaise LaDousa. He is guiding her through the process of conducting fieldwork and sifting through relevant literature.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nathan Goodale with co-author Ian Kuijt (University of Notre Dame) recently published an article titled “Daily Practice and the Organization of Space at the Dawn of Agriculture: A Case Study from the Near East”  in American Antiquity.

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(JSPS) acknowledged Assistant Professor of Anthropology Haeng-ja Chung's academic accomplishments of 2008-2009 and awarded her the full-period extension of the SSRC-JSPS Fellowship. As a result, her fellowship period is extended to 2008-2010, the maximum period the organizations could offer.

Matthew Eichenfield '09 presented at the "Barcamp San Diego," a technology conference held at Intuit's San Diego Campus on May 30-31. His presentation was titled "Analyzing Artifacts: What Computers Can Tell Us About Archaeology" and was the culmination of his year-long independent study project with Nathan Goodale, assistant professor of anthropology.

An invited commentary titled "Introduction: Diversity Not Uniformity," written by Professor of Anthropology Douglas Raybeck was published in the June 2009 issue of Ethos, the Journal of the Society of Psychological Anthropology. Raybeck also presented "The Nature of Human Intelligence ... and that of 'Others'?" at the 25th Annual CONTACT Conference at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Haeng-ja Chung was invited to give a talk at the Department of Transcultural Studies, Wako University, in Tokyo, on May 25. Her talk was titled "What Are Japanese? Who Are You?" She problematized the notion of "Japanese" nationals (kokumin) by juxtaposing the case study of the Japanese-born "foreigners" in Japan.

Professors of Anthropology Charlotte Beck and Tom Jones presented a paper titled "A Case of Extinction in Paleoindian Lithic Technology" at the 74th Society for American Archaeology Meeting in Atlanta on April 23. The paper is a continuation of Beck and Jones's research on the earliest colonists of North America and discusses the ultimate disappearance of a particular technology used initially by these early colonists.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Haeng-ja Chung was invited to give a paper, "Mapping the Invisible: Ethnic Passing and Feminized Male Labor in the Nightclubs in Japan," at the 2008 RCAPS Conference: The Asia Pacific in the Emerging World System at the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in December 2008.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Haeng-ja Chung was invited to give a paper at the Contemporary Anthropology Workshop at the University of Tokyo in November. She presented the paper "Deconstructing the Notions of 'Korean' 'Nightclub' 'Hostesses' in Japan and Proposing 'Labor Participant Observation'" in Japanese.

Professor of Anthropology Emeritus Douglas Raybeck was interviewed for a Washington Post article (12/31/08) about the tradition of dropping an object at midnight to mark the entry of a new year. Raybeck contends that it all comes down to a human need to mark moments of change. "It's a shared experience. Everyone can see the inception and the terminus of the ball drop," he said.