Even in these difficult pandemic times, our faculty, staff and students have been busy producing cutting-edge scholarships, winning awards and achieving milestones in their careers. We celebrate their successes and thank them for their dedication to our discipline and students.

Promotions

• Dr. Stephen Chrisomalis, promoted to Professor
• Dr. Jessica Robbins, promoted to Associate Professor with tenure

New publications

Books, 2020-2021

• Chrisomalis, Stephen. Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History. MIT Press
• Hill, Alex B. (M.A. '16, Ph.D. student) Detroit in 50 Maps. Belt Publishing
• Robbins, Jessica. Aging Nationally in Contemporary Poland: Memory, Kinship, and Personhood. Rutgers University Press
• Ryzewski, Krysta. Detroit Remains: Archaeology and Community Histories of Six Legendary Places. University of Alabama Press
• Safransky, Sara, Andrew Newman, Tim Stallmann, and Linda Campbell. A People’s Atlas of Detroit. Wayne State University Press. [placed on Michigan Notable Book List, 2021]

Articles and book chapters, 2021

• Bray, Tamara L. (2021), “At the End of Empire: Imperial Advances on the Northern Frontier,” In The Inka Empire: A Multidisciplinary Approach, edited by Izumi Shimada, University of Texas Press, pp. 325-344
• Beck, Jess, Erik Gjesfjeld, and Stephen Chrisomalis (2021), “Prestige or Perish: Decisions in Academic Archaeology,” American Antiquity, 86(4): 669-695
• Chen, Caleb K., Luis Flores-Blanco, and Randall Haas (2021), “Why Did Projectile-Point Size Increase in the Andean Altiplano Archaic? An Experimental Atlatl Analysis,” Latin American Antiquity, October, 1-16 (online first)
• Cherry, John F., Krysta Ryzewski, Susana Guimarães, Christian Stouvenot, and Sarita Francis (2021), “The Soldier Ghaut Petroglyphs on Montserrat in the Lesser Antilles,” Latin American Antiquity, 32(2): 422-430
• Chrisomalis, Stephen (2021), “The Scope of Linguistic Relativity in Graphic and Lexical Numeration,” Language & Communication, 76:1-12
• Drasher, Michael, Jonathan Stillo et al. (2021), “Hear us! Accounts of people treated with injectables for drug-resistant TB,” Public Health Action, 3(11): 146-154(9)
• Ellens, Samantha, Susan Villerot, and Don Adzigian (2021), “Interpreting the Sherds: Ceramic Consumption Practices in a Nineteenth-Century Detroit Riverfront Neighborhood,” Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 46(1)
• Hayes, Lauren, (2021), “Language and Culture in Workplace Ethnography,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Oxford University Press
• Stanley, Erin, (2021), “(Re)membering Home, Demolition in Detroit as Dismemberment,” Riverwise Magazine, January

Awards and accomplishments (summer/fall 2021)

Harmony Durden, our department’s Administrative Assistant, received her Master’s degree in Youth and Community Development from Western Michigan University.

Dr. Lauren Hayes led graduate students to the completion of a successful practicum project in partnership with D-Ford (Ford Motors) and Dr. Yuson Jung over the summer.

Dr. Julie Lesnik featured on PBS’ NOVA episode “Edible Insects” on October 21.

Virginia Nastase, Anthropology B.A. ’21, was selected to be the commencement speaker at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences commencement ceremony on December 13.

Dr. Andrew Newman was awarded the university’s Career Development Chair for the 2021-22 academic year.

Dr. Tareq Ramadan, Ph.D. ’17, was awarded a $380,850 grant from the National Park Service to for the non-profit organization Project We Hope, Dream & Believe to restore the Inkster home of civil rights leader, Malcolm X. The Department of Anthropology is a partner on this project.

Dr. Jessica Robbins received two awards for her 2019 article, “Expanding Personhood beyond Remembered Selves: The Sociality of Memory at an Alzheimer’s Center in Poland," Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 33(4):483-500. One award was issued by the Polish Studies Association, sponsored by Aquila Polonica Publishing, and another by the Polish Memory Studies Group.

Dr. Krysta Ryzewski received a Research and Development grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her project “Hamtramck Historic Spatial Archaeology: Integrating Archaeological Collections into Historic Spatial Data Infrastructures,” which will be conducted in partnership with Michigan Tech colleagues Dr. Dan Trepal & Dr. Don Lafreniere, and the Hamtramck Historical Museum.

Dr. Andrea Sankar was awarded the Annual Graduate Student Mentorship Award by the Medical Anthropology Student Association.

Dr. Jonathan Stillo received the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Award.

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