News Archive

News Archive

Associate Professor Graham Jones' book given an Honorable Mention

July 2, 2018

Associate Professor Graham Jones' latest book, Magic's Reason: An Anthropology of Analogy, was given an Honorable Mention by the 2016-17 Laurence Wylie Prize in French Cutural Studies committee.

Professor Stefan Helmreich is selected to be a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute

May 10, 2018

Professor Stefan Helmreich has been selected as 2018-2019 Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard University. He will be working on his current manuscript which is an "ethnographic account of how scientists measure, model, and monitor ocean waves in an era of climate change".

Professor Stefan Helmreich is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship

May 10, 2018

Professor Stefan Helmreich joins a diverse group of scholars, scientists, and artists who have been acknowledged for their prior achievements and exceptional promise.

Professor Christine Walley to Serve on the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future

February 28, 2018

Professor Christine Walley has agreed to serve on the newly launched Task Force on the Future of Work which is comprised of faculty and researchers across the Institute. The mission of the Task Force is to address questions on what emerging technologies will mean for the future of work and what is the relationship between technology, work and society.

Professor Stefan Helmreich's latest fieldwork takes place on the FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) ship

February 14, 2018

Professor Stefan Helmreich's research takes him aboard the FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) ship to interview oceanographic scientists about contemporary wave science.

Spotlight on Professor Graham Jones and "Magical Realism"

September 26, 2017

MIT News did a profile on Associate Professor Graham Jones and his views on magic as a microcosm for culture.

Professor Heather Paxson wins a "Commitment to Caring Award"

June 2, 2017

Professor Heather Paxson has been recognized for her community building and support of graduate students and has received a "Commitment to Caring" award from the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education.

And the 2017 James Beard Award for Reference and Scholarship goes to...

May 3, 2017

The Oxford Companion to Cheese, published in 2016, was chosen to receive the 2017 James Beard Award for Reference and Scholarship, the highest award in the food publishing world. Professor Heather Paxson served as an Area Editor for the volume which consists of 855 encyclopedic entries on all aspects of cheese. In addition to Professor Paxson, Professors Stefan Helmreich and Graham Jones also contributed entries for the volume - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-companion-to-cheese-9780199330881?cc=us&lang=en&l.

Alien Ocean wins the 2017 J.I. Staley Prize from the School for Advanced Research (SAR)

March 28, 2017

Professor Stefan Helmreich's 2009 book, Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas, has been named the winner of the 2017 J.I. Staley Prize from the School of Advanced Research (SAR). The J.I. Staley Prize recognizes "innovative works that go beyond traditional frontiers and dominant schools of thought in anthropology" and which "add new dimensions to our understanding of the human species".

Screening of Professor Christine Walley's film, Exit Zero, launches the new Mens et Manus America initiative

March 10, 2017

The screening and discussion of Professor Christine Walley's documentary on deindustrialization in the U.S. was the launch event for MIT's new initiative - Mens et Manus America - which will focus on political, social, and economic issues.

Professor Manduhai Buyandelger presents at the Humboldt Foundation Workshop, Religion and the City, held last November in Berlin

February 15, 2017

Professor Manduhai Buyandelger presented her paper, "From Secrecy to Flamboyance and In-Between: Shamanism, Migration, and Urban Life in Mongolia" at last November's Humboldt Foundation Workshop, Religion and the City: Inter-Religious Exchanges in Urban Environments, held in Berlin.

Statement by Anthropology Faculty on the 27 January 2017 Executive Order Restricting Immigration to the United States of America

January 31, 2017

On January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order of extraordinary breadth restricting legally recognized refugees and the nationals of seven majority-Muslim countries (including U.S. legal permanent residents) from entry into the United States....

Stefan Helmreich's Book wins the 2016 Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize

December 19, 2016

Professor Stefan Helmreich's book, Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond (Princeton University Press, 2016) was awarded the 2016 Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize from the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. The annual prize is given to a member whose book represents the best academic book on science, literature, and the arts.

"Election's Reverb: An Interview with Stefan Helmreich"

December 19, 2016

Professor Stefan Helmreich's interview with Andrés García Molina and Julien Cossette was featured on the website of Cultural Anthropology. The interview is a follow-up to his research article, "Gravity's Reverb: Listening to Space-Time, or Articulating the Sounds of Gravitational Wave Detection", which appeared in the journal's November 2016 issue.

Teaching the Anthropology of Elections in Times of Trump

December 8, 2016

Lecturer Maria Vidart-Delgado discusses her course, The Anthropology of Politics, in the teachingfordisaster series on "Savage Minds", a group blog on "doing anthropology in public".

Professor Manduhai Buyandelger's research featured in MIT News

December 1, 2016

Manduhai Buyandelger's research on post-socialist Mongolia is featured in MIT News.

Professor Christine Walley's documentary, Exit Zero, has won the 2015 Studs Terkel Media Prize

May 12, 2016

Professor Christine Walley's documentary, Exit Zero, has been awarded the 2015 Studs Terkel Media Prize from the Working Class Studies Association. The film which was co-directed and co-produced with Chris Boebel of MIT's Office of Digital Learning, is a moving family story about the aftermath of the closing of the steel mills in Southeast Chicago during the 1980's.

Heather Paxson and Stefan Helmreich featured on BBC Radio 4 Series From Savage to Self.

February 9, 2016

Professors Heather Paxson and Stefan Helmreich were featured in the final episode of the BBC radio 4 series From Savage to Self. This final episode of the series on the history of anthropology is on "Anthropology Faces the Future".

Exit Zero film premieres October 24th

October 15, 2015

At the end of the Chicago Skyway, just off Exit Zero, lies southest Chicago, once a leading steel-producing region. The city’s steel mills spanned the shores of Lake Michigan, employed hundreds of thousands of workers, and fostered the growth of nearby communities. By the end of the 1980s, however, the industry collapsed and nearly every mill closed, leaving the neighborhoods with non-existent economies and toxic environments. Anthropologist Christine Walley was fourteen when the steel mill that employed her father closed. Walley narrates the personal impact of deindustrialization on her family and friends. Deep-seated feelings of cynicism and disappointment combine with hopefulness for the next generation in this quintessentially American story of a post-industrial city.

Exit Zero documentary to premiere at the Margaret Mead Film Festival October 24th

October 15, 2015

At the end of the Chicago Skyway, just off Exit Zero, lies southest Chicago, once a leading steel-producing region. The city's steel mills spanned the shores of Lake Michigan, employed tens of thousands of workers, and fostered the growth of nearby communities.

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