News Archive

News Archive

The Anthropology of Humanitarianism

May 1, 2014

Associate Professor of Anthropology Erica James was featured on the MIT homepage for her work examining the effectiveness of aid to those on the margins of society.

Amberly Steward featured in Boston Globe

April 25, 2014

MIT Anthropology's Administrative Officer, Amberly Steward, was featured in a photo essay in the Boston Globe on the lunch break habits of working people in the Boston area.

Heather Paxson named a 2014 MacVicar Faculty Fellow

March 14, 2014

Associate Professor of Anthropology Heather Paxson has been named a 2014 MacVicar Faculty Fellow.

Manduhai Buyandelger receives Levitan Prize in the Humanities

January 6, 2014

Associate Professor of Anthropology Manduhai Buyandelger has been awarded the James A. (1945) and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanities, a $25,000 research grant that will support her in-depth ethnographic study of parliamentary elections in Mongolia, with specific emphasis on the experience of female candidates.

Heather Paxson wins 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize for The Life of Cheese

July 8, 2013

The Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) and the Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing (CASTAC), announce Professor Heather Paxson as the winner of the 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize for her book, The Life of Cheese.

Erica James Wins 2013 Gordon K. and Sybille Lewis Award for Democratic Insecurities

June 6, 2013

Professor Erica James's book, Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti, has won the 2013 Gordon K. and Sybille Lewis Award from the Carribean Studies Association.

Heather Paxson interviewed on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams

May 30, 2013

Professor Heather Paxson was interviewed by NBC's Willie Geist for a segment on artisanal food for NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

MIT music documentary pays tribute to the Arab Spring

May 21, 2013

The PBS affiliate WGBH Boston/Channel 2 will air the MIT music documentary "Awakening: Evoking the Arab Spring through Music" on Friday, May 31 at 10:30pm. The documentary was directed by MIT Anthropology lecturer Chris Boebel and is the first work that MIT Video Productions has produced specifically for broadcast television.

Iris Sheu wins 2013 Howe Prize

May 14, 2013

MIT Anthropology is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2013 James Howe Prize is Iris Sheu for her paper entitled "Patient Barriers to Mental Health Care for the Cambodian Population in Lowell, MA."

Graham Jones wins Edgerton Award

May 7, 2013

Professor Graham Jones receives the 2013 MIT Edgerton Award for exceptional distinction in teaching and research.

An MIT anthropology professor writes about artisan cheese

March 19, 2013

Professor Heather Paxson was interviewed by Boston Globe correspondent Jane Dornbusch for a feature article on her latest book, The Life of Cheese.

Yehuda C. Goodman — Hebrew University of Jerusalem

March 1, 2013

Yehuda Goodman, senior lecturer in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a visiting scholar at MIT Anthropology, studies conversion to Judaism among immigrants recently arriving in Israel. Becoming a more integrated citizen in Israeli Jewish society involves a complex process of conversion, carried out in religious courts by Orthodox rabbis who act as official agents of the state. Goodman explores the variable interpretations and constructions of the converted subjects by the courts — especially Russian and Ethiopian immigrants — as well as the discursive negotiations among the participants.

Why are Japanese cartoons a global hit?

January 29, 2013

Professor Ian Condry's new book heralds 'creative collaboration' with the masses as the key to anime's worldwide popularity.

Hard times in Chicago

January 18, 2013

Professor Christine Walley's new book recounts the painful aftermath when steel plants suddenly closed in the American heartland.

Cheese Cultures

December 19, 2012

Professor Heather Paxson's new book, The Life of Cheese, is reviewed in Scientific American.

Bridging the Generation Gap, One Meal at a Time

December 17, 2012

Professor Heather Paxson was interviewed by journalist Amy Chozick for a New York Times article about the importance of food and meals in family relationships.

Looking inside the growing world of do-it-yourself American cheese-makers

December 12, 2012

Professor Heather Paxson's new book The Life of Cheese, delves into the ethos, methods, of politics of artisanal cheese-making. At a time when the ethics of food is an important issue for many Americans, the work offers a unique glimpse of people who have taken food-making into their own hands.

The Kuna Celebrations: James Howe's photographs of celebratory rituals among the Kuna

December 1, 2012

In an audio slideshow, James Howe, Professor of Anthropology, tells the story of how a Kuna village prepares for and conducts a great communal celebration, an event that can last up to four days, and embodies many of the Kuna's important values, beliefs, and ways of life.

The MIT Anthropology Mola

November 1, 2012

During his more than 40 years working with the Kuna people of Panama, Professor James Howe established a close, collegial relationship with the subjects of his research, people who became agents as well as subjects of their own ethnography. Some years ago, Howe commissioned from a Kuna woman a special tapestry called a mola for the MIT Anthropology Program.

Stefan Helmreich wins Rachel Carson Prize for Alien Ocean

October 30, 2012

Professor Stefan Helmreich's book Alien Ocean, Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas, has won the 2012 Rachel Carson Book Prize, given by the Society for the Social Study of Science to recognize a book-length work of special social or political relevance in the area of science and technology studies.

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