Professor Susan S. Silbey, head of MIT's Anthropology Program, has received the 2012 W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship from the American Sociological Association (ASA) for her "outstanding contribution to the discipline."

As a kid, Heather Paxson wouldn't eat American cheese. "I thought it was not real food and it was an insult," she says of her youthful disdain for the processed stuff. As an elementary school student growing up in southern Illinois, Paxson insisted on cheddar or Swiss for her sandwiches instead.

When Professor Stefan Helmreich set out to examine the world of marine microbiologists, his research took an unexpected twist. Helmreich, who has been recognized for his innovative work in cultural anthropology, had decided to study scientists who chase some of the world's smallest creatures in some of the world's most forbidding places. So he spent long hours interviewing microbial biologists. But during the years of Helmreich's research, the entire field shifted gears.

Associate Professor Christine Walley's and Chris Boebel's Exit 0 Project seeks to recapture the stories of a region traumatized by de-industrialization, and to look towards a future of economic opportunity and environmental justice for Southeast Chicago residents.

Buyandelger's research links contemporary developments in Mongolian nationalism and culture with Buryat family experiences to document the revival of shamanism in the post-Soviet transformation of Mongolia. She takes up questions concerning the role of historical memory in forming political economy and culture, specifically looking at the case of the post-Soviet transformation in Mongolia.

Associate Professor Christine Walley and Chris Boebel are documentary filmmakers and advisors to the Open Documentary Lab @ MIT. They are currently collaborating on Exit Zero, a documentary about one family's experience of deindustrialization in southeast Chicago.

Magicians can make cards appear and people disappear. But the greatest trick any magician pulls off may be acquiring the knowledge needed to perform such acts in the first place. After all, magic tricks are largely secrets; they wouldn't entertain audiences half as much otherwise. Thus magicians closely guard their trade's knowledge. And yet the craft would die if the techniques of magic did not transfer to promising practitioners.

Associate Professor Christine Walley and Chris Boebel receive an award from the LEF Foundation for their documentary project, Exit 0.

Why don't more women enter the male-dominated profession of engineering? Some observers have speculated it may be due to the difficulties of balancing a demanding career with family life. Others have suggested that women may not rate their own technical skills highly enough. However, a recent paper co-authored by MIT social scientist Susan Silbey, based on a four-year study of engineering students at four schools, offers a different story.

Assistant Professor Graham Jones was among the recipients of the 2012 James A. and Ruth Levitan Awards for Excellence in Teaching in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

Professor Erica James's research examines how individuals, organizations, and states contain and redress psychosocial trauma by means of economies of compassion. Compassion economies include charity, corporate philanthropy, humanitarian and development aid circulating within and across territorial and other socio-political borders.

Susan S. Silbey, head of MIT Anthropology, and Ruthanne Huising PhD '08 have been awarded the 2011 best publication prize from Regulation & Governance for their article, "Governing the Gap: Forging Safe Science Through Relational Regulation."

Sensate, a peer-reviewed, open access online academic journal, will be publishing materials from the Sensing the Unseen seminar, a year-long series of talks organized by Professors Stefan Helmreich and Heather Paxson in 2010-2011. To find out more about the Sensing the Unseen seminar and hear podcasts of the presentations, please click here.

Exit Zero refers to the highway exit ramp number for the former steel mill neighborhoods of Southeast Chicago in the Calumet region, once one of the largest steel-producing areas in the world. Exit Zero is also the name of a book written by anthropologist Christine Walley, who grew up in the region as a fourth generation member of a steelworking family, as well as a documentary film made by Chris Boebel and Chris Walley.

Professors Stefan Helmreich and Heather Paxson are spending the Spring 2012 semester traveling and teaching with Semester at Sea, a global education program sponsored by the University of Virginia that offers undergraduates the opportunity to explore different regions and cultures all over the world.

Deborah K. Fitzgerald, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has announced that Erica Caple James, associate professor of anthropology, has received the James A. ('45) and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanities. The $25,000 prize is awarded annually as a research fund to support innovative and creative scholarship in the humanities.

MIT's Spectrum Magazine profiles the year-long Sensing the Unseen seminar, sponsored by MIT Anthropology and organized by Professors Stefan Helmreich and Heather Paxson.

Heather Paxson discusses the history of milk and artisanal cheesemaking on the June 28th edition of WBUR's On Point radio program.

Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti by Erica James received an Honorable Mention for the Society for Cultural Anthropology Gregory Bateson Prize.

Invited by the MIT Anthropology program, David Harvey, author of The Condition of Postmodernity and professor in the Program in Anthropology at the City University of New York, examines the latest financial crisis and the complexities of global capital flow from a Marxist perspective.