Professor Greg Ruf's Lecture on Water in China

- Posted By Emily Saras, '10

From Professor Kohl's Faculty Lecture Presentaiton

Professor Kohl stood by his favorite piece of advice during the faculty lecture:

"Find a project with legs, that you can run with!"  

In his presentation Forays in the Field over Forty Years:Reconstructing the Past, Critiquing the Present (already commented on by Connie, Top Chef, in our blog below) Professor Kohl showed several slides, a few I wanted to share with you... check out the following few slides.  

- Posted By Emily Saras, '10

Echoes of the Pleistocene: Defining what it means to be human.

Our department's resident Physical Anthropologist gave a wonderful lecture this past spring about his research and experience in anthropology.  Thanks, Anthrophiliacs, for helping to put this together!

From Professor Adam Van Arsdale's abstract:

"As a biological anthropologist, my interests are in exploring the pattern of and explanation for human biological variability. My own research focuses on examining how evolution has shaped the fossil, archaeological and genetic record of humans over the past two million years. Exploring our evolutionary past, however, also requires us to further examination our present. What do the biological processes in contemporary human society tell us about our evolutionary past? How can we use humans and other living species to develop models for interpreting the fossil record?

In this presentation, I will outline some of my own ongoing research, paying special attention to the ways in which understanding our evolutionary past impacts our understanding of what it means to be human today. In my research I argue that while we stopped being an ape about 5 million years ago (when our lineage diverged from our last common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos), in many ways we only started becoming human during the Pleistocene, a period stretching from about 1.8 million years ago until about 20,000 years ago. The evolutionary processes from that time period remain as vibrant echoes today both in how biological variation is patterned and in how we understand biological variation in humans."

- Posted By Emily Saras, '10

Professor Erich Fox Tree's Barbie Talk

Professor Fox Tree offered a lecture this past spring as part of our Faculty Lecture Series - about Barbie as a material representation of culture.  He discussed "ethnic Barbies" and their role of shaping how young children of America view race, and talked about the history of the Barbie industry.  His talk was well attended by Anthropology, Womens Studies, and Economics majors, and many visitors came to enjoy his lecture as well.  The SPAM (our publicity jpgs - see one above) was a buzz all about campus - apparently, the sarcasm wasn't detected by all, and those out-of-the loop on Barbie pop culture references were confused.   Hey, the confused ones still came!  

Speaking of attendance...Lesson learned:  always offer free food.

- Posted By Emily Saras, '10

Professor Kohl's Archaeology Lecture

So we started April off with our Professor lecture series, and so far we've had some great turn-out and enthusiasm! Our first lecture was from Professor Foxtree on the sexual life of Native American Barbie. It was definitely an intriguing way to start things off. This week we heard Professor Van Arsdale talk about how his research and experience with hominids has shaped theories on human origins. And this coming week, Professor Kohl, the head of the Anthropology Department himself, is going to be talking about his experience as an Archeologist- the real Indiana Jones lifestyle! It's sure to be interesting, and, as in all of our lectures so far, delicious homebaked foodstuffs will be served.
I will be contributing homemade flatbreads, sprinkled with Za'atar- a middle-eastern spice mix that originated from the Assyrians. Flatbread is something very simple and universal, but the Za'atar itself is unique only to North African and middle-eastern cultures.
Also, snickerdoodles, the popular item from this weeks lecture will also make an appearance.

Everyone is invited to the third Professor lecture in this years anthropology faculty lecture series, and I hope to see you there for the fun, the intellectual stimulation and the brain food!

- Posted ByConstance Ohlinger, '12