News

2020-04-09 -   What does anthropological research and analysis in the time of COVID-19 offer? The following are only a few examples of the fascinating, interdisciplinary perspectives that anthropology brings to the discussion table.    “Since few things are as pervasive as a global pandemic, there is hardly any subject (in anthropology and beyond) which we could not...

2020-04-08 -   Please, join us in congratulating Anthropology Graduate Students Brenda Gisela Garcia and Jeongsu Shin for making it to the Semifinals of the 2020 Image of Research Competition. It is the third year in a row that Anthropology Graduate Students are reaching the semifinals.    The Image of Research is a multidisciplinary competition celebrating the diversity...

2020-03-09 - On Thursday, March 5, Department of Anthropology faculty, students and friends gathered at the Author's Corner of the Illini Bookstore for a very special event: the collaborative celebration of faculty book achievements.    Professor Brenda M Farnell, Head of Department, introduced a stunning number of fifteen books and set the tone, by offering a number of common questions, such...

2020-03-03 -   In the fall of 2019, Dr. Jeff Martin instructed the undergraduate course Anthropology 103 “Anthropology in a Changing World”. The course approached the broad question of how an anthropological approach allows us to think critically about climate change, students had the opportunity to work together on a group project that resulted in five-minute videos.   From topics...

2020-02-26 - Professor Fennell of the Department of Anthropology presented an invited paper on the New Philadelphia Archaeological Project under the tile “Resilience and Racism in a 19th Century American Heartland: New Philadelphia and the Vagaries of Prejudice.” The talk was part of a symposium entitled “Revealing Communities: The Archaeology of Free African Americans in the Nineteenth Century.”...

2020-02-24 -     Students from the Anthropology Club at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign celebrated Anthropology Day by reaching out to the community! Part of their activity for the day was a visit to Centennial High School and Lindsay Aikman’s senior AVID class. AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a national program focused on college and career readiness and...

2020-02-24 -   Brenda is the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Legal Humanities at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) for the 2020–21 academic year. Congratulations on your receipt of this prestigious fellowship!  

2020-02-13 - An editorial in Nature Genetics highlights the exceptional work carried out by Professor Ripan Malhi's Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING) Consortium, and its most recent accomplishment: the international conference in Aotearoa, New Zealand, the first international conference on indigenous communities....

2020-02-13 - Join us in congratulating Anthropology doctoral student, Jeongsu Shin, for being named IPRH fellow for Academic Year 20-21! The fellowship "will enable advanced graduate students to develop their dissertations or research projects related to the broad theme of “The Global and Its Worlds” and to participate in the year’s activities, including the yearlong interdisciplinary Fellows Seminar and...

2020-02-13 - Join us in congratulating Anthropology Assistant Professor, Jenny L. Davis, for being named Helen Corley Petit Scholar for the academic year 2020-21! The award is given annually for newly-tenured faculty members of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, based on excellence in teaching and research. It also brings along funds for further academic pursuits. 

2020-02-13 - Anthropology Professor, Jane Desmond has been featured on Scientific American. Her article describes the significance of donkeys for more than half a billion people accross the world, but also recounts the heartbreaking abuse and exploitation of these very special animals. She also urges American consumers, the third largest importing consumer group of donkey skin, to stand up against...

2020-01-31 - Illinois PhD alumnus, Michelle Johnson, writes in the News-Gazette about her graduate experience with her mentor, Professor Emeritus Alma Gottlieb. Johnson, who is currently an associate professor at Bucknell University, chose to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after reading Professor Gottlieb's co-edited book, 'Black Magic.'  Appreciation and gratitude met her...

2020-01-29 - University of Illinois Anthropology Professor Laura Shackelford participates in team that has created Virtual Archaeology, a virtual reality lab which creates an immersive, in-depth archaeological field school experience on campus! The interdisciplinary team, besides Professor Shackelford, is comprised by researchers, students and educators, including Professor David Huang from Educational...

2020-01-09 - On January 2nd 2020 the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation sent an  announcement to the entire campus community about plans to develop and coordinate activities relating to the federal law known as NAGPRA  (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act). For the past two years, as the Chancellor’s Fellow for Indigenous Research, Assistant Professor...

2019-12-18 -   What do anthropology labs look like? How do researchers in anthropology spend their lab time? What artifacts will you find there and how can you interact with them? The Colloquium and Intellectual Community Committee and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign organized a special event to answer these and many more questions about anthropology in...