Department of Anthropology | News

Prof. Susan Blum quoted in BBC News

2021-08-03T08:30:00-04:00

Better technology needed for more realistic video meetings

Zoom technology keeps people from talking on top of each other by limiting the number of speakers heard to one at a time. But is this how in-person conversations happen? Not according to Susan Blum, anthropology professor, quoted in BBC News. (More...)

PhD student Kayla Hurd awarded NSF-DDRIG!

2021-07-20T10:00:00-04:00

Kayla Hurd has been awarded the NSF-DDRIG for her research on the effect of Covid-19 on food choices in Oaxaca, Mexico.…

Article by Prof.Tracie Canada "The NFL's 'Racist Norming' Is an Afterlife of Slavery

2021-07-09T15:00:00-04:00

"The NFL's 'Racist Norming' Is an Afterlife of Slavery"…

Archaeological dig uncovers pieces of 19th Century Notre Dame

2021-07-09T10:35:00-04:00

Professors Mark Schurr and Madeleine McLeester interview on WSBT…

Commencement 2021: Nicholas Ames, PhD in Anthropology

2021-06-07T14:00:00-04:00

At Commencement 2021, Nicholas Ames received his PhD in Anthropology.

Throughout his time at Notre Dame, Nicholas has been affiliated with the Keough-Naughton Institute—attending the weekly Lectures and Public Talks Series and working with other Notre Dame students, graduate and undergraduate, on the islands of Inishbofin and Inishark through the Landscapes of the Irish Coast project, led by Faculty Fellow and Professor of Anthropology Ian Kuijt and Professor of Anthropology Meredith Chesson.

Nicholas researches historic migration and the influence immigrant communities have on the development of contemporary urban America. He came to Notre Dame from the University of California, Berkeley and entered the University as a Notebaert Fellow, the Graduate School's most prestigious fellowship. In addition to Professors Kuijt and Chesson, he is advised by Professor Maurizio Albahari.

"In my migration studies," Nicholas explains, "the focus is on individuals emigrating from western Ireland (primarily County Mayo and County Galway) during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. A large number of people emigrated from these two counties during this period in particular, and most ended up in the same places as their forebears, essentially re-concentrating and recreating family and community ties in the space of urban America."

For his thesis, Nicholas conducted research primarily in the Louisburgh area of South-West County Mayo, and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio for the American portion of his research.

"My aim is to identify the degree of mutual influence Irish and Irish-American communities have on the development of communities at ‘home,’ and vice-versa, through the exchange of remittances, passage, goods, and ideas. The point is to understand the influence of these historic immigrant communities and their extensive trans-national connections on the social-scape of modern day America."

Nicholas spent considerable time interviewing families as well as studying artifacts here and abroad. Perhaps his biggest adventure was guest crewing on a Dutch tall ship in the Summer of 2018 to better understand the hardships and psychology of a sea passage.

Nicholas believes that his findings "can expand beyond the Irish and beyond the United States to better understand the ways in which immigrant populations across time have, and continue, to shape the communities in which we live."

Originally published by Mary Hendriksen at irishstudies.nd.edu on June 04, 2021.

Mallika Sarma, PhD wins prestigious Shaheen Award for her excellence in biological anthropology!

2021-05-04T09:00:00-04:00

Mallika Sarma, PhD is the winner of the 2021 Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Award in Social Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. This award is a recognition to Mallika's research excellence in biological anthropology as demonstrated by her outstanding publication record, record of success in winning external grants and fellowships, and her deep commitment to teaching and mentorship.…

Job Market Trends For Recent Anthropology Grads

2021-04-30T11:00:00-04:00

Given the change of course that has happened in the world, we wanted to provide expert opinions on what aspiring graduates can do to start off their careers in an uncertain economic climate. We wanted to know what skills will be more important, where the economy is doing relatively well, and if there will be any lasting effects on the job market.

Companies are looking for candidates that can handle the new responsibilities of the job market. Recent graduates actually have an advantage because they are comfortable using newer technologies and have been communicating virtually their whole lives. They can take what they've learned and apply it immediately.

We spoke to professors and experts from several universities and companies to get their opinions on where the job market for recent anthropology graduates is heading, as well as how young graduates entering the industry can be adequately prepared. Here are their thoughts.

Job Market Trends For Recent Anthropology Grads

PhD student Ivoline Budji Kefen's interview published in new book:

2021-03-04T11:50:00-05:00

PhD student Ivoline Budji Kefen's interview published in new book: "From Handmaiden of Colonialism to Esteemed Discipline: Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi on the Reinvention of Anthropology in Africa".…

Notre Dame launches interdisciplinary Initiative on Race and Resilience

2021-01-18T11:00:00-05:00

Mark A. Sanders

The University of Notre Dame has launched the Initiative on Race and Resilience, a new interdisciplinary program focused on the redress of systemic racism and the support of communities of color both within and beyond the Notre Dame campus.

Led by the College of Arts and Letters with additional support from the Office of the Provost, the initiative will bring together scholars and students in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and other disciplines to challenge systemic racism and promote racial equity through research, education, and community empowerment.

“Our University mission calls on us 'to assist the world to create justice grounded in love,' and so we have a unique responsibility to support the study of race and to amplify the voices, gifts, and talents of people of color,” said Mark A. Sanders, the inaugural director of the initiative and a professor of English and Africana studies at Notre Dame.

“This initiative marks the creation of a think tank on race — an intellectual and physical space at Notre Dame where people will come together to address issues of race and racism, both systemic and interpersonal.”

Sarah A. Mustillo, the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, said addressing issues of race in an academic and community context is closely tied to Notre Dame’s Catholic mission — which calls for respecting the dignity of every person and standing in solidarity for the pursuit of peace and justice.

Dean Sarah A. Mustillo

“This is an opportunity for Notre Dame to be a significant voice in the challenging, ongoing conversation about racism and the role it currently plays and has historically played in our society,” said Mustillo, who made creating the Initiative on Race and Resilience one her top priorities when she became dean in 2018. “The College of Arts and Letters is determined to fight inequality through research, education, and outreach, and this new initiative is an essential component of that goal.”

The initiative’s research endeavors will include annual internal grants for race-centered research, a scholar-in-residence position, post-doctoral and dissertation fellowships, a visiting scholars program, lectures, and a biannual conference with rotating themes.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, the initiative will host its first fellow, in partnership with the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study — Scott Alves Barton, a food scholar from New York University named by Ebony magazine as one of the top 25 African American/Diaspora chefs.

Academic programs developed through the initiative will emphasize interdisciplinarity and comparative study of race and ethnicity. It will offer course development grants, pedagogy workshops with the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the Center on Literacy Education, a faculty-student mentorship program for students of color, and educational outreach efforts.

The initiative also seeks to empower African American communities and other communities of color through engagement opportunities, especially through the arts. It will sponsor a community book club and host or co-sponsor anti-racist programming such as art exhibits, theatrical productions, and film festivals.

“This is an opportunity for Notre Dame to be a significant voice in the challenging, ongoing conversation about racism and the role it currently plays and has historically played in our society. The College of Arts and Letters is determined to fight inequality through research, education, and outreach, and this new initiative is an essential component of that goal.”

Maurizio Albahari, an associate professor of anthropology, serves on the initiative's advisory council, and anthropology faculty members Catherine Bolten and Alex Chaves are affiliated faculty.

Sanders said the initiative plans to create campus-community dialogue events, develop programming for K-12 classrooms, and host a summer program for potential first-generation college students. An artist-in-residence and practitioner fellow program will bring creators, policymakers, and community organizers to campus for collaborative sessions with scholars and students.

“Our approach will be to celebrate communities of color and all they have to offer — and the arts are a means by which those communities assert a recuperative sense of identity,” Sanders said.

Research and education pursuits will be organized around a series of rotating themes, with topics changing every two to three years. A theme on race and the environment, for example, would include hosting a visiting scholar conducting research in that area, a practitioner fellow addressing environmental racism, undergraduate courses covering global warming’s economic impact on communities of color or the water crisis in Flint, Mich., and arts exhibits or events that address those themes.

“In every facet of the initiative, we will attend to the critical tension at the heart of the concept of race — race as a tool of colonization and race as a site of resistance and resilience,” Sanders said. “Through all of our work, we will strive to cultivate an atmosphere of inclusiveness and scholarly excellence.”

Originally published by Josh Weinhold at al.nd.edu on January 18, 2021.

Kitted up with Ruby’s Lab Manual: Notre Dame community gifts experiment supply kits

2020-12-18T11:00:00-05:00

Off-the-shelf lab kits were just not satisfying 6-year-old Ruby, but her curiosity about science persisted. Luckily for Ruby, her aunt happens to be “in the biz,” and wasn’t going to let the budding researcher go without. Aunt Cara Ocobock, also a Notre Dame assistant professor of anthropology, decided to personally curate a lab manual and kit for her niece.

“I tried to think about what I wanted when I was that age and what I wanted to learn. I wanted to combine that with what I have learned as a scientist to make the lab manual educationally valuable,” Ocobock said.

Ocobock pulled science experiments that were publicly available online that demonstrate the scientific method — some that Ruby can do herself, and some that will require adult supervision. She then gathered all the materials Ruby would need to conduct the experiments. Along with each experiment, Ocobock included a profile of a woman scientist.

“I wanted to represent women and women of color,” she said. “This was very much directed at my niece.”

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Cara Ocobock (right) and PhD student Hannah Wesselman chat in the lab where the kits were assembled.

After completing the manual that totals 28 experiments appropriate for ages 5 to 10, Ocobock posted it on her professional website and on Twitter. The kit then went what she described as “low-key viral.” Her inbox was flooded with requests for manuals and her Twitter followers nearly tripled.

“I did not expect the response,” she said. “It never dawned on me that kids are at home. It never occurred to me the kind of need there is for this. I was sending the manual to people in places like Malaysia and Eastern Europe. I will never fully understand how far it went.”

About the same time, Ocobock told Morgan Munsen, a doctoral student in neuroscience, about the manual at a Science Cafe event, leading to a discussion about how to ensure access to the manual locally among students from disadvantaged backgrounds from two distinct perspectives: language and the materials needed to perform the experiments.

“It just snowballed from there,” said Munsen, who is also the community director with the Science Policy Initiative (SPI), a student-run organization that engages Notre Dame students in issues at the intersection of science and public policy and promotes science and technology within the South Bend-Elkhart community.

In coordination with Ocobock and with support from the broader SPI community, Munsen successfully applied for two grants: a $5,500 Community Impact Grant from the Center for Social Concerns at Notre Dame and a $1,000 grant from the National Science Policy Network. The John J. Reilly Center for Science Technology and Values, the sponsoring organization for SPI and source of faculty mentorship, also generously agreed to cover up to $2,500 in additional funding to cover any remaining costs associated with the project.

Grant money in hand, Sasha Padilla-Coley, a doctoral candidate in biochemistry at Notre Dame and co-president of SPI, hired a fellow graduate student, Colombian-born Sebastián Murgueitio Ramírez, to translate the manual from English to Spanish. A doctoral candidate in the history and philosophy of science, Murgueitio Ramirez previously created an online Spanish-language textbook aimed at the South American market. He also helped Don Howard, a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, digitize an obscure but influential newsletter devoted to the foundations of physics.

Meanwhile, Munsen coordinated with St. Adalbert Catholic School, where her husband works as a middle school religion teacher, to supply students there with kits containing chemicals, petri dishes and other materials specific to the manual over winter break.

St. Adalbert is a PK-8 school serving mostly lower-income, Spanish-speaking households on South Bend’s west side. The school has an existing relationship with Fisher Hall, whose annual regatta benefits St. Adalbert. Both Fisher and McGlinn hall residents volunteer as tutors at St. Adalbert.

“While many of these materials can be found around the home, some are hard to source and some are more expensive,” said Munsen. “We wanted to make sure there was not a barrier to access for these materials, whether price or availability.”

At the same time, Munsen said, “During a pandemic, especially, parents are busy. Having all the materials there and the manual, and in a language they speak, not only enriches the student, but is something fun that kids and parents can do together.”

Led by Munsen, SPI purchased the materials individually and in bulk with support from Notre Dame Procurement Services. Science faculty from across campus, including Michelle Whaley, teaching professor of biological sciences; Nancy Michael, associate teaching professor of biological sciences; and Joshua Koen, assistant professor of psychology, donated items such as petri dishes and balloons. Headed by Dean Mary Galvin, the College of Science donated several hundred dollars to print physical copies of the manual for the students. SPI took advantage of fast shipping via Amazon for bulk purchases.

Finally, SPI Co-President Robert Stanley negotiated with Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore for a discount on 150 Notre Dame-branded backpacks to gather and transport the lab materials.

Student volunteers with the Science Policy Initiative assemble lab kits.

Volunteers from both SPI and the Association for Women in Science at Notre Dam e assembled the kits and packed the backpacks over several days in early December. Following coronavirus protocols, SPI delivered the backpacks to St. Adalbert during off hours on Dec. 16 — one for every student in grades one through six. Teachers distributed the backpacks to the students before the start of winter break.

“I’m blown away by how hard our volunteers — especially the students — have worked and how detail-oriented they’ve been to prepare the kits for these kids,” said Ocobock.

Joe Miller, principal at St. Adalbert, said “We are overwhelmed by the generosity of these science experiment gifts. Our students love the prospect of doing science, and they happen to like the ND bags quite a bit too!”

He continued, “As an over 70 percent English learner school, we rightfully spend an extraordinary amount of time and energy in our school building on reading and language arts. An unintended consequence of our emphasis on language arts is that science at times gets short shrift. These science kits will go a long way in kindling an interest in science for our students.”

What’s more, Miller said, the kits “come at a perfect time as we anticipate spending some extended time in remote learning in the coming semester. Our teachers will now be able to say, ‘Go get your science lab backpack’ and then conduct live online science experiments from home — but together. There is no way we could have ever pulled off that quality of a lesson without this generous gift.”

He concluded, “Notre Dame has been and will continue to be a great partner at St. Adalbert School — this gift is one more link strengthening our relationship.”

Looking ahead, Munsen said SPI hopes to provide materials to additional students and schools depending on financing, among other factors.

“It would be great if we could expand it further into the community,” said Padilla-Coley. “If we’re able to get more grants, it’s feasible.”

If you would like to support this effort, contact Assistant Professor Ocobock at cocobock@nd.edu.

Originally published by Erin Blasko and Colleen Sharkey at news.nd.edu on December 18, 2020.

Anthropology major Katherine Franz '21 Summer Internship Experience

2020-11-13T10:00:00-05:00

Katherine Franz, Summer 2020 Internship at Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO.

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New Book by Professor Susan D. Blum, "UNgrading" Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead)

2020-11-02T10:00:00-05:00

"UNgrading" Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead

…

New article by Kristina Hook and Drew Marcantonio in Small Wars Journal

2020-10-26T11:00:00-04:00

News article by Anthropology and Peace Studies graduate Kristina Hook and PhD student Richard Marcantonio in Small Wars Journal: https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/environment-warfare-related-policy-making-case-ukraine…

New article by Sean Field and Drew Marcantonio in Environmental Science and Policy:

2020-10-16T13:50:00-04:00

Read More New article by Anthropology PhD students Sean Field and Drew Marcantonio in Environmental Science and Policy…

New study first to define link between testosterone and fathers’ social roles outside the family

2020-10-05T12:00:00-04:00

Most of the research on the biology of fatherhood has focused on fathers in the U.S., Europe and some Asian countries. In these settings, levels of some hormones, such as lower testosterone and higher oxytocin, have been linked to more nurturing fathering. Yet, a University of Notre Dame research team wants to take a wider view. The role of fathers can vary greatly across cultures, and the researchers aimed to test whether the biology of fatherhood did, too.

BaYaka father (who gave photo consent) and child in the Congo Basin

To get a more complete picture of hormones and fatherhood that includes different cultures, social support systems and social hierarchies, Lee Gettler, associate professor of anthropology at Notre Dame, led a team that worked with the BaYaka and Bondongo societies in the Republic of the Congo. The team’s paper was published this week in Nature magazine’s Scientific Reports. It is the first study to link fathers’ testosterone levels to broader social roles within their communities and revealed that BaYaka dads who were seen as more generous resource sharers had lower testosterone than less generous men.

Part of what motivated Gettler and his team to explore the role of fathers among the BaYaka and Bondongo is their very different models of family life and roles for fathers. In the U.S. and elsewhere, the pandemic has forced parents to forge new strategies to help their children meet their school demands while trying to negotiate their own work schedules. Many families have formed educational “pods” in which children from multiple families are schooled together, either by one of the parents or a teacher who is hired by the group. Fathers working from home have found new ways of integrating their roles in work and home life. Gettler and his team explore how men’s hormones are linked to such social flexibility in response to the many challenges human parents have faced throughout human evolution and still do all over the world today.

In the Congo Basin, Gettler’s team works with two neighboring groups with different ideas about fathers’ roles. “The BaYaka people are very egalitarian and hyper-cooperative within their communities, and fathers are valued for generously sharing resources across the group. Among the Bondongo people, who rely on fishing and farming for sustenance, society is patriarchal and status driven, and fathers are valued as providers,” said Gettler.

Anthropologists agree that the rise of paternal care and increased levels of cooperation were important to human evolutionary success by way of helping improve child well-being and survival, but links between fathers’ testosterone levels and cooperative, prosocial behaviors are still lacking in the field. To pursue these links, Gettler’s collaborators — including Sheina Lew-Levy, Simon Fraser University, Canada and Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Mallika Sarma, Johns Hopkins University; Valchy Miegakanda, Institut National de Santé Publique, Republic of the Congo; and Adam Boyette, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany – took saliva samples from both the BaYaka and Bondongo fathers to determine testosterone levels. They also asked the men to rank the best fathers in each group based on their community’s valued roles for men.

“BaYaka fathers are not playmates with their children like men are in the U.S. and other large-scale, industrialized societies. They spend more time in hands-on care, holding their babies, taking their older children with them to work in the forest, co-sleeping all together as a family at night. But fathers are also part of larger, cooperative community,” said Boyette, a senior author on the new paper.

The role of fathers in Bondongo communities differs from BaYaka fathers in that the former are most valued for being providers of resources for their households. Bondongo men often undertake significant risk to hunt, fish and clear plots for farming. Although they are generally committed fathers, Bondongo fathers often do not engage in much nurturing care of their children, which is primarily a women’s role in their society. In contrast to the BaYaka results, Bondongo fathers who were rated as better providers had higher testosterone levels.

The researchers also looked at levels of testosterone in relation to marital conflict. They found that men in both societies with higher testosterone levels were ranked (by other men) as having greater conflict with their wives. This is consistent with studies of men in the U.S. and the Philippines.

The data in the BaYaka/Bondongo study are correlational, meaning the researchers do not know if good sharers’ generous behavior leads to low levels of testosterone, or that low levels of testosterone lead to increased sharing. In previous research, Gettler and other anthropologists have demonstrated that testosterone levels drop significantly when men become fathers. A recent study from Gettler’s lab, completed in conjunction with a South Bend hospital, showed that if a dad’s testosterone level was lower on the second day of his infant’s life, he would ultimately be more involved in the baby’s care months later.

“We’ve learned a great deal about fathers and testosterone in places like the U.S., and we’ve come to understand that it’s related to the amount of child care they do and how they support their partners,” Gettler said. “This could be applied to broader community. During this time when so many of us are struggling, this could make us think about how fathers’ bodies are functioning in ways that not only connect us to our own families but also how we can help others survive and thrive.”

Contact: Colleen Sharkey, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-9958, csharke2@nd.edu

Originally published by Colleen Sharkey at news.nd.edu on September 23, 2020.

Symone Johnson wins Wenner Gren to support her doctoral research!

2020-08-28T08:00:00-04:00

Congratulations goes to Symone Johnson for receiving a Wenner Gren in support of her doctoral research project, “Making the Marvelous: On Care and Black Belonging in Brooklyn, New York.” This is well deserved and such good news!…

PhD student Alex Niclou wins Wenner Gren for her dissertation project.

2020-08-27T17:00:00-04:00

Congratulations to Alex Niclou for winning a Wenner Gren for her dissertation project: Cold adaptation in a tropical sample? Measuring the metabolic cost of BAT thermogenesis and its association with blood glucose in Samoa.…

Department of Anthropology at Notre Dame's Statement of Solidarity

2020-06-08T14:00:00-04:00

The students, faculty, and staff of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame stand in solidarity with the local, national, and global movements against systemic racism and state and police violence against Black communities in the United States. As anthropologists, it is our responsibility to actively dismantle false ideas about race within and outside of academia, and to remove systemic barriers that exclude Black people in our field and dehumanize them in our work.

We are angered by and condemn the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Logan, and countless others as a result of systemic oppression of Black Americans, and we mourn for them. All members of our department, in particular non-Black members, must reflect upon the ways in which we contribute to oppression and benefit from and reinforce white supremacy.

We affirm that All Black Lives Matter and that the fight for transformative and restorative justice and equity is of utmost importance. We support our fellow Black students, alumni, faculty, and staff and recognize that the daily burden of navigating racism is even more unbearable than ever. We stand with you in allyship.

It’s important to note that beyond words, we are also committed to centering the voices and experiences of the most marginalized among us in our department, in the field of anthropology, and beyond. We dedicate ourselves to learning from, listening to, and uplifting Black communities. We must also be kind to ourselves – engage in acts of healing, participate in forms of communal care and mutual aid, and do what is necessary for our personal health and wellness.

For those hoping to learn more about the fight against injustice, you will find a reading list below with resources.

University of Notre Dame’s Black Student Association Statement
‘Collaboration among Black Clubs at Notre Dame: Hear our Voices’

Association of Black Anthropologists Statement
‘ABA statement against police police violence and anti-Black racism.’

American Association of Physical Anthropologists Statement
‘An Open Letter to Our Community in Response to Police Brutality Against African-Americans and a Call to Antiracist Action’

Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus
‘How can we help students understand George Floyd’s death in the context of institutionalized racism?’

Critical Race & Digital Studies Syllabus
"[The Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies] designed this syllabus to provide a broader context for understanding current conversations around technology and democracy by centering the voices and scholarship of people of color. The set of readings included here focus primarily on racial formations in a U.S. context and provide a curated introduction to the myriad ways that race has shaped aspects of our digital world—from the infrastructures and policies that support technological development, to algorithms and the collection of data, to the interfaces that shape engagement."

Black Lives Matter Syllabus
Syllabus designed by Professor Frank Leon Roberts (NYU) in response to the Black Lives Matter network and social movement centered on the institutional and systemic assault on Black and Brown bodies in the form of police brutality. "The BLM syllabus provides a historical context for Black social movements, as well as an emphasis on the relationship to BLM and mass incarceration, the politics of disposability, Black feminism, and more."

Racial Justice Syllabus
‘Our syllabi series highlights articles, books, and journal issues that encourage discussion of today’s most pressing issues. Selections in this syllabus explore racial justice. Topics include racial protests, justice movements, racial power, and racial justice history.’

Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind.
‘In three decades of advocating for prison abolition, the activist and scholar has helped transform how people think about criminal justice.’

Prison Culture
‘Prison Culture is an attempt to document how the current prison industrial complex operates and to underscore the ways that it structures American society.’

Learning Together (while staying apart): Online Event Schedule
‘Haymarket Books is determined to offer a political response to the crisis, believing that our mission to support struggles for social and economic justice is more vital than ever. In collaboration with our authors and a range of partners, we are organizing an ongoing series of events to allow us to respond both to the coronavirus crisis itself, and to maintain our collective political, cultural, and social life in a manner that fosters struggle, solidarity, and debate.’

Cite Black Women
‘In November 2017, I started the Cite Black Women campaign—a movement that engages with social media and aesthetic representation (t-shirts) in order to push people to critically rethink the politics of knowledge production by engaging in a radical praxis of citation that acknowledges and honors Black women’s transnational intellectual production.’

the undercommons
fugitive planning & black study
‘In this series of essays Fred Moten and Stefano Harney draw on the theory and practice of the black radical tradition as it supports, inspires, and extends contemporary social and political thought and aesthetic critique.’

Black Study, Black Struggle
‘What I offer here are a few observations and speculations about the movement, its self-conception, and its demands, many of which focus on making the university more hospitable for black students.’

Books to read about anti-racism
‘Several Antiracist Books Are Selling Out. Here's What Else Black Booksellers and Publishers Say You Should Read’

The Case for Reparations
‘Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.’

At a Chicago museum and a South Bend kindergarten, anthropology and Spanish major discovers a future in research and education

2020-05-26T09:00:00-04:00

Claire Stanecki spent the summer before her senior year interning at the Field Museum in Chicago, working with artifacts from the Hopewell Collection — obsidian blades, flasks, and spears used by Native Americans in Ohio.

Firing a portable X-ray fluorescence scanner at 2,000-year-old artifacts last summer, Claire Stanecki discovered the value of hands-on education.

A 2020 graduate who majored in anthropology and Spanish, Stanecki’s Arts and Letters education has been defined by exploring nontraditional forms of learning — from conducting research at a museum to studying the benefits of bilingual education in a local school.

“The ability to learn about something and actually go interact with it is so incredibly mind-blowing,” she said.

“I would like to work with people and produce concrete results. Arts and Letters has really taught me how to foster creativity in professional and academic outlets.”

An iceberg of education

With a grant from the Department of Anthropology, Stanecki spent last summer working at the Field Museum in Chicago, working with artifacts from the Hopewell Collection — obsidian blades, flasks, and spears used by Native Americans in Ohio more than two millennia ago.

Stanecki at Maccu Piccu during her International Summer Service Learning Program experience in Peru.

Scan after scan, she studied the chemical composition of the objects produced by the pXRF, logging measurements that would be systematized for the museum’s collection and aid Notre Dame assistant professor Mark Golitko’s research on their origins.

To explore the movement of resources across communities, Stanecki compared the samples with raw obsidian from New Mexico, Yellowstone, and California.

“The opportunity to work with these artifacts and get a glimpse at the inner workings of a world-class museum was absolutely invaluable to me,” she said.

When she wasn’t in the lab, the research intern browsed archives of the objects dating back to the early 1900s, toured the 40 million artifacts kept in the museum’s underground complex, and became increasingly fascinated by the ecosystem and culture of the museum itself.

“The museum is kind of an iceberg — 90 percent of its operations are under the surface and not seen by the public,” she said.

Concrete results

Stanecki with her completed senior thesis on how speaking multiple languages increases learning and brain development in young children.

Back in South Bend, Stanecki spent much of her junior and senior year digging into other alternative forms of learning.

In fall 2018, as part of a course on Mexican immigration, she conducted a case study of a two-way immersion classroom at Holy Cross School in South Bend. Launched in 2017 in collaboration with the Institute for Latino Studies and the Alliance for Catholic Education, the program places native Spanish-speaking and English-speaking kindergarteners in the same classroom, where the primary language of instruction is Spanish.

After completing her research brief on the subject, she was even more determined to explore and advocate for the benefits of such a system. Working with Karen Richman, the ILS director of undergraduate studies, she developed a senior thesis project that aims to show that speaking multiple languages increases learning and brain development in young children.

She returned to the Holy Cross program, where she analyzed data from parent surveys, interviewed program directors and faculty, and researched bilingual education through the lens of linguistic anthropology.

Her passion for the impact and importance of language was solidified during a semester studying abroad in Toledo, Spain, and while teaching English to students in Peru as part of the Center for Social Concerns’ International Summer Service Learning Program.

“Ultimately, I hope to show how language affects how we move through the world,” she said.

As her time at Notre Dame concludes, Stanecki hopes to work professionally in an area related to anthropology or education, ideally in a museum or art gallery setting.

“I would like to work with people and produce concrete results,” she said. “Arts and Letters has really taught me how to foster creativity in professional and academic outlets.”

Originally published by Ashley Lo at al.nd.edu on May 20, 2020.

My non-traditional senior thesis: a podcast series on Mayor Pete

2020-05-12T12:00:00-04:00

When I was brainstorming ideas for my senior thesis, I knew I wanted to incorporate my studies in both anthropology and journalism, but I didn’t know how.

It was August, just a few weeks before heading back to campus for the school year. I was at a restaurant with friends, and someone mentioned the presidential race. At that point, there were more than 20 candidates, one of them being South Bend’s own Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

In a matter of months, Mayor Pete had quickly become one of the first things people mentioned when they heard I was a Notre Dame student. This dinner was no different — when talk turned to Mayor Pete, the guests turned to me.

At that moment, I realized I had the perfect subject for a thesis. Researching Mayor Pete from South Bend, I’d have access to the people who knew him best, personally and professionally. I’d get to see the city he grew up in, the places he frequented, the legacy he forged. The project was newsworthy, and Mayor Pete’s presidential run was historic. What better topic to choose?

As I continued to develop the idea, I decided not to do a traditional, written thesis. Instead, I wanted to make a podcast series, taking the opportunity of this huge project ahead of me to also learn a new way to present my findings.

The research took off quickly when I got back to campus. I began reaching out to people who knew Mayor Pete, and at the end of every interview, I’d ask: “Who else should I talk to?” My list of interviews grew exponentially, and I became very familiar with Mayor Pete’s reputation in South Bend and around the country.

I ordered a small microphone that could attach to my phone and I reserved the Library sound studios religiously. Adobe Audition Tutorials dominated my free time, as I learned how to produce professional-sounding podcasts. A class I took this semester, Applied Multimedia Technology, helped a lot, too.

Using ethnographical techniques from both anthropology and journalism, I completed around 50 hours of interviews and transcribed hundreds of pages of notes by the end of January. My focus turned to the podcast, starting with his childhood in South Bend and finishing with his concession speech at the Century Center in March. In the end, I made a five-episode series called “Spotlight on South Bend.”

Give it a listen and learn more about the former South Bend mayor — the city he came from, his presidential run, and where he could be heading next.