Events in the Department of Anthropology 1998-99

 Current Events


Fall 1998

Friday, October 9, 1:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

The Department of Anthropology Speakers Series presents George Mentore, speaking on "Society, Body and Style: An Archery Contest in an Amerindian Society."

Wednesday, October 14, 3:30pm
225 Minor Hall (Women's Studies Conference Room)

Richard and Sally Price, the Duane A. and Virginia S. Dittman Professors of American Studies, Anthropology, and History at the College of William and Mary, will discuss their recent work. Richard Price will read from his recent book, The Convict and the Colonel (Beacon Press, 1998). His talk is entitled "Colonialism, Resistance, and Madness in the Caribbean." Refreshments will be served. Cosponsored by the Carter G. Woodson Institute's Race Seminar and the Department of Anthropology.

Friday, October 23, 1:00pm-4:00pm
106 Peabody Hall

DOING MULTI-SITED RESEARCH IN A TRANSNATIONAL WORLD

This symposium is part of UVA's Ford Foundation "Crossing Borders" initiative to investigate the changing cultural configurations of the global political economy.

Invited speakers are:

Diana N'Diaye (Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies, Smithsonian Institution)
Diana's talk, "Dancing Across Cultures: Shifting Meanings of the Sabar in Senegal and the United States" will be accompanied by video footage of this Senegalese social dance both as it is performed by native Senegalese in Dakar and as it is reinterpreted by Senegalese immigrants in the United States.

JoAnn D'Alisera (Department of Sociology and Anthropology/African Studies Program, Creighton University)
JoAnn's work focuses on Sierra Leonean immigrants in Washington, D.C. Her talk, "Multiple Sites/Virtual Sightings: Ethnography in Transnational Contexts" will deal primarily with the issue of doing ethnographic fieldwork within a transnational world.

Refreshments will be served.

Readings will be placed in the Brooks Hall 3rd floor lounge. For more information, please contact Pamela Lim (pal4t@virginia.edu) or Makale Faber (mdf3a@virginia.edu).

Saturday, October 24, 10:30am -12:30pm
Brooks Hall Library

Bagel Brunch with JoAnn D'Alisera, who is expected to apply for the new Africa/African Diaspora faculty position jointly funded by the Anthropology Department and the Carter Woodson Center. In expectation of her candidacy, the bagel brunch is an opportunity for anthropology department graduate students to informally meet JoAnn and directly discuss the interests & concerns of graduate students. JoAnn has done/does work in West Africa (mostly in Sierra Leone) and in Washington, D.C. with West African immigrants

Wednesday, October 28, 4:00-6:00pm
Newcomb 389

CENTER ON CRITICAL HUMAN SURVIVAL ISSUES ROUNDTABLE:
Memory and the Topography of Terror: Debating a National Holocaust Memorial for Germany.

The object of this discussion are the recent and current debates in Germany concerning the commemoration of the Holocaust. The roundtable will focus on a variety of discursive formations and reflections upon the act of commemoration, its embodiments and its relation to violence. The panel will be led by Volker Kaiser, professor in the German Department and will include faculty and gradute student participants from the German, History and Anthropology Departments.

Friday, November 6, 2:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

The Department of Anthropology Speaker Series presents Ajay Skaria of the UVA History Department who will speak on "The Primitivism of Development."

Tuesday, November 10, 3:00pm
Commonwealth Room, Newcomb Hall

The East Asia Center presents Hill Gates of Stanford University who will speak on "Changing Clothes: Gender Implication of Cotton Use in Late Imperial China." Reception to follow. Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthroplogy and the Women's Studies Program.

Wednesday, November 11, 3:00pm
Conference Room 168A, Newcomb Hall

The East Asia Center presents Arthur Wolf of the Department of Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University, who will speak on "China and Europe: Two Kinds of Patriarchy."Reception to follow. Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthroplogy and the Women's Studies Program.

Wednesday, November 11, 4:00-6:00pm
Newcomb 389

CENTER ON CRITICAL HUMAN SURVIVAL ISSUES ROUNDTABLE:
Explaining Tuskegee: Eugenics, Public Health and the University of Virginia.

This panel will be led by Professor Paul Lombardo from the Institute of Law and Psychiatry and Gregory Dorr, PhD candidate in the History Department. Professor Gertrude Fraser from the Anthropology Department will serve as a discussant.

Friday, November 20, 3:30pm
Cabell Hall room 426

East Asia Watch presents Alex King, who will speak on "Soul Suckers: Death, Vampires, and Energy among the Koryak of Kamchatka, Russia." Alex will discuss "death and beliefs connected with the after-life, spiritual forces in this world, and shamans who use their power to hurt others. I include some slides of cremations in my discussion."

Wednesday, December 9, 10:00am
Brooks Hall Library

Juliet P. Lee will defend her dissertation, "Out of Order: the Politics of Modernity in Indonesia." Committee members are Richard Handler, chair; Susan McKinnon; George Mentore; and J. Echeverrigent.

Thursday, December 10, 12:15-1:30pm
Brooks Hall Library

Juliet Lee would like to report on what she learned at workshops sponsored by NAPA (National Association of Practicing Anthropologists) on conducting program evaluations. Juliet attended these workshops at the AAA meetings last year and this year. "Program evaluation" refers to brief, targeted ethnographic studies (contracted by government or nonprofit agencies) of social service programs. Conducting such evaluations is an employment opportunity for anthropology students and post-docs. Juliet will also talk about resources for job-seeking outside of anthropology, notably NAPA and SfAA (Society for Applied Anthropology). Bring your lunch if that's convenient.

Friday, December 11, 1:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

Lynn Koplin will defend her dissertation proposal, "The Archaeology of Swahili Social and Spatial Organization of the Kenyan Coast: Impermanent Architecture and Behavioral Boundaries at Gede."

Tuesday, December 15, 1:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

Scott Buresh will defend his dissertation, "Pesantren-based Development: an Examination of How Three Pesantren and Their Leaders Have Envisioned and Engaged Educational and Economic Development." Committee members are Susan McKinnon, chair; Frederick Damon; Peter Metcalf; and Abdulaziz Sachedina (Religious Studies).

Wednesday, December 16, 12:30pm
Brooks Hall Library

Jeffrey Fleisher will defend his dissertation proposal, "Viewing Stonetowns from the Countryside: an Archaelogical Approach to Swahili Urban Systems."

Friday, December 18, 10:00am
Brooks Hall Library

Rebecca Nash will defend her dissertation proposal, "Transformations of 'the Family' in the Post-Socialist Czech Republic."

Friday, December 18, 2:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

Elizabeth Vann will defend her dissertation proposal, "Made in Vietnam: Vietnamese Responses to Western Capitalisms."

Spring 1999

January 15, 1999, 10:00am
Brooks Hall Library

Stephen M. Thompson will defend his dissertation, entitled, "A Central Sicilian Landscape: Settlement and Society in the Territory of Ancient Morgantina (5000 BC - AD 50)". Committee members are: Steven Plog, chair, Malcolm Bell, Patricia Wattenmaker, Jeffrey Hantman, and Fred Damon.

Friday, January 29, 1:00pm-4:00pm
South Meeting Room, Newcomb Hall

Carolyn Rouse (University of Southern California) will speak on the subject of "Ethnography of a Resuscitate Order: the Place of Race in a Negotiation Over Dying." The talk will be followed by refreshments.

Friday, February 5, 1:00pm-4:00pm
Peabody 106

Greg Downey (Columbia University) will speak on "Hearing a Sinister Past: Music, Violence, and the Senses in Capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian Art)." The talk will be followed by refreshments.

Thursday, February 11, 12:15pm
Brooks Hall Library

The Pro Seminar/Speakers Series presents Professor Pam Frese (Anthropology, College of Wooster) who will speak on "Guardians of the Golden Age: Oral histories of retired military wives."

Friday, February 12, 1:00pm-4:00pm
Cabell 311

Donna Flynn (International Center for Research on Women) will be speaking on "Siting Difference in a Borderland: Cultural Meaning and Political Economy in the Shabe Region of the Republic of Benin and Nigeria."

Friday, February 19, 1:00pm-4:00pm
South Meeting Room, Newcomb Hall

Kesha Fikes (UCLA) will be speaking on "The Racial Politics of Time and Space Among Transnational Badiu, Cape Verdeans."

Friday, February 26, 1:00pm-4:00pm
South Meeting Room, Newcomb Hall

Donald Carter (Johns Hopkins) will be speaking on "Navigating Diaspora". Refreshments to follow.

Friday, February 26, 3:00pm
225 Minor Hall

Lauren Leve, Department of Anthroplogy, Princeton University will speak on "Subjects, Selves and the Politics of Personhood in Theravada Buddhism in Nepal."

Wednesday, March 3, 4:00-6:00pm
Newcomb Hall 389

The Center on Critical Human Survival Issues (CCHSI) presents a roundtable discussion entitled: "Murder, Mutilation and the Racial Body in the U.S. Imagination(s). Participants are Professor George Mentore, Professor Ravindra Khare and Chris Colvin, all of the Department of Anthropology.

Wednesday, March 24, 4:00-6:00pm
Newcomb 389

the Center on Critical Human Survival Issues (CCHSI) is presenting a roundtable on the subject of "DIVERSITY IS LIKE CHOLESTEROL: SOME IS GOOD (ETHNIC), SOME IS BAD (MORAL)" with participants Professor Jon Haidt, Department of Psychology, Martin Davidson, Darden Business School, Holly Hom, Department of Psychology

Friday, March 26, 1:00pm
Cabell 311

The Program in Linguistics and the Department of Anthropology are pleased to announce the following lecture: "Can an ape understand a sentence?" by Talbot Taylor, L.G.T. Colley Professor of English and Linguistics, College of William and Mary.

Professor Taylor's most recent book is Apes, Language, and the Human Mind, co-authored with Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (noted for her work with bonobos or "pygmy chimpanzees") and Stuart Shanker (Oxford University Press 1998), discussing the philosophical implications of the ape-language experiments for theories of language, communication and cognition. The talk will include video clips of Kanzi, the bonobo who learned to communicate with a specialized keyboard and respond to (=understand?) spoken English.

Thursday, April 1, 9:00am
Brooks Hall Library

Martin Gallivan will defend his dissertation, entitled "The Late Prehistoric James River Village: Household, Community, and Regional Dynamics". Committee Members are: Jeffrey Hantman; Chair, Stephen Plog, Patricia Wattenmaker, Fred Damon, Fraser Neiman; School of Architecture.

Thursday, April 1, 4:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

Jillian Galle will defend her dissertation proposal, entitled "The Archetecture of Slavery: Subfloor Pits as Expressions of Household Change". Committee members are James Deetz, chair; Adria LaViolette, Larry McKee, and Charles Perdue.

Thursday, April 1, 4:00pm
Dome Room, Rotunda

George Lamming, the Caribbean novelist and public intellectual, will be visiting the University of Virginia on April 1 and 2 1999. He will speak at 4PM on Thursday April 1 in the Dome Room of the Rotunda, and at 5.30 there will be a reception and book signing in the Main Lounge of Newcomb Hall (3rd floor).

Tuesday, April 6, 5:00pm
Clark Hall 147

The Department of Environmental Sciences, in conjunction with Brown College and the Committee on the History of Technology and the Environment, presents this year's Moore Lecture: "Why Did Human History Unfold Differently on Different Continents for the Last 13,000 Years?" by Jared Diamond (UCLA).

Jared Diamond is a Professor of Physiology at the UCLA Medical School and a Research Associate at both the American Museum of Natural History and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. A physiologist whose research has focused on membrane biophysics, Diamond has also made important scholarly contributions to such wide-ranging fields as evolutionary ecology, conservation biology, physical chemistry, ornithology, anthropology, and history. Jared Diamond is also a prolific and popular science writer; he serves as a contributing editor to Discover magazine, he is a regular contributor to Natural History, and he is the author of a number of popular books on evolutionary science, including The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. Diamond won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for his book: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, a sweeping and bold reinterpretation of 13,000 years of human history. Diamond has received numerous other awards for his popular and scholarly work, including a coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. The Moore Lecture is part of the Department of Environmental Science's on-going efforts to promote and develop environmental literacy.

Thursday, April 8, 3:00pm
Wilson Hall Auditorium

The Departments of Anthropology, Biology and Environmental Science and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia are pleased to present a lecture by TIM FLANNERY, Mammalogist, Australian Museum, Sydney, and author of THE FUTURE EATERS. Mr. Flannery will be speaking on his research in Papua New Guinea, the subject of his latest book THROWIM WAY LEG.

The Department of Anthropology presents the Second Years' PnP's (Papers and Presentations). All talks will begin at 12:10, followed by questions from the audience.

Monday, March 29: Anita McLees
Wednesday, March 31: Julie Sugarman
Friday, April 2: Phil Trella
Monday, April 5: Eli Windchy
Friday, April 9: Lisa Lauria
Monday, April 12: Makale Faber
Friday, April 16: Jen Aultman
Monday, April 19: Chris Fennell

Friday, April 16, 1999
147 Clark Hall

The Center for South Asian Studies presents Akos Oster (Anthropology, Wesleyan University) who will speak on Anthropological Research into Ethnographic Film. The Film "Seed and Earth" will also be shown.

Friday and Saturday, April 23 and 24
University of Virginia

The Center on Critical Human Survival Issues (CCHSI) is pleased to announce a two-day symposium entitled: "Alternative Forms of Memorialization: Memory and the Art of Recovery."

Keynote Lecture By Michael Lambek (Anthropology - University of Toronto): "Memory in a Maussian Universe" at 7:30 p.m., Newcomb Commonwealth Room

Please see the CCHSI web page for more information

Friday, April 30, 1:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

The Department of Anthropology Pro Seminar/Speakers Series presents David Scott, Department of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University, who will speak on "The Promise of Pluralism"

May 3, 1:00pm
Brooks Hall Library

The Department of Anthropology announces a dissertation proposal defense by Liam Buckley, entitled "COLONIAL PHOTOGRAPHS IN A POSTCOLONIAL ARCHIVE: CONTESTING COLONIAL CULTURE IN THE GAMBIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES". Committee members are George Mentore, Chair, David Sapir, Adria LaViolette.

Friday, May 7, 1:00pm
Place TBA

Matti Bunzl, Aaron and Robin Fischer Professor of Jewish Culture and Society and Assistant Prof essor, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present a talk entitled, "The Prague Experience: Gay Male Sex, Tourism, and the Neo-Colonial Invention of an Embodied Border." The talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and Studies in Women and Gender.

Monday, May 10, time TBA
Brooks Hall Library

Heather Lapham will defend her dissertation proposal, entitled "Negotiating Status on the Virginia Frontier: Evaluating Early 17th Century Siouan Deerskin Production and Prestige Goods Use." Committee members are: Jeffrey Hantman, Chair, Patricia Wattenmaker, John R. Shepherd, Bruce Smith

Friday, May 14, 10:00am
Brooks Hall Library

The Department of Anthropology announces a dissertation proposal defense by Joseph Lipten, entitled "MERIT, MORALITY, AND MONEY AT THE TAIPEI PALACE OF THE SAINTLY EMPEROR"

Monday, June 14, 1999, 11:00am
Brooks Hall Library

Molly L. Turner will defend her dissertation, "The Limits of Enchantment: Landscape and Social Conflict in New Mexico." Dissertation committee: Richard Handler, Chair, Charles Perdue, George Mentore, Susan McKinnon.

Thursday, June 17, 1999, 11:00am
Brooks Hall Library

Naomi Tannenbaum will defend her dissertation proposal, "Cosmologies in Conflict: Social Enviroments in New Mexico." Dissertation committee: Peter Metcalf, Chair, Fred Damon, Roy Wagner.

Friday, June 18, 1999, 2:30pm
Folklore Archive

Holly Lord will defend her Masters Thesis, "Race, Social Place, and Urban Spaces: Class and Community in a Segregated Neighborhood." Committee: Gertrude Fraser, Chair, Charles Perdue


Return to Anthropology's Home Page Return to Current Events