Anthropology & Sociology at Williams
News about students and alumni
Friedrichs, Orton, and Other Prizes, 2006. This year's winners of the Robert Friedrichs Prize in Sociology and the James Ortner Prize in Anthropology are the two Rachels: Rachel Winch and Rachel Segretto, respectively. Rachel Segretto's award was presaged by her bowling performance at a faculty-senior outing at Mt. Greylock Bowl organized in May, which left the humiliated Profs. Just, Brown, and Edwards wondering what had happened to them.
Rachel Winch (above) and Rachel Segretto
Rachel Winch and Elizabeth Doran were both awarded departmental honors for their senior theses. Rachel's is entitled It Will Spoil Our Women": Debates over Nation and Sexuality in Contemporary India. Elizabeth's is Magis: Urban Planning in Boston . . . On the subject of prizes, we are pleased to note that Robin Kim has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship that will take her to Korea this fall.
News of ANSO grads. Abby Rosenthal '02 is continuing with her doctoral training in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her M.A. thesis, "Writing about deafness: Transcription as analysis and politics" was available on the Web as a PDF file for awhile, although it seems to have been taken down just before this issue of ANSO News was uploaded . . . Austin Duncan '02 will be starting the University of Michigan's doctoral program in September, thus joining an illustrious line of Eph-Wolverine hybrids that includes Laura Ahearn '82, Melissa Johnson '84, Cat Bolten '98, and Jessica Robbins '01. Brian Burke '02 continues his doctoral work in Anthropology at the University of Arizona, where he is connected to the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. Alvaro Jarrin has published the essay "The Right to Beauty: Cosmetic Citizenship and Medical Modernity in Brazil" in the online journal of the University of Chicago's Department of Anthropology, Exchange. |
Michael Brown recently heard from Scott Moskowitz '04, who is currently in Beijing teaching English at a Chinese university. Scott reports that he is trying "to learn and get to know more of the old city even as it changes so quickly. Most of my spare time has been eaten up by a project called "Hutong to Highrise." He continues: "We go around to many of the old hutongs, a
sprawling network of self contained neighborhoods mostly created when
the government partitioned the single family courtyard houses of the
old elite and turned them into communities housing blocks of families.
(They are kind of a hot topic in the news recently, as are most things
China, so you are probably familiar) They lie in and around the city center, so of course many are now slated for demolition, and the families to be redistributed to highrise apartments on the outskirts of town. Needless to say the social networks that develop around communities of people living in small rooms clustered around alleys of shops and little restaurants will be lost to vertical living. (I
think the most interesting change is that in the Hutongs everyone shares a single outdoor bathroom complex, a popular meeting spot and hub of daily life, where as in a highrise this ceases to be a communal function.) Anyway, our organisation goes around and gives cameras to interested
hutong residents and asks them to record what they think are important about there neighborhood, and then we develop the images and discuss
them, and interview them about their thoughts on living in the Hutong,
whether or not they would like to move out, and how they think such a
change would affect their lives negatively or positively."
Obituary: Jennifer L. Dolloff, '01, a former major. Some of you will have heard via other channels that Jen Dolloff died suddenly, apparently of yet unknown natural causes, on June 11. At the time of this writing, a short obituary has been published online. The Department extends its condolences to the Dolloff family. |
More random tidbits about alums, mostly Sociology majors. Meg Davis '00 has completed her law degree at the University of Virginia Law School, while Steve Kerr '02 continues his law studies at Yale.
Cathryn Christensen '01 is in her second (or is it third?) year at Harvard Medical School.
Akiko Yamagata '97, who studied aesthetics in food preparation (pastry) in Japan, will be entering graduate school in Anthropology in 2007. Josh Wakeham '02 will begin his second year in Harvard's Sociology doctoral program in September. Brianna O'Brien '05 is working as an assistant at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC. Natalie Bump '04 spent a year at Cambridge University studying anthropology and is now doing fieldwork for a special University of Chicago project on teen gangs. She expects to enter an anthropology doctoral program in 2007. Laurel Blatchford '94, Kennedy School '97, is now Chief of Staff for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
| Yuet "Adam" Chau '93 has joined the staff of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford as a Lecturer. His book, Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in China, was published by Stanford University Press in 2005. You can see the cover and read an excerpt at Amazon.com. |
Road less traveled department. Enough of grad school and professors of anthropology or sociology! For news of an ANSO alum who is exploring an entirely different career path, check out the recent column by Liv Osthus '96 in the New York Times. (If the Times takes the column from its site, you can read an archived copy here.) Liv, now based in Portland, Oregon, has made a living as an exotic dancer (stage name: Viva Las Vegas) and sex columnist in various online publications--to which you'll be able to Google your way without ANSO's help.
News about the activities of ANSO alums--including those of you who pursuing non-academic careers--is always welcome!