Winter 2024
MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR
Dear Friends,
We have been busy in the department over the last three months. In anticipation of the Clark Building remodel, the entire department has moved and is now mostly relocated to the 2nd and 3rd floors of the General Services Building. Dr. LaBelle’s Center of Mountain and Plains Archaeology is located in a suite of offices on the 1st floor of the Lake Street Parking Garage and Dr. Henry’s CRAG Lab has moved to the NESB building on the third floor. Most of our Archaeological Repository is now in Morgan Library, and students are still actively working with the material doing projects. Whew! What a lot of work. Big thanks to our staff, Valeria Meza Alba and Josh Zaffos, as well as other faculty who pitched in during this stressful time. Overall, we are in a good place as we wait on the exciting new build.
In other news, Dr. Michael Pante was appointed as the new Chair of the department and will take over the role on July 1. While I will save my goodbyes for our last newsletter of the academic year, I am working with Michael to make the transition as smooth as possible and I have every confidence in his ability to continue our trajectory of success. Our newsletter summarizes exciting faculty and student research and engagement. We also hosted well attended student events and a number of interesting colloquia speakers. A highlight for me was Dr. Briana Pobiner’s visit in late September. Dr. Pobiner is from the Smithsonian and gave a talk on public science and best practices associated with the teaching of evolution. She also led a workshop for our graduate students on how to speak to the public about their research.
Best wishes,
Mica Glantz
DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTS
CHECK OUT THE ANTHROPOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY TRUNK SHOW
FAMILY DAY AT THE ALLICAR MUSEUM OF ART
Saturday, March 3, 10am-Noon! 1400 Remington Avenue, Fort Collins
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! FREE PARKING
Crafts! Activities! Skulls and Skeleton Casts! Stone Tools! Fossils! And more for families and children to dig into!
Hope to see you there at this FREE event! REGISTER (not required)
More flamingo, anyone? How to dine like the ancient Romans
“As a teacher, I’m always trying to bring the ancient world into the classroom in a way that’s not just talking about what separates us from them,” says CSU Anthropology Instructor Emily Wilson who teaches Archaeology of Ancient Roman Food (ANTH 356). "The truth is they were exactly like us. They had the same hopes and concerns. My primary goal is to make this world real to my students."
Wilson's class uses food to examine Roman culture, class, and technologies and includes an assignment where students must choose an ancient Roman dish to prepare as closely to the original item as possible.
READ more in CSU SOURCE
Yarrington Joins CSU Anthropology and Geography Faculty
Welcome Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Jonna Yarrington! As she settles in at CSU, she is also completing a book on her research on Tangier Island, Virginia, and sparking students’ interests in anthropological research methods and cultural and economic anthropology.
READ a Q&A with Yarrington about her research and what she enjoys about teaching anthropology
READ Yarrington's essay about her research into racially-exclusionary urban development, "Gentrification as Coastal Planning in the Mermaid City," Society of Cultural Anthropology Fieldsights, January 2024
Fisher Shares Views on Exploration and Discovery
Professor Chris Fisher is among 36 world-renowned explorers and scientists who share firsthand accounts of discovery and views on what is left to explore, and why we should care in The Future of Exploration, a new book from National Geographic. Fisher writes on his use of airborne lidar technology to map an ancient city, undisturbed for centuries, in Honduras, and lidar's conservation potential.
READ MORE about The Future of Exploration (Simon & Schuster)
HEAR Fisher offer insight on the discovery of expansive, farm-based citylike settlements in the Ecuadorian Amazon, via A Little More Conversation podcast, Global News (Canada) [Episode: "Brewing up a storm...;" Segment begins 32:15] || READ MORE via Science News
Browne Delivers Fall 2023 Liberal Arts Commencement Keynote Address
Anthropology Professor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor Kate Browne returned to the Colorado State University campus this past December to give the Fall 2023 Keynote Address at the College of Liberal Arts Commencement. During her speech, Browne emphasized the value of a liberal-arts education and challenged graduates to take risks in the world and to use their knowledge and skillsets to make positive change in the world.
WATCH and LISTEN to Browne's complete speech via Youtube
ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS! Our 2024 Archaeology Field School and 2024 Paleontology Field School are now accepting applications. All department Scholarships are now open too with rolling deadlines through spring.
March 2 Anthropology and Geography Trunk Show at the Allicar Museum of Art Family Day, 1400 Remington Street. Free and open to the public. REGISTER (not required)
March 7-10 Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists Annual Meeting, Sterling, Colorado
March 11-15 Spring Break
April 2-3 CSU International Symposium, Lory Student Center. Free and open to the public.
April 3-7 ACT Human Rights Film Festival
April 18 Celebrate Undergraduate Research & Creativity (CURC) Showcase
May 1 Anthropology and Geography Capstone Poster Symposium, Lory Student Center. Open to student presenters and faculty and staff. [If you are an alumni who would like to attend, please email Josh Zaffos.]
May 10-11 Spring 2024 Commencement
May 13 Summer 2024 classes begin
For more details and new events, visit our homepage
ALUMNI STORIES
Anthropology BA, Archaeology concentration 2014 As someone working in the field of public anthropology, Jessica Ericson frequently attends archaeology and anthropology conferences and finds herself serving as an ambassador for CSU Anthropology and Geography. “I always brag about CSU because [department alumni] have such a presence at a lot of the archaeology conferences.” Jessica doesn’t […]
Anthropology BA, Biological Anthropology concentration 2015 As a self-proclaimed “overconfident 20-year-old undergraduate with no real direction,” Luke Weaver recalls signing up for the very first CSU Paleontology Field School in 2013, led by Associate Teaching Professor Kim Nichols and Dr. Tom Bown, “intrigued by the idea of camping in the badlands of Wyoming and playing […]
Anthropology BA, Cultural Anthropology concentration Geography BS, 2021 Among students whose CSU experiences were interrupted by COVID, Zoe Schutte also found a calling amid the pandemic. A dual major in both Anthropology and Geography, Schutte developed an interest in public health planning and urban development rooted around her experiences with the 2019 CSU Ethnographic Field […]
Alumni: We Want to Hear from You!
Anthropology and Geography Alumni! We want to hear what you are working on and doing! Submit a class note and let us know what you’ve been up to so we can share through our alumni newsletters and website. We might just say thanks with some swag!
MORE NEWS
Prison Agriculture Research Highlighted
Maps and data compiled and produced by the CSU Prison Agriculture Lab -- co-directed by Assistant Professor Carrie Chennault -- were featured in an Associated Press investigation into popular food brands' use of prison labor. NBC News, KUNC, and other media also reported on their research.
READ MORE VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
LISTEN VIA KUNC
WATCH VIA NBC NEWS
VISIT PRISON AG LAB WEBSITE
Pante: "Guess Who's for Dinner"
Associate Professor Michael Pante presented at the College of Liberal Arts Impacts Speaker Series in September 2023. Pante and collaborators study cut marks on fossilized bones, and have found early archaeological evidence of cannibalism. Pante spoke on how he studies, simulates, and compares cut marks, and tries to discern whether people made them and why: meal or ritual.
WATCH via CLA YouTube
How Archaeologists Define Infrastucture
Anthropology Ph.D. student Grace Ellis and alumna Carly DeSanto (Anthropology MA '21), with colleague Meghan Howey, have co-edited a new book, Infrastructure in Archaeological Discourse: Framing Society in the Past (Routledge). The volume explores how researchers and practitioners define, identify, and study infrastructure at archaeological sites. CSU faculty, including Ellis, Dr. Christopher Fisher, and Dr. Edward Henry, contributed chapters to the volume.
GET ACCESS to the book
Exploring Healthcare in Northern India
Anthropology undergraduate Kaitlyn Coons traveled to study with the Himalayan Health Exchange program in Summer 2023 to learn about and take part in healthcare services for people in northern India. Coons' travels were supported through the Amanda Jones Study Abroad Award. Coons won a Fall 2023 Cultural Anthropology Distinguished Capstone Award, based on her summer research.
Archaeology at 11,000 Feet!
Professor Jason LaBelle and a student crew surveyed high-country ridgelines and lakes in Summer 2023 to better understand how people used high-country areas and resources hundreds and thousands of years ago.
LaBelle also spoke to CSU Magazine about the possible origins of a mysterious stand of piñon pine trees in Owl Canyon in northern Larimer County.
READ via CSU Magazine
Remembering Alanna Vincent
CSU Geography student Alanna Vincent passed away tragically in January 2024. Vincent was a residential assistant and active with the Presidential Leadership Program and Malaysian Student Association. She recently won a Fall 2023 Geography Distinguished Capstone Award and planned to graduate this spring. ANTH/GR will honor Alanna during Spring 2024 graduation activities.
READ a family remembrance via CSU SOURCE
CSU Team Launches Online Tool for African Forests
Professor Kathleen Galvin and CSU colleagues and partners in Kenya have developed an online, interactive "decision support tool that forest managers in Kenya can use to prepare for and adapt to different projected climate change scenarios. The tool will help Kenya land managers meet goals to effectively reforest degraded and cleared landscapes and to offset greenhouse gas emissions.
READ MORE via the CSU College of Liberal Arts Magazine
Remembering David Bartecchi (ANTH B.A. '99, M.A. '03)
Our department remembers Anthropology alum and former instructor David Bartecchi who passed away in September 2023. Bartecchi, a Fort Collins resident, was the executive director of Village Earth and an effective anthropology practitioner and advocate for Native American land rights and community development through participatory programs.
FALL 2023 ROUNDUP!
PEOPLE
- Cheers to the Class of 2023 graduating students! VIEW our Fall 2023 graduation video
- Congratulations to our Fall 2023 Dean's List students!
- Congratulations to Erika Brooks (M.A. '23) for successfully defending her master’s thesis, "Exploring the Use and and Life of Mantle's Cave (5MF1) Through Spatial Analysis.” Brooks' advisor is Dr. Jason LaBelle.
- Congratulations Spencer Little for successfully defending his master’s thesis “Unbelievably Deep: A Chronological Assessment of the Hells Midden Site (5MF16), Castle Park, Colorado.” Little is also advised by Dr. Jason LaBelle.
- Congratulations to Anthropology master's student Lia Kitteringham who won the Second Place Award in the Judith G. Knight Student Paper Competition at the 2023 Southeastern Archaeological Conference annual meeting for their paper, "Birds, Enclosures, and Indigenous Landscapes: Creating the Eastern Precinct of Pinson Mounds.” Kitteringham is advised by Dr. Edward Henry.
- Graduate students Tom Chittenden, Tewabe Kessaw, Rose Parham, Hope Radford, and Kayla Rohde presented research at the 2023 CSU Graduate Student Showcase. Parham and Radford won an International Programs Global Impact Award and Kessaw won a College of Liberal Arts Top Scholar Award!
- Anthropology undergraduate Cameron Kacsh's work in the CSU Libraries Archives & Special Collections was highlighted through the Libraries and CSU SOURCE. Kacsh is working with a collection of materials regarding the Blue River Basin in Colorado that can help inform future water management and use. Kacsh also won a Fall 2023 Archaeology Distinguished Capstone Award. WATCH
- Anthropology undergraduate Nancy Wynstra-Cope handles 19th-century artifacts of life in Fort Collins, and restores broken materials at the Avery House in Old Town Fort Collins through her practicum for the Museum & Cultural Heritage Studies Certificate. Wynstra-Cope's work was featured in a January 2024 Rocky Mountain Collegian article. READ
- Assistant Professor Andrew Du presented "The effects of time-averaging on ecological inference in large mammal fossil assemblages," at the CSU Department of Geosciences Seminar Series, September 2023.
- Assistant Professor Edward Henry has won a Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative Local Heritage Grant from the National Park Service.
- Professor Chris Fisher and co-investigator Dr. Rodrigo Solinis Casparius, University of Illinois, Chicago, and past CSU potsdoc, have won a $307,769 National Science Foundation Senior Archaeology Award to pursue three years of research in Mexico on their project, "Becoming Purepecha: Genesis of an Empire at Angamuco, Michoacan."
EVENTS
- Nearly 100 people and more than 60 students attended our Fall 2023 Student Social on the Monfort Quad in September. Cam the Ram joined us to pose for some photos too!
- Our Fall 2023 Seminar Series featured three speakers from across our disciplines and had excellent turnout among our department and community! Thank you to our distinguished speakers Dr. Briana Pobiner of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Priscilla McCutcheon of University of Kentucky, and Dr. Sarah Hall of Berea College, and all who attended!
- The Anthropology and Geography Trunk Show program coordinated and led events, field trips, visits, and talks at elementary, middle, and high schools in Larimer and Weld counties in Fall 2023. We were especially excited to meet lots of second graders as they learned about paleontology! Through the Trunk Show, ANTH/GR faculty, students, and alumni share materials and exhibits, and lead hands-on activities, talks, and tours to increase awareness and foster interest in anthropology and geography careers and concentrations, including archaeology, paleontology, geography, cultures, and more! LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TRUNK SHOW
TRUNK SHOW BY THE NUMBERS: FALL 2023
