Department of Anthropology

  • Alumna Applying Anthropology: Dr. Anna Jefferson

    Dr. Anna Jefferson first became interested in anthropology while she was an undergraduate. She turned to anthropology to give her a holistic framework she could use to more deeply and dynamically understand any issue. In May 2013, Dr. Jefferson graduated from MSU with her doctorate. Her dissertation research focused on the foreclosure crisis in Michigan, […]

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  • Dr. Barbara Johnston: Examining Society and Environment

    Barbara Rose Johnston began her interest in Anthropology with undergraduate courses at San Jose State University she transferred to University of California Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA and honors for her thesis on “Native California Medicinal Ethnobotany.” She continued her studies at San Jose State University earning a masters in Environmental Science with […]

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  • Dr. Helen Pollard: Retires from the Department

    Dr. Helen Perlstein Pollard has wanted to be an archaeologist as long as she can remember. Despite her occasional thoughts of being a tightrope walker or ballerina, her focus never changed. When it came time to choose a college she decided to attend Barnard College. During the summer after her first year in college, she […]

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  • Winter 2014 Featured Faculty Member: Dr. Mara Leichtman

    Mara Leichtman decided that she wanted to be an anthropologist during an internship with Citibank Maghreb in Casablanca. She had taken a year off from pursuing her Master’s degree in International Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies to live and work in Morocco. She brought with her a number of books, […]

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  • Welcome the New Undergraduate Advisor: Jackie Lillis-Warwick

    The Department of Anthropology is proud to introduce our new Undergraduate Advisor, Jackie Lillis-Warwick. Jackie has been a proud MSU Spartan since she was an undergraduate student here. She graduated from MSU in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, and then pursued her masters from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Anthropology and Museum Studies.  […]

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  • Message from the Chair: Dr. Jodie O’Gorman

    Summer of 2013 the department launched the seventh and eighth courses in our planned expansion of online course offerings. These courses are important for a number of reasons. In today’s world many students find an online course helps them fit more into their schedule, graduate sooner, and some simply prefer the venue.  Some students find […]

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  • Dr. Linda Hunt and Dr. Heather Howard Awarded NIH Grant

    Dr. Linda Hunt and Dr. Heather Howard have been awarded a major National Institute of Health (NIH) grant to study the complex relationships between electronic health records, genomic concepts, clinical decision-making, and patient self-perception. Their study is designed to: 1) Examine how clinicians integrate genomic concepts with their existing understandings of racial identity, risk and […]

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  • New Book Co-Edited by Dr. Najib Hourani and Dr. Edward Murphy – The Housing Question: Tensions, Continuities, and Contingencies in the Modern City

    The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce the release of the new book  The Housing Question: Tensions, Continuities and Contingencies in the Modern City Co-edited by Dr. Najib Hourani (Anthropology) and Dr. Edward Murphy (MSU Department of History), the book is publishing by Ashgate Publishing. The volume explores how housing raises a series of vexing issues surrounding […]

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  • Department of Anthropology Featured in American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology TV

    The Department of Anthropology is very pleased to announce that it was one of fourteen institutions featured on the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology TV.  Launched at the 2013 AAA annual meeting in Chicago, the profile on the Department of Anthropology featured on Anthropology TV  focused on our unique experiential learning opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate […]

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  • Department Alumna A.R. Vasavi Receives Prestigious Infosys Science Foundation Prize

    Department of Anthropology Alumna A.R. Vasavi has been awarded the Infosys Science Foundation’s Prize in Social Sciences. Vasavi, who received her PhD in 1996, is currently Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.  As noted in the award announcement, Vasavi received the award for her distinctive and pioneering research that spans a remarkable range covering four main […]

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