Welcome to the Spring 2017 newsletter! As usual, there is a lot going on at this time of the year. I am happy to announce that we have hired Dr. Fredy Rodriguez as our new teaching professor. He will be an important link to new undergraduate majors, mentor teaching assistants, and bring a strong interest in cutting-edge pedagogies to our faculty. While serving as the interim undergraduate advisor this past year, Dr. Rodriguez initiated an Anthropology Showcase that will highlight work that undergraduates have produced in different anthropology classes and lab experiences. We will host our first showcase this coming fall, open to the public. This will be a great way to celebrate our students’ accomplishments and highlight Anthropology.

In the last newsletter I indicated we were in the early stages of searching for a new archaeologist. We had many excellent applicants and we are now in the final stages of the hiring process – stay tuned! Also on the archaeology front, I am very pleased to announce establishment of The Alumni and Friends Expendable Fund for Archaeology (page 4).

The department has always enjoyed a strong linkage with the MSU Museum, and we are looking forward to a new phase of that relationship. We welcome the new MSU Museum Director, Dr. Mark Auslander, to the department. Dr. Auslander joins the faculty this July as an Associate Professor in Anthropology and History. He is the author of “The Accidental Slaveowner: Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family,” for which he received two national academic awards. His research intersects with many of our faculty and students across the sub-disciplines and we look forward to working with him.

Finally, I want to thank Rowenn Kalman for all the great work she has done on the newsletter and in other aspects of her job as the department assistant. Nicole Raslich, a graduate student in archaeology, is taking up the job and has contributed to this newsletter. You’ll be hearing from Nicole on Facebook and other social media as we move forward. Be sure to check us out.

This article appears in our Spring 2017 newsletter here.