wwu anthropology newsletter fall 2018/19 anthropology · experienced bio-archaeologist with an...

Letter From the ChairTodd Koetje, Anthropology Department ChairThe 2018 academic year has been an exciting year with lots of changes to the Department. As of the end of Fall quarter, Dr. Dan Boxberger’s retirement is complete, we wish him well in his walks and baseball, and of course academic work! We had the excellent news that Dr. Josh Fisher was granted tenure this spring. Dr. Fisher works in Latin America on applied and economic patterns and political ecology in rural communities. Dr. Bruna ap-plied for tenure this fall, and we expect to hear positive things in the Spring.We were able to hire Dr. Kate Kolpan, as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the year while we conduct a search for the tenure track line that was left to us when Dr. Stevenson passed away last fall. Dr. Kolpan is a very experienced Bio-Archaeologist with an extensive Fo-rensics background and experience working with the armed forces in Europe and the Pacific. She’s been doing an excellent job in her classes, students are excited about her offerings in the next two quarters.Our search for a tenure track position as a bio anthro-pologist is progressing well. Drs. Mosher, Bruna, Fish-er and I are working as the search committee and we expect to be bringing candidates to campus in January and February.On December 5th many students and faculty attended the unveiling of a plaque dedicating the Bio-Anthropol-

ogy Lab in Joan Stevenson’s memory. It was bitter-sweet, but we were able to have two of Joan’s former students perform the unveiling.We are looking forward to Scholar’s week this year, and expect a variety of student papers and participation in both the Northwest Anthropological meetings, in Spo-kane this spring, and the Society for American Archae-ology meetings.There have been a variety of administrative changes that affect the department as well. I had the privilege of being re-elected as Department Chair this spring, and so set out on another 4 year term. Dr. Brent Mallinckrodt, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Science decided to resign after two years and take up teaching in the Psychology Department. Dr. Paqui Peredez Mendez, formerly chair of Modern and Classical Languages was chosen as the new Dean. I’ve worked with her on the Dean’s Advisory Council over the last 4 years and she was my compatriot in securing a DCA appointment for Dr. Fisher. She has shown herself to be a quick study in a new and difficult job, and is a great choice to lead the College.Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the Department and University this year, and especially those contributing to Joan Stevenson’s Memorial Fund. Your help has allowed us to continue with our student prizes, awards, and travel grants, as well as expanding our fossil cast and teaching collections. -Sincerely, Todd Koetje

What’s InsideLetter from the Chair ......................................... 1Thank you 2017 Donors .................................... 2Faculty News ................................................ 3-14Student & Alumni News ..................................15Awards ........................................................ 15-16Grant Recipient ................................................16

ANTHROPOLOGYWestern Washington University, Bellingham

WWU Anthropology Newsletter Fall 2018/19


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Anthropology Department 516 High Street , AH315Bellingham, WA 98225-9083Phone 360-650-3620 www.wwu.edu/anthropologyDepartment ChairTodd [email protected]

Administrative Services MgrViva [email protected]

Program AssistantLauren [email protected]

FacultyDaniel Boxberger, ProfessorSean Bruna, Asst. ProfessorSarah Campbell, Professor Josh Fisher, Assoc. ProfessorJoyce D. Hammond, ProfessorTodd Koetje, Assoc. ProfessorKate Kolpan, Visiting ProfessorJames Loucky, ProfessorM. J. Mosher, Assoc. ProfessorJudith Pine, Assoc. ProfessorKathleen Young, Assoc. ProfessorYeon Jung Yu, Asst. Professor

Non-tenure Track FacultyDominique Coulet du Gard, Sr. Inst.Jerry Ek, Instructor Paul James, Sr. InstructorJake Pfaffenroth, InstructorAlyson Rollins, InstructorKathleen Saunders, Sr. Instructor Myron Shekelle, Instructor

Research AssociatesMichael EtnierNancy Van Drusen

Thank You to our 2018 DonorsWe would like to thank the following

generous contributors

Byron Allen Barbara Andersen Alyssa AndoMaggie BarklindWilliam BelcherTheodore BestorSean BrunaKelly BushJonathan ButlerErin ChambersBonnijo Chervenock Yu Ling CheungHeather ChristiansonJulie CreagerSawyer Donohue Paul FormanKai FujitaMeghan GilliatDiane HansonEmily HardinDiana HennickLisa HenthornWilliam HolmeideAmanda Johnson Amandeep KhattraKatherine Kloster

Jackie MaeLewis MaudsleyMargaret McGin is-BrownCarey MillerGregory MorganKayla Newlon Amanda OrebaughMichael PanPamela PogemillerGerald & Barbara PorterAndrew RandlesEarly ReepBarbara SandovalGale ScottCarolyn SmithEric SmithWayne SvilarDonald Thorsteinson Wewin Tjiasmanto Tess TroskoWayne WakefieldDaniel WarnerTracy WestonThomas Wingard


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The Anthropology Club welcomes anyone who is interested,

to join them at their weekly meetings, special events, or field trips held throughout the year.

Meetings: Mondays @ 5pm

in AH319

Website:https://chss.wwu.edu/anthropolo-

gy/anthropology-club

Facebook:www.facebook.com/

WWUAnthropologyClub

The Anthropology

Club

Faculty News

Compass to Campus 2018

Dan BoxbergerWell, it is finally becoming a reality. As I write this I am half-way through my last quarter of teaching at Western. I insist that I am not retiring, I just won’t be teaching anymore. I intend to devote my time to my advo-cacy work with First Nations and Native Americans in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. I already have six projects lined up and ready to consume my time. In addition I have a number of writing projects sitting on the shelf because I have not had time to complete them, so I will be working on getting some of my past work for the tribes into publication. When you read this I will be in Tucson, my new winter home, where I will be working at my other “job,” playing baseball for the ToTs. Not named for Taters, ToTs is an acronym for Tucson Old Timers Baseball Club. The ToTs play three games a week, year round. I also play for a traveling team, the Tucson Aces, we compete in several games a month year-round and in the Senior World Series in Phoenix every October. Cheryl and I are about to become “Rain Birds,” i.e., Spring and Summer will find us back in Bellingham, to be with our kids and grandkids; Fall and Winter will find us in Tucson where it is warm and dry. Some of you know that I have been working on my BC2BC walk the last three summers. In July 2018 Cheryl and I walked from the Oregon border to San Francisco. Spring 2019 we will complete the SF to Monterey leg and then tackle Big Sur. Follow us on Facebook!The past few months I have been reflecting a lot on my 35 years at West-ern, especially thinking about former students who are now friends and colleagues. I wish you all well as you mature in your careers. I find myself caring less about the academic achievements and more about the impact I hopefully have had on the next generation(s) of anthropologists. May you all live long and prosper.

Dan & Cheryl Boxberger


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Joyce HammondThis past summer, I traveled to the Midwest with my partner and grandson to visit family members and vari-ous places of interest, especially museums. We flew into Chicago where we ate famous Chicago pizza at a swanky restaurant on Navy Pier where my nephew works, then spent a day each at the Field Museum of Natural His-tory and the Chicago Art Institute. Years and years ago I worked behind the scenes at the Field Museum, so it was a treat to return to see such exhibits as one about the South Pacific, the bones of “Sue,” the most complete

skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a reflexive rework-ing of Malvina Hoffman’s 20th century sculptures of people from across the globe. I learned about that exhibit when I recently taught Anthropology and Museums. Leaving Chicago, we visited Grand Rapids, Michigan, and, among other sights saw the Gerald and Betty Ford Museum. We also went to Iowa and took in the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque where we saw cownose rays, alligator snapping turtles and various birds, fish and snakes. At the end of the summer, I was really pleased to see an exhibit entitled Double Exposure: Edward S. Curtis, Marianne Nicolson, Tracy Rector, Will Wilson at the Seattle Art Museum. Andy Everson’s work (see photo) really resonates with me since I have been researching natural materials attire displayed in Polynesian beauty contests that combine elements of past traditions with contemporary global borrowings of fashion.

Left to Right: Joyce and grandson under a replica of a Quetzalcoatlus prehistoric flying creature, The Malvina Hoffman ex-hibit, Will Wilson’s tintype photograph is of Andy Everson, a First Nations artist who mixes traditional Kwakwaka’wakw designs and regalia with a Star Wars Stormtrooper mask. As the accompanying label stated, the outfit “demonstrates the fluid integration of popular culture with traditional forms which Kwakwaka’wakw have.


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Grandson, Alex, enjoying a muffin!

M.J. MosherGood news on the lab front: Survivors of the lab experience may now be found as Ph.D. students at the University of Kansas, a new Master’s Degree Medical Genetics at the University of Michigan (presenting epigenetic studies at international meetings) now off to Med School in Galveston, and DO School in Boise. Several others are frantically writing their applications for grad school. All benefitted by their research and professional presentations at AAPA and Human Biology Association.

The whole exome data is IRB approved to analyze with our nutritional data from Kansas Nutrition Project and the nutritional data is almost done in NutriBase. Now we learn scary new statistics. How is your “R”?

Winnipeg presentation this fall at the International So-ciety of Nutrigenomics and Nutrigenetics is moving us to attempt a replication of the Buryat study on Evenki Reindeer Herders. We are examining the sex-specific effects of leptin epigenetics on elevated basal metab-olism in Siberian populations which appears to be somewhat affected by their protein and carbohydrate intake ratio.

Kathleen Young

Left to right: Dr. Young and Savannah Jackson - commencement 2018, E-Yow-Alth Julia Seya-hom, and Xwelas Mary Seya-Hom. Both are Coast Salish women who are the namesakes of the Sehome area and the land around Western Washington University.


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Judy PineThis year marks a decade for me at Western! I’ve been so pleased to hear from stu-dents who have long since graduated and gone on to a variety of adventures, and I continue to enjoy working with freshmen, especial-ly in the new FIG I have designed with colleagues in the Math Dept. In this sec-ond year for the “Patterns in your Mind” FIG, I feel as if we are doing a good job of conveying to students the ways that both linguistic anthropology and mathematics concern themselves with the recognition and description of patterns.I was co-chair of the planning committee for the first ever Society for Linguistic Anthropology Conference, held at the University of Pennsylvania in March 2018. This was a truly marvelous experience, with great par-ticipation -- many of the folks whose work people read in my classes were there, presenting, discussing, and socializing. I took the opportunity to do an installa-tion rather than a traditional paper, and can now speak

knowledgeably about taking 4 iPads, a laptop, a Kindle, a cell phone, and a poster holder full of posters through airport security! This is not the only reason, though, that I am hoping to persuade the SLA to hold this conference at WWU at some point in the future.During the 2017-18 academic year, I became a Com-munity Engagement Fellow, joining a program that links Western faculty, and faculty at Whatcom Community College and Bellingham Technical College, with repre-sentatives of community organizations such as the What-com County Library system and the Opportunity Coun-cil. This program is an incubator for outreach ideas, and I hope this year to work with colleagues to initiate an organized response to the “Language Gap” myth. The idea that there is a “Language Gap” has taken hold of the popular imagination, despite a lack of any sort of solid evidence. Funding for programs to bridge this mythic gap could, if properly directed, be used to address real issues which impact student success in the classroom. I hope to be part of the development of a project here at Western which would link to other programs nationally, to bring research-based, critical attention to the ways in which the Language Gap myth is promoted, and to provide alternatives for those who want to increase the equity of our K12 system.

I have continued researching the Coast Salish families and the settler colonialists who lived here, the area of our campus and Sehome Hill, during the 1850s. The past blends into the present as I think about the historical context of the place where I have spent so many years of my life, this area where “the being that we are is constituted,” to quote from Paul Ricoeur. With each class, I find myself thinking, “another chance to be better” and I continue to be impressed with our stu-dents past and present. Please keep in touch!

Kathleen Young, Cont...



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James LouckyAnthropological perspective, advocacy, and teaching is for me, as I think for all applied anthropologists, grounded in continuing interactive learning. This moves us from awareness to analysis and action. My lifetime concern for justice was seeded in growing up in a working-class refugee household and shaped thereafter through relations in indigenous, rural, and mountain communities, and with colleagues and friends who are exemplars of both inspiration and sanity.This year, time with Maya elders as well as students in highland Guatemala provided news insights into tremendous changes increasingly intercultural and transborder lives and livelihoods. Much of my en-ergy is devoted to countering today’s vicious vilifi-cation of migrants. In addition to providing expert testimony for applicants for political asylum, I offer commentary that humanizes the legitimacy and rights of all people. I work to affirm and to inform about international law and humanitarian principles, especially as they are ignored and even outlawed by the appalling politics and politicians of our day.Growing displacement associated with climate change and accompanying resilience are reflected in endeavors around on rights to move and the invalu-able skills and determination of ordinary people and communities. I was honored to be invited to bring intergenerational commitments before a special work-shop of the International Network on Displacement and Resettlement, involving 40 people from 16 countries who met in Oaxaca, in August 2018.My focus on human rights is also increasingly shifting to embrace earth rights. “Progress,” privilege, and power structures provide rationale for a normalization of per-petual growth, along with the inequalities, lunacy, and larceny that make for terrifying statistics and exponential curves. Anthropology is uniquely positioned to high-light the common responsibility we have to challenge the structures and profiteers of ecoplunder and suffering. Decline in diversity of species and of traditional knowl-edge (along with civility and face-to-face relationships), convinces me that today’s ecological crisis is fundamental-ly also a cultural crisis.Anthropology, with its focus on natural and cultural ecologies, provides models for humanity. As environmen-tal and political realities become harder to ignore, I sense

hope in an awakening to interconnectedness and ecocul-tural intelligence as essential for survival. There is much good work being done. Planet and poster-ity must be the core of our mission, as a world, a soci-ety, and a university. Western has not been among the many universities to have publicly committed to divest from fossil fuels, despite hundreds of faculty signatories, lopsided votes by students, and having the oldest college of the environment in the country. We can work across campus to do this and be ready to support and celebrate when that happens. As a department, our roles are vital for addressing the institutional, community, and glob-al challenges that we see before us and that are yet to emerge.Working together, we can take courage and be the change we want to see.

James with the great humanitarian and scientist, Jane Goodall


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Josh FisherA lot has happened around the world in the last year — good, bad, and ugly — but I’d like to thank my colleagues in anthropology for making it a good one for me at least. I earned tenure this last year and was promoted to Associate Professor, which means that I’m now eligible to serve on a lot more committees! (To wit, I’ve joined the Institute for Energy Studies as well as the Huxley College of the Envi-ronment at Western this year.) This last June, I was also named one of the next (Co)-Editors-In-Chief of the AAA journal Anthropology of Work Review. It’s promising to be a busy year!As for this last year, I managed to get a bit of writing done. I published three articles: one in American Ethnologist (“In Search of Dignified Work”) about dignity in work and a theory of the feminist work ethic, one in Antipode (“Zopi-lotes, Alacranes, y Hormigas [Vultures, Scorpions, and Ants]”) about a Nicaraguan garbage crisis and the way in which animal metaphors has infiltrated political discourse; and one in the Journal of Sus-tainable Tourism (“Nicaragua’s Buen Vivir: A Strategy for Tourism De-velopment?”) about the unexpected links between urban revitalization, Nicaragua’s plans to build an in-ter-oceanic canal to rival Panama’s, and tourism development. I submit-ted my book manuscript, based on my past research on fair trade cooper-atives, to the “Diverse Economies and Livable Worlds” series at the Universi-ty of Minnesota. Finally, I published a book chapter, titled “Brother to

a Scorpion,” in an edited volume about reciprocity and friendship in fieldwork encounters, which actual-ly happens to be edited by my own undergraduate advisors at Bucknell University. I look forward to being able to do the same some day with my own talented students at Western.On the teaching front, I’ve had a great year with a lot of wonderful, thoughtful, and incredibly insightful

students. I’ve enjoyed teaching my first graduate seminar at WWU on social theory, and I’ve developed two new courses for the anthropology department. The first is an attempt to rethink how we teach “globaliza-tion” in anthropology. In writing the syllabus, I asked myself: “What would this class look like if we taught it from the perspective of the global South, rather than the neoliberal perspectives that tend to dominate the conversations. The answer, as I see it, is “Empire,” hence the title

of the class, because it is very much alive and well. The second builds on my current and future research, including my collaborations with the Institute for Energy Studies. Access to modern energy technologies is a key part of contemporary efforts to reduce poverty, improve livelihoods, and encourage sustainable devel-opment, but what kinds of energy development strategies are appropri-

ate is increasingly complicat-ed, given the challenges of global climate change. Is it fair for the global North to ask the global South to forego the fossil-fueled develop-ment that led, in part, to the former’s relative wealth? This class — cross-listed between Anthropology and Energy Studies — looks at the social and cultural implications of conventional and alternative energy technologies, infra-structures, and policies. I’ll be teaching both in the next year.Speaking of energy and climate, I also had a rather unsustainable travel sched-ule that shall not become a norm. I presented work-ing papers at the American

Association of Geographers (AAG) conference in New Orleans, the American Anthropological Associa-tion (AAA) conference in San Jose, and the Association of Social Anthro-pologists (ASA) conference in Ox-ford, England. I gave a guest lecture on dust as a way of thinking about climate change at Cambridge Uni-versity. I was able to visit and travel around Ireland before heading off to a small traditional music festival, started by Brian Jones of the Roll-ing Stones nearly fifty years ago, in


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the rural Moroccan town of El Ksar el Kebir, where my partner was recruited to translate for a surprisingly large demographic of Japanese rock musicians in attendance. This summer, I was also able to go backpacking for two weeks along the “Ring Road” in Iceland. That’s on top of four research trips to Nicaragua, where it’s worth mentioning things are not going very well. In mid-April 2018, the nominally socialist Ortega-Muril-lo government passed a law reforming social security, cutting benefits and raising costs in order to make the budget work. The move sparked a country-wide backlash against the administration, bringing together a diverse group of protestors ranging from former Contras, dis-affected Sandinistas, students, and indigenous groups. The most recent count suggests that more than 300 anti-government protestors have been murdered in the streets, many of whom were students whose leftist prin-ciples were, once upon a time, very much in line with Sandinistas. Although my research is progressing slowly,

my primary concern is that my Nicaraguan colleagues are suffering politically, economically, and otherwise. A working economy and democracy is grinding to a halt in Nicaragua, and the pending Nica Act (proposed by U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio) will likely hurt Nicaraguans further and destroy whatever goodwill has been generated by solidarity workers since end of the Contra War.In that respect, I’m hopeful for the coming year, but I suspect that the challenges we face — in the U.S., Nicaragua, and as a species as we grapple with how to respond to the pending climate crisis — will require even more of us than it has in recent memory. I’m grateful for the support of my colleagues as I take on new challenges, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to support them as we collectively work toward a better world.

Josh Fisher, Cont...

Sean BrunaIt’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone! First, and perhaps most importantly, several of my students have graduated, including Tori Bianchi and Ty-ler Stodola. Tori is currently in a master’s program and Tyler is applying to graduate school in fall (2018). Congratulations to them both!Two new undergraduates also joined the lab: Hoku Rivera and Robyn Caylor. Both are anthropology majors and are assisting with development of new liter-ature review technique that uses Nvivo, qualitative analysis software I hope to bring to WWU next year. They join Angel Terry, who is now in her second year with the lab and is putting the final touches on a manuscript. The lab also welcomed Mr. Stodola (BA, 2017) back to assist on a study examining if medical anthropology courses teach content that is tested on the MCAT. We plan to share findings in an educational journal as well as the 2019 Society for Applied Anthropology meetings in Portland, Oregon.

I’ve also had a busy year developing new courses and working on my own research. I spent last summer in Charleston, South Carolina, with my fiancé, Dr. Fuller-ton (Department of Biology, College of Charleston), thanks to a WWU Summer Teaching Grant and WWU Project Development Grant. With the first grant I was able to design a new Nvivo training course titled “Qualitative Inquiry and Computer Assisted Analysis”. With the second grant I was able to collaborate with Dr. Fullerton to draft a proposal for National Institute of Health funding, which I anticipate will be submitted in

the next NIH grant cycle. Keep your fingers crossed!Finally, I’m happy to share that I joined the Board of the Palliative Care Institute at Western Washington Uni-versity and look forward to collaborating with a truly amazing group of academics and community leaders. Cheers to all of the students, faculty and staff that make each year a memorable one!


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Myron ShekelleAt the close of fall quarter 2017, through June 2018, I took over teaching Joan Stevenson’s bio an-thropology classes. Together with two classes that Biology asked me to teach, meant teaching six new classes from scratch, and it all began with only three hours of notice between the call from the department asking me if I was available, to standing in front of students. It was a heavy load, but the entire department pitched in to help me get the job done as well as possible under the circumstances. Now I am back in Southeast Asia continuing the research I had ex-pected to be doing last year. I have new support in the form of a grant from the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, as well as funds from a private donation to advance my agenda in research, conservation, and education. I am co-supervising one Master’s thesis on the genetics of speciation and dispersal of tarsiers in a volcanic island chain near Sulawesi. I expect to describe at least one new tarsier species from a different part of Sulawesi in early 2019. Through my partnership with Manado State Uni-versity, I continue my efforts toward “teaching the teachers,” a program

where I take third-year university stu-dents into the field to learn the field methods for studying their native biodiversity. Later, after graduation, many of them will become high school teachers, and will be armed to teach biodiversity and conser-vation with first-hand experience and slides of themselves walking the walk. I hope to be able to offer this experience to students at Western at some point as a class called “Applying Anthropology: a service-learning-re-search experience in a conservation hotspot.”My affiliation with the Department of Anthropology at Western began in

2012 when Joan Stevenson invited me to apply to be a Research Asso-ciate. We had met when I borrowed her lab to film a science documenta-ry. Subsequently, she and I worked to provide research opportunities for undergraduate students in the department. This resulted in one graduate of the department, Steven Stilwell, getting a 7-month internship at Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Center in Sulawesi where he experimented with enrichment in captive orang-utans. Our efforts also resulted in a couple of publications with students as co-authors, and one book chapter that is yet to be published.

Left: Steven Stilwell, experimenting with enrichment for captive orangutans at a rescue center in North Sulawesi. Top: students from the United States, Korea, and Indonesia learning field methods for studying the biodiversity of Sulawesi. Bottom right: giving a seminar to students at Manado State University in honor of International Primates Day.


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Yeon YuI’m now in my third year of teaching and researching in this supportive, happy and healthy Western communi-ty. I continue to develop my teaching skills as I learn from our wonderful experienced faculty, and greatly enjoy interacting with the brilliant and cre-ative minds of our student body.

In the spring, I presented at the Soci-ety for Applied Anthropology’s Annual Meeting (SfAA) in Philadelphia, PA. My paper discussed the mobility of female sex workers in China and was published in the SfAA journal this summer. During the summer, I enjoyed spending quality time with my family in California, which was my second hometown (after Seoul, Korea) for over a decade. Thanks to the CHSS

summer grant, I was also able to con-tinue and complete revisions of my dissertation for publication—a project which examines the social networks of female sex workers in post-socialist China. This year, I have published three articles in peer-reviewed jour-nals and another article, written for a broader audience, for a China studies journal. As a new junior faculty, I slowly started to engage in depart-ment and community level services as well. As fall gets under way, I am planning to develop my next projects

both in Bellingham and East Asia. I’m looking forward to this new year, continuing and expanding my work as a researcher and teacher serving our Western community and beyond.

Sarah CampbellIt has been a productive and intense year. The research team that Mike Etnier and I are part of completed a series of 8 articles on the Ciwicen site that will be pub-lished in the February issue of Journal of Archaeological Science Reports. It is an e-journal, and the articles are already viewable on line, with the indication that they are in press. One or both of us contributed to each of the 6 articles listed below. I am particularly proud of “Building a landscape histo-ry. . .” of which I am the lead author. I build a case that tsunami overtopped the Ciwican site, located in what is now the Port Angeles harbor, as many as 5 times in the last 2500 years. There is not a lot of research identifying tsunamigenic deposits within anthropogenic settings, so it was challenging. My summary of possible criteria will hopefully be useful to others. Throughout the process I was constantly reminded of how tectonically active this area is. Whatcom County just got its 7th tsunami warning tower this year, and a new tsunami hazard mod-el for the county was published by the state this sum-mer, because there is new understanding about rupture lengths along the Cascadia Subduction Zone since the first model came out in 2004. I’m glad Western is high enough to be well out of the hazard zone, but any of us

living on the west coast need to be familiar with tsunami hazards and escape routes. Building a landscape history and occupational chronol-ogy at Čixwicen, a coastal village on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington State, U.S.A. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.10.005I also want to call attention to the detailed interpretive graphics in the landscape history article. These were produced by students: Kaitlin Dempsey (B.A. 2016) and Adrienne Cobb (B.A. 2018). They both taught them-selves Adobe Illustrator, and used it for analysis as well as graphic presentation. Kaitlin reconstructed profiles from plan measurements and combined field records into plan drawings, which required judgement and interpretation. Adrienne recombined and refined profiles and plans to illustrate specific features, reinterpreted historic maps and created OxCal graphs for radiocarbon dates. I could not have done this work without their help and that of Will Nolan (B.A. 2018), who assisted in analyz-ing feature and stratigraphic data.The Čixwicen project of Northwest Washington State, U.S.A.: Opportunity lost, opportunity found. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.03.010Human ecodynamics: A perspective for the study of long-term change in socioecological systems https://doi.


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Sarah Campbell, Cont...

org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.03.016Impacts of resource fluctuations and recurrent tsunamis on the occupational history of Čixwicen, a Salishan village on the southern shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington State, U.S.A. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.04.001Exploring ecodynamics of coastal foragers using integrat-ed faunal records from Čixwicen village (Strait of Juan de

Fuca, Washington, U.S.A.) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.09.031Using bone fragmentation records to investigate coast-al human ecodynamics: A case study from Čixwicen (Washington State, USA) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.08.049

Kate KolpanIt has been a busy 2018-2019 year. In true Mary Poppins fashion, I spent the spring 2018 term round-ing out my time teaching at Iowa State University before arriving at Western just in time for fall quar-ter. During the spring, I gave a talk at the Iowa State University Conference on Race and Ethnicity (ISCORE) that highlighted how the internet has made it easier for real biological and archaeological objects to be used to promote racist, nation-alistic and ethnocentric propaganda. I organized ISU’s spring Anthropol-ogy Symposium, an event similar to scholar’s week at Western. I also dis-cussed my research, which utilizes a combination of the biological profile and isotope analysis in an effort to narrow down the origins of Axis-af-filiated combatants who perished in while fighting in World War II (WWII), at the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) meetings in Seattle. Additionally, I organized a session entitled Us and Them: The Bioarchaeology of Belonging and Exclusion at the Society for Amer-ican Archaeology (SAA) meetings in Washington DC. This session included my talk about the politics

of exhuming and commemorating deceased German WWII soldiers in European nations outside of Germany. At the beginning of the summer, I did some brief training at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting

Agency (DPAA) in Hawaii. I undertook this training in preparation for some upcoming summer work that I am undertak-ing with some colleagues. I also worked on rehab-bing the house I own in Florida and preparing for my move to Washington. I took some detours on the cross-country drive to Bellingham, making time

to visit some friends and spend a few days camping at Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks.This fall, I moved to Bellingham and began my work at Western. Every-one in the department has been unfailingly kind and supportive and I’ve found Western to be an enrich-ing and rewarding environment. During fall quarter I published some research related to my work looking at the relationship between dental disease and the sexual division of labor in prehistoric California in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Drs. Bruna, Ek, Fisher and I also organized a round table discussion meant to help Western’s anthropology majors navigate the graduate school and job application process. I also finished developing


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Hayley Nichols (BS Bio Anthropology 2016, MA Anthro-pology 2018) Hayley is the Educational Specialist for the Depart-ment of Anthropology to manage the labs.It’s been a busy year in the Dr. Joan Stevenson Biological Anthro-pology Lab! Over the summer a few students and I rehoused, re-organized, and inventoried over 1,000 casts, human remains, and non-human remains. Going through Dr. Stevenson’s collection, we found many items that I didn’t know we had such as casts of fragmented bone, a skull with scurvy, and a skull with all his maxillae and mandible reabsorbed. Professor Alyson Rollins, Dr. Kate Kolpan, and I are also expanding the collection by ordering more forensic and fossil casts and revamping the Anth 215 lab manual to incorporate the new material. This quarter we decorated the lab with Halloween decorations found in an old filing cabinet, with whiteboard art by Bea Fran-ke. The lab used to be decorated every Halloween, a tradition we hope to bring back. Students were very excited to see the lab decorated and it seemed to take the sting out of having Anth 215 practical exams on Halloween week. The lab was dedicated to its founder Dr. Joan Stevenson who created it in 2008. Dr. Stevenson strove to build a space for bio-anth students to study and gain practical skills on campus. The lab is well loved (bruises from the tables and all) by previous and current students; I frequently get messages from former students wanting the latest updates on their home in the Anthropology Department.

my spring 2019 course, The Bio-Archaeology of Mod-ern War and Conflict, which is making its way through various college committees as we speak. My incredible teaching assistant Hayley Nichols and I also spent a considerable amount of time creating practical exams for Human Osteology and Forensic Anthropology, a task we thoroughly enjoyed, even if our students were less inclined to appreciate our handiwork. As fall quar-ter winds down, my coauthors and I are in the midst of finishing a manuscript related to my WWII combat-ant work that we hope to submit for publication early in 2019.

Kate Kolpan, Cont...


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Joan C. Stevenson, Ph.D. Biological Anthropology Lab

Christopher Barrett - MA Anthropology 2016

Professor Phil Everson Giselle Kiraly-BA Biocultural Anth 2017, Crystal Maki-MA Anthropology 2012, Fiona Felker-BS BioAnthropology 2012, Hayley Nichols-MA Anthropology 2018


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Taylor-Anasta-sio AwardsThe Taylor-Anastasio Awards for Outstanding Undergraduate Research are in honor of retired professors Her-bert Taylor and Angelo Anastasio in recognition of excellent undergraduate research. Faculty nominated papers, poster presentations or other scholarly endeavors completed the prior spring quarter through the winter quarter of the current year are eligible. Three selected awardees present their research papers during Scholars Week each year. We are proud to announce this year’s recipients.

Cody CarlsonCeausescuism: Rights Lasting Effects of a Cult of Personality

-nominated by Kathleen Young from War and Human RightsRomanians have fought against tyrannical corruption from fas-cist, socialist, and even democratic systems of government and have learned resiliency from these peri-ods. However, none of these periods had as much influence on mod-ern Romania than that of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s Cult of Personality. Ceauşescu’s arrogance in develop-ing a state independent from the USSR or the United States and leading a Romania-first government let to an epidemic of nosocomial HIV/AIDS, illegal abortions, and a lasting distrust of doctors. This “Ceauşescuism” created a system by which people distrust modern health systems leading to tuberculo-sis and HPV outbreaks complicated by intense corruption.

Tess O’ReillyWhen to Cope and How to Do it

-nominated by Kathleen Young from Trauma and RecoveryThis paper will cover the dynamics and roots of domestic violence and sexual assault, along with a variety of resilience strategies practiced by survivors of these sorts of traumas. Research will also include how DV, SA, and PTSD impact the body, and how these impacts are relevant to desired coping mechanisms. Also included is a discussion of domestic violence and sexual assault agains trans-identifying genders, as the re-search is overwhelmingly surrounded around women. A portion of my paper will also address the legislation and history of domestic violence in America.

Rachel PerkinsRepresentations of Indigenous Cultures in Today’s Museums and Impacts on Cultural Tourists

-nominated by Joyce Hammond from TourismInspired by my summer internship at the Nevada Museum of Art, I wrote this paper as an investigation of the ways in which museums collaborate with minority groups respresented in their exhibitions. In addition to ex-amining the ways in which museums display the cultural other-particular-ly local indigenous groups-I dicuss the potential pitfalls of these att-mepts at representation and how the outcomes of collaboration (or lack thereof ) impact the museum-going tourist’s experience.

Aleta, heading up the Anthropology Club booth at Western’s Info Fair

Student & Alumni News

Steve Martin In 2017 I grad-uated with with a B.S. in Biol-ogy-Anthropology. I am now working for a defense and aerospace company as a Statistical Analyst in Southern California. We work with the Department of Defense and Nasa. I will be starting an MBA program (Global Business emphasis) this summer at the University of Redlands California. My end goal is to earn a job with NASA as a Project Manager one day.


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Friends of Anthropology Undergraduate Research Grant RecipientThanks to the generous donations from alumni, the Department of Anthro-pology is able to establish an endowment to fund up to three undergradu-ate research awards each academic year. The grants may be used for either research or travel and are limited to a maximum of $350.

Ellen HallingstadSpring 2018Testing the Applicability of Machine Learning in Ceramic Trademark IdentificationI am working on an independent digital archaeology project in collabera-tion with the Electrical Engineering department. In an effort to further the study of automatic artifact identification (and thus increas identification rates and accuracy), I am testing the applicability of machine learning in the identification of fragmented ceramic trademarks. I have created a collection of trademarks and am in the process of developing an algorithm which will automatically match a broken trademark to it’s unbroken counterpart. I plan to present this research at NWAC 2018 in Boise, ID, on March 28th - April, 2018.

Outstanding Graduating Senior AwardMadeleine Hopkins BA Biology Anthropology, BS Behavioral Neuroscience, Chemistry minor Spring 2018

Madeleine was a research assistant with Jeffrey Grimm, exploring the neuro-biology of drug relapse and addiction. She was also treasurer of the Neu-roscience Research Driven Students (NeRDS) club and worked as a drop-in tutor and study group leader for organ-ic chemistry in the Tutoring Center.

Madeleine will work as a clinical re-search coordinator at NorthWest Clin-ical Research Center in Bellevue while preparing for graduate school.


wwu anthropology newsletter fall 2018/19 anthropology · experienced bio-archaeologist with an...

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