Anthropology travel
Weil Anthropology Travel Award will help undergraduates study around the world
4:11 p.m., May 13, 2015--Two students have received the University of Delaware Department of Anthropology’s inaugural Peter M. Weil Anthropology Travel Award, presented to them May 7.
The award was established through a generous gift from Weil, professor emeritus of anthropology, to support undergraduate students' travel to engage in independent anthropological research across the country and around the world.
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Sarah Driver, a senior anthropology and political science double major, and Adrienne Gendron, a junior anthropology and art conservation double major, were selected as recipients after applying for the award at the suggestion of department faculty.
The students plan to travel during the summer in order to expand their anthropological studies, and both say the award will be of great help in allowing them the opportunity to study abroad.
Driver, who will travel to Puerto Rico to study petroglyphs, says she originally was unsure about majoring in anthropology until she took an introductory course in the subject her freshman year.
“I found myself being really fascinated by what I learned in the class,” Driver says. “It made me realize that in today’s consistently globalizing world, the study of anthropology and the preservation of world cultures is very relevant and necessary for our history.”
Gendron, who will spend two months completing an internship in Turkey while studying archaeological conservation, originally came to UD to study art conservation, but later added anthropology to her studies.
“It isn’t just art that is important to protect and conserve,” she says, “but other objects and materials as well, because they allow us to see where they fit into the historical context of other cultures.”
About Peter Weil
Weil served on the anthropology faculty for 46 years. During his tenure as a UD professor, he taught social and cultural anthropology, specializing in art and material culture of Africa. He also served as the director of UD’s African studies program from 2003 until his retirement.
Weil, who is originally from Dallas, Texas, earned his undergraduate degree in anthropology and international relations at the University of Texas at Austin. He went on to receive his master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Oregon.
Weil became interested in the field of anthropology because he saw it as a way to better understand global history and other cultures.
“When I was an undergraduate, the world was witnessing many colonies of powerful, more established nations declare themselves independent,” he says.
He adds that this served as inspiration for his studies, in order to witness the transition and development of these colonial countries as they strived to become their own independent nations.
Weil’s studies and research over the course of his career include archaeological research with the Smithsonian Institution in South Dakota and Montana, as well research on the indigenous populations of Idaho, which served as the basis for his master’s thesis.
Internationally, Weil made numerous trips to Africa to study the rural politics of villages in Gambia and Senegal. His research would later include long-term political programs in the region, as well as the emergence of urban settings, such as Gambia’s capital city of Banjul.
Weil began teaching at UD in 1968. He says that he wanted to live on the East Coast, and UD was an intriguing option because of the enthusiasm students had in their studies and for their school.
He remained at the University for more than four decades, inspired to help mentor and train undergraduate students. “It was all about looking for those students who were ready to work, and who were excited to learn more about the world,” he says.
Article by Craig Stack