Carla Guerrón Montero, professor of anthropology with joint appointments in Africana studies, women and gender studies, and Latin American and Iberian studies, is co-editor of the book Why the World Needs Anthropologists (Routledge, 2020). The book--a collection of essays written by prominent academic anthropologists, practicing anthropologists and applied anthropologists--aims to answer the provocative question that gives the book its title: Why does the world need anthropology and anthropologists? In an accessible and appealing style, each author in this volume inquires about the social value and practical application of the discipline of anthropology. Contributors provide specific suggestions to anthropologists and the public at large on practical ways to use anthropology to change the world for the better.

Presentations

Justin Wing, director of budget and strategy in the Library, Museums and Press, participated on Oct. 14, 2020, in a roundtable, “The Information Community Adapts,” which was part of the Change Management webinar series presented by NISO, the National Information Standards Organization.

Grants

Alex Galarza, digital scholarship librarian in the Library, Museums and Press, has secured a $70,000 planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support an international and collaborative digital scholarship project titled, “Digitizing the Disappeared: Partnerships to Publish Digital Scholarship on Guatemala’s Desaparecidos.” Alongside co-PI Daniel Alvarado of the Mutual Support Group (GAM) of Guatemala City, Galarza and a project team will digitally publish case files of forced disappearance from the Guatemalan Civil War with the authorization and participation of surviving family members in Guatemala and abroad. More detail on the grant is available here.

Honors

Tiffany E. Barber, assistant professor of Africana studies and art history, has been named the recipient of the 2020 Women’s Studies Faculty Research Award from the Department of Women and Gender Studies, funded by the Mae and Robert Carter Endowment in Women’s Studies. Barber was selected for the annual honor based on her research on how Black women’s otherness at the intersection of race, gender and sexuality spurs aesthetic strategies of refusal within contemporary Black feminist art practice and criticism. Her work bridges the disciplines of women’s studies, art history, African American studies and performance studies. 

The Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) received the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) 2020 Charles J. Mankin Award for its publication “The Geologic Map of Offshore Delaware” by C. Robin Mattheus, Kelvin W. Ramsey and Jamie L. Tomlinson. The map represents several decades of data collection and exemplary interpretive efforts on the part of the authors and helps DGS and all other local, regional and national organizations assess offshore sand and gravel resources. It provides valuable information for scientists, engineers, coastal communities and emergency planners to use when planning for or mitigating sea-level rise. In addition, the map is a valuable resource for evaluating the impacts of natural hazards, such as hurricanes and storms on coastal beach erosion, and the evaluation of subsurface conditions for offshore infrastructure projects, which are important to the changes that occur after major natural hazards. The Charles J. Mankin Award, given annually by the AASG, the late  Charles Mankin, who served as director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey for 40 years and was a tireless advocate for geologic mapping.

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