Faculty and Staff Newsmakers

Dr. Velásquez Runk co-authors significant contribution to work with indigenous peoples of Panamá

Julie Velásquez Runk has co-authored with colleagues (Monica Martinez Mauri, Blas Quintero, and Jorge Sarsaneda), Pueblos Indigenas en Panama: Una Bibliografia (Indigenous Peoples in Panama: A Bibliography). The book was officially presented last week at the National Library of Panama together with the Web site Languages and Cultures of Panama.

On August 5th, the University of Panama held a colloquium on "indigenous peoples today." Speakers included all the book's co-authors as well as U.S. and Panamanian anthropologists.

The book was funded thanks to a grant from Panama's NSF, the Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnologia, e Innovacion (SENACYT). Dr. Velásquez Runk was PI on the grant.  The introductory chapter of the book is an up-to-date description of the indigenous groups in Panama, as well as an overview of the bibliographic materials on each group.  In the introductory chapter to the book the authors describe how the book resulted from presence of indigenous peoples, the need to distribute information about the many already published works, and the passion to contribute to work with indigenous peoples. Indigenous Peoples in Panama: A Bibliography compiles over 4,000 references and 537 pages on Panama's seven indigenous groups. Below are three Web links to articles about the project. Since Dr. Velásquez Runk is a research associate with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Associate, their newsletter features both the book and the colloquium, on pages 3 and 5 respectively.

• In Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá newsletter
• In La Prensa newspaper, Panamá
• In Languages and Cultures of Panamá

Three professors chosen for fall’s First-Year Odyssey program

Three anthropology professors will be teaching self-designed seminars for the university’s First-Year Odyssey program this fall. These courses are created to introduce entering students to critical thinking regarding timely issues, research and study skills. Those faculty members whose proposals were selected for inclusion in the program were awarded $2,500 for their one-credit-hour class.

Pete Brosius’ seminar, Conservation in a Complex World, incorporates the insights of multiple disciplines to address contemporary conservation matters in a world riven by intractable poverty, increased resource extraction and climate change, where different human needs and realities often compete.

Stephen Kowalewski’s students in Archaeological Discoveries will examine these discoveries throughout time and over the globe to consider our knowledge of human experience—and our lack of vast swathes of it—and discuss means to conserve cultural and natural resources.

Virginia Nazarea’s seminar introduces participants to the ideas of cultural memory and “memory banking” related to biodiversity conservation. Called Google Is My Grandma, the course explores the course of how personal communication of culture—Grandma—is yielding to technology-based transmission of information, and some effects of this change.

For more information, visit fyo.uga.edu.

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Student Newsmakers

Susannah Chapman on Voice of America radio

Graduate student Susannah Chapman, currently working in The Gambia, was heard on a Voice of America radio discussion about the importance of protecting plant life for future generations.
Chapman, VoA, 2.22.12

Evan Conaway in ugamagazine

Undergraduate anthropology major (and Anthropology Society Co-Coordinator/Mentor) Evan Conaway is featured in this issue of ugamagazine as he shares his passion for the work he is doing for the created sustainable community of Kalu Yala in Panama, where he will intern again this summer.
http://georgiaugazine.com/?p=488

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Alumni Newsmakers

UGA Anthropology Ph.D. will direct study-abroad campus in India

Dr. Eial Dujovny, Ph.D. '10, has accepted a position as the Resident Director for the South India Term Abroad (SITA) Program in Madurai, India.  As the director, he will run a small study abroad campus for US students spending a semester or year in India.  The program is open to students from any US institution of higher learning and is maintained by a consortium of U.S. institutions that includes George Washington University, University of Denver, Bates, Bowdoin, Grinnell, Smith, Sarah Lawrence, Scripps, and Whittier College.

Dr. Jim Veteto Accepts Position at North Texas University

Jim Veteto, who completed his Ph.D. in spring 2010, has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of North Texas, in Denton, TX. He'll join the anthropology department as an Assistant Professor of environmental and ecological anthropology for the fall semester. Dr. Robert Rhoades was Jim's major professor.

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