Anthropology
-
Life Beyond the Redwoods: Maxwell Ward follows his dreams one year after UCSC graduation
One year after graduating from UCSC, Maxwell Ward (Cowell ’22, history of art and visual culture and anthropology) is pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology with a focus on archaeology from McGill University in Quebec and is an editor at Collective Research in Anthropology Journal.
-
Fishing chimpanzees found to enjoy termites as a seasonal treat
A UCSC-led research team that copied chimpanzee tools and techniques showed that chimpanzees living in western Tanzania can only reliably fish for termites in the early wet season.
-
Recognizing outstanding faculty and staff in the Division of Social Sciences
The Social Sciences Division’s annual fall breakfast gathered faculty and staff to celebrate the winners of four major divisional awards.
-
Anthropology faculty members partner on new National Science Foundation Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science
UC Santa Cruz anthropology faculty members Tsim Schneider and Jon Daehnke received a more than $500,000 subaward through a new National Science Foundation (NSF) center that aims to address climate change by equitably combining insights from Indigenous knowledges and mainstream “Western” sciences.
-
In Memoriam: May N. Diaz
Anthropologist May N. Diaz, the second Provost of Kresge College, died at the age of 102. In her long career, she was a mentor to many graduate students and junior faculty and an acclaimed scholar, who shaped the fields of peasant anthropology and women’s studies.
-
First DNA analysis of Machu Picchu residents offers insight into Inca society
DNA analysis, conducted largely at UC Santa Cruz’s Paleogenomics Lab and led by Anthropology Professor Lars Fehren-Schmitz, suggests that servants at Machu Picchu were a uniquely diverse group, and the geographic extent of ancestral origins may even challenge historical narratives about how and when the Inca Empire expanded.
-
New stable isotope map of Angola helps archaeologists trace individual life histories across the African Diaspora
UCSC researchers’ methods could provide significantly more detail and certainty in identifying first-generation enslaved individuals in the Americas and tracing back their origins within Africa than was previously possible through strontium isotope analysis work or genetic analysis.
-
UCSC receives NEH awards that will further research in anthropology and musicology
On January 10, the NEH announced $28.1 million in grants toward 204 humanities projects nationwide. Two of this year’s recipients are part of the Slug family themselves, and their new grants will help to further their research in both anthropology and musicology at UC Santa Cruz.
-
UCSC welcomes 41 outstanding new faculty members
With the start of the 2022-23 academic year, UC Santa Cruz welcomes 41 new senate faculty members. The research and creative scholarship and expertise brought to our campus by these new faculty colleagues will strengthen existing areas of work and open discovery opportunities.
-
UC-HBCU grants support UCSC faculty collaborations with HBCUs
A summer research program and a historical archaeology course won funding from a UC initiative to support partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
-
Maxwell Ward
Maxwell Ward always wanted to be an archeologist, following tales of adventure like the search for the tomb of Genghis Khan. But he realizes now that treasure hunting is the smallest part of being an archaeologist. The biggest part today is ethics, and helping make the discipline accessible to native people who have been historically…
-
Sarah Peelo named 2022 Social Sciences Division Distinguished Graduate Student Alumna
Sarah Peelo (Ph.D. Anthropology ’09) looked to UC Santa Cruz as an institution beaming with women in leadership. Now company president and co-owner of cultural resource management firm, Albion, Peelo is at the forefront of cultural preservation in the Bay Area.