Hale Herald - Autumnal Equinox 2022

Professor Hammons presented clips from his new documentary feature American Refuge at Ethnography in Progress in April.  He organized "The Portal of Eternal Return," a satellite program for the Society for Cultural Anthropology biennial conference in June, and co-presented "American Refuge: The Chronotope of Ethnofiction" at Visible Evidence in Gdansk, Poland in August.  He will present American Refuge at the Visual Research Conference at the AAAs in Seattle in November and serve as a juror at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, which he will co-direct next year.  He also continues to serve as the on-set guardian of his daughter Sophia Hammons, who recently wrapped production on the new Hulu series Up Here.  The series will premiere in early 2023.

Christian Hammons (Associate Teaching Professor)

Professor Hammons presented clips from his new documentary feature American Refuge at Ethnography in Progress in April.  He organized "The Portal of Eternal Return," a satellite program for the Society for Cultural Anthropology biennial conference in June, and co-presented "American Refuge: The Chronotope of Ethnofiction" at Visible Evidence in Gdansk, Poland in August.  He will present American Refuge at the Visual Research Conference at the AAAs in Seattle in November and serve as a juror at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, which he will co-direct next year.  He also continues to serve as the on-set guardian of his daughter Sophia Hammons, who recently wrapped production on the new Hulu series Up Here.  The series will premiere in early 2023.

Katie McGuire (Ph.D. Biological Anthropology in Progress)

Ph.D student Katie Mcguire's dissertation research explores individual variation in ring-tailed lemur social behavior with a particular emphasis in how this variation contributes to the efficacy of animal social groups.  For example, an important benefit of group-living is having more individuals to detect potential threats in the environment. The photo from her fieldwork on St. Catherines Island (Georgia, USA) depicts the dominant female of East Road group (Pearl Heart) standing on her hind legs to find the source of some nearby rustling leaves while her group grooms and rests on the ground; the culprit ended up being a harmless, ambling armadillo, but the lemurs and Katie did have interactions with alligators, snakes, hawks, raccoons, and wild pigs during my six months of data collection last year.   

Connor Ball (BA in Anthropology in Progress)

Connor’s research attempts to improve interpretations of archaeological lithic assemblages by establishing different potential uses of projectile points in relation to faunal, ceramic, geographic data, and oral traditions. He traveled to Santa Fe via a museum grant to examine projectile points from two archaeological sites in northern New Mexico to apply this research to this region of the Southwest. His research will help to understand subsistence and tool use in the Southwest and beyond.

Marnie Thomson (Ph.D. Anthropology 2017)

Marnie Thomson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Fort Lewis College, directed an ethnographic methods field school in Tanzania this summer.  In Durango, the students learned some Swahili and designed individual ethnographic research projects related to the program themes - international aid, COVID 19, and gender.  In Tanzania, students lived in a Chagga family home in Boma Ng'ombe.  FLC students worked with student translators from Tenegeru Institute of Community Development, and conducted participant observation at open air markets, in a Maasai village, in local neighborhoods and homes, at primary school, at a medical clinic, at Femme International (an NGO), and their translators' university.