Hale Herald - Winter Solstice 2023

Chair's Letter
The Winter Solstice and thus CU’s Winter Break is upon us. May you all have a restful month-ish with family and friends, relaxing, exploring, writing, or doing whatever it is feels needed in the moment. Breaks are also times to catch up on reading for both work and pleasure (and hopefully more in the pleasure category than work category).
Over break anthropology faculty and staff are reading the following:
- Donna Goldstein will be forever reading 1Q84, recommended by Lillian Peterson. It is very good and very long.
- Diving into real-life detective work from the past is on Gerardo Gutierrez’s reading list with La Hija del Virrey: El mundo feminine novohispano en el siglo XVII.
- Matt Sponheimer is reading If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity, and papers on reindeer sensory perception.
- Diana Wilson is immersed in the timely book The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters.
- Good fiction is what Fernando Villanea is reading: A Desolation Called Peace.
- Alison Cool is also diving into fiction, reading The Antarctica of Love by Sara Stridsberg.
- Carole McGranahan is reading poetry, snow reports, and cookie recipes.
- The Thursday Afternoon Murder Club novels are at the top of Will Taylor’s break reading list. And,
- Museum Director Nancy Stevens’ reading plans got disrupted by a(nother) flood in the museum! Instead of getting cozy with a good book, she is fixing stuff and writing to people about getting stuff fixed.
On-campus events this spring include two keynote lectures for our graduate student recruitment weekend on February 22-23 – one by University of Pittsburgh archaeology professor Dela Kuma and the second by CU cultural anthropology professor Alison Cool. On March 1, Dr. Maria Nieves-Colón will present a colloquium in biological anthropology. The Armelagos/Kelso/Van Gerven Lecture Colloquium will be on March 12th by biological anthropologist Michael Blakey. The Distinguished Cultural Anthropologist for this year will be University of Chicago Professor Julie Chu speaking on April 12. All are invited to join us for their public talks.
It was wonderful to connect with alumni at the CU party at the AAAs in Toronto. As always, we are delighted to hear from alumni with updates and news so please do let us know what you are up to! We look forward to seeing some of you at the upcoming AABA meeting in Los Angeles (March 20-23) and SAA meeting in New Orleans (April 17-21).
As we wind down 2023, I am grateful for our wonderful staff, students, and faculty. This issue of the Hale Herald documents many of our collective accomplishments in the last six months. I am especially pleased to share that we have three new PhDs this fall: Dr. Dawa Lokyitsang, Dr. Page McClean, and Dr. Julie Thomas. Congratulations to each of you!
Happy Shortest Day of the Year,
Carole McGranahan, Chair