The Department of Anthropology has had an action-packed month filled with major research milestones, field school launches, and media spotlights across the globe. From celebrating five years of faculty book publications to uncovering 12,000-year-old history in the Great Basin, here is a look at what the community accomplished.
Celebrating Five Years of Faculty Scholarship
The Department of Anthropology gathered on March 4 for a Celebration of Scholarship, honoring the wide range of research produced by community members—including ten books published by faculty over the last five years.The event featured a rotating slideshow highlighting recent faculty and graduate student research, alongside an "Improbable Facts Game" matching department members with surprising background details. Special thanks to Josh Snodgrass, Leticia Stival, the Executive Committee, and ASU5 for organizing the event.Colloquium: "Decolonizing African Museums" with Dr. Fredrick Kyalo ManthiFredrick Kyalo Manthi joined the department as courtesy faculty and visited from Kenya later this month. Manthi presented a departmental colloquium titled "Decolonizing African Museums."
Faculty & Research Associate Updates
Lynn Stephen
Stephen announced three recent and upcoming presentations detailing Indigenous migration and transborder territories:Feb. 3, 2026: Presented "Building Indigenous Transborder Territories" at the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University.March 17–21, 2026: Presenting "Building Transborder Territories in a War Against Immigrants: Mesoamerican Indigenous Peoples in Oregon" at the Society for Applied Anthropology 86th Annual Meeting.March 25, 2026: Presenting "Construyendo Territorios Transfronterizos Mesoamericanos en Diáspora: Ideas Principales y Metodologías de Colaboración" at CIESAS in Mexico City.
Marcela Mendoza and María Belén Carpio
Courtesy Research Associates Mendoza and Carpio published co-authored research in Scientific Data (12:1958) titled “A curated global dataset of social contact between diverse language communities.”In collaboration with Dr. Michelle Scalise Sugiyama’s Human Animal Lab, they also co-authored “Resilience and Recovery in the Gran Chaco: Ecological Knowledge Encoded in Indigenous Wildfire Stories” in the Journal of Ethnobiology.Additionally, Dr. Carpio was promoted to Investigadora Independiente at CONICET in Argentina.
Josh Snodgrass
Policy & Surveillance Research: A perspectives piece led by undergraduate Bella Albiani, alongside senior authors Josh Snodgrass and Jo Weaver, was published in Science Politics: “How to Ensure the Most Vulnerable Don’t Go Hungry.” Albiani will enter the Anthropology PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis this fall.MedAdvance Conference: The Snodgrass Lab co-organized the 4th annual MedAdvance conference alongside MAPS and SGH, facilitating workshops for over 100 pre-health students across Oregon.Global Health Publication: The first paper from the WHO World Health Survey Plus (WHS+) study, coordinated by Snodgrass and Alicia DeLouize, was published in Public Health, analyzing diabetes prevalence and control in Cambodia.
Fieldwork & Program Launches
Launching the Northern Great Basin Collaborative Archaeology Field SchoolKatelyn McDonough announced the launch of a new four-week field school (June 22 – July 17) in Oregon's Fort Rock Basin. Developed in partnership between the University of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Tribal Historic Preservation Office, GeoVisions, and the University of Nevada, Reno, the program integrates archaeological science with Indigenous knowledge systems. Application details will be available shortly on the MNCH website.
Student & Alumni Milestones
Jenneca McCarter successfully defended and deposited her dissertation for a winter graduation.Tian Walker successfully defended her dissertation, “Biocultural Interrogations of Diabetes: From Cells to Populations to Lived Experiences,” and will begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina next month.Alex Tidwell (undergraduate) received a CAS Experiential Learning Opportunity Scholarship and completed LA-ICP-MS training at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility in Chicago for his senior thesis on geochemical sourcing of chert.Lindsey Foltz (PhD '22), currently Associate Police Auditor for the City of Eugene, has three recent publications on food sovereignty in Food, Culture, & Society, Prospect Books, and Cultural Analysis, and will present on police oversight at the upcoming Society for Applied Anthropology meeting.
Department Media Coverage
[CAS Connection] Features Dr. Alison Carter and undergraduate researchers detailing efforts to identify and repatriate looted cultural artifacts to Cambodia: Lesson in Looted Artifacts.[NPR's All Things Considered] Interviewed Richie Rosencrance regarding a Science Advances study on 12,000-year-old perishable technologies in the northern Great Basin, featuring research by Katelyn McDonough, Dr. Tom Connolly, Dr. Dennis Jenkins, Elizabeth Kallenbach, and Pamela Endzweig.[Daily Emerald] Highlights the interdisciplinary Health and Homelessness Research Group, featuring department faculty and students.