Department of Anthropology

May 5, 2023

ArtSci Roundup: Censorship and Modern Chinese Literature, Faculty Recital, Writing from the War in Ukraine and more

This week, attend the lecture on censorship and modern Chinese literature, learn ways to assist community building in the face of long-haul trans survival, join in on the Indigenous writing and storytelling series and more.

December 15, 2022

ArtSci Roundup: January Preview

Start the new year with lectures, performances, exhibitions and more.

November 2, 2022

Infants less likely to contract COVID, develop severe symptoms than household caregivers

In one of the first studies to explore how COVID-19 specifically affects older infants, researchers from the University of Washington and at institutions at four other locations in the Western and Southern U.S. found that the number of infected people in a household was the factor most closely linked with the infant’s likelihood of being infected.

September 30, 2022

ArtSci Roundup: Cuarteto Latinoamericano concert, Sasha Senderovich book launch, Gabriel Kahane concert, and more

Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.

April 7, 2022

UW documentary chronicles story of tree poacher accused of starting 2018 fire

Justin Wilkes looks up at trees with his back to the camera

A new documentary from University of Washington professors Lynn M. Thomas and Daniel Hoffman tells the story of a man accused of starting a wildfire while illegally removing trees from the Olympic National Forest.

March 4, 2022

Ukrainian American professor shares insights on ‘gut-wrenching’ events in Ukraine

Laada Bilaniuk is a professor of anthropology at the whose expertise is Ukrainian culture and society. The daughter of Ukrainian Americans, she shares insights on the Ukrainian people who are resisting, how the conflict relates to the use of language and the perspective of the local Ukrainian community.

April 5, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Borders and Blackness: Communicating Belonging and Grief, Drop-in Session: Meditation Inspired By Nature, and More

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT. Curating…

February 18, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Polymer Physics Prize, anthropology dissertation award

The Polymer Physics Prize from the American Physical Society and a dissertation award from the Society for American Archaeology.

February 2, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Patty Hayes – The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Impacts of Systemic Racism, Book Launch: Union by Law, and More

January 25, 2021

Ancient food scraps provide clues to past rainfall in Australia’s Northern Territory

A new study led by the University of Queensland and involving the University of Washington provides a glimpse into the Australia’s ancient climate and early human occupation.

December 9, 2020

Warm oceans helped first human migration from Asia to North America

New research reveals significant changes to the circulation of the North Pacific and its impact on the initial migration of humans from Asia to North America. It provides a new picture of the circulation and climate of the North Pacific at the end of the last ice age, with implications for early human migration.

October 6, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: From Ally to Antiracist, Re/Frame: Abandoned, and more

September 29, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Velvet Sweatshops and Algorithmic Cruelty, Social Movements & Racial Justice, the Vice Presidential Debate Preview, and More

Margaret O'Mara's history of Silicon Valley was published in July by Penguin Press.

September 22, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Community and Solidarity on the Frontlines, Election 2020, and More

September 8, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Re/frame at the Henry, Coexisting with COVID-19, and more

August 6, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Kim Van Someren at J. Rinehard Gallery, UW Alumni Book Club, Dance Graduate Symposium, and more

July 13, 2020

UW books in brief: Mutiny at sea, an anthropologist’s memoir, ‘unsettling’ Native American art histories, global social media design — and an award for UW Press

Notable new books by UW faculty and staff include a study of rebellion at sea, an emeritus faculty member’s Buddhist-focused memoir, a reconsideration of Northwest Coast Native American art with Indigenous perspectives in mind, thoughts on bridging cultural gaps through design — and an award for the editor-in-chief of UW Press.

June 23, 2020

Video: Students create videos, capping new UW class on music as a form of protest

With the nation debating its response to COVID-19 and witnessing protests against racial injustice and police violence, undergraduate students enrolled in “Visual Anthropology of Protest Music” examined how communities use music to share their lived experiences and confront oppression.

June 18, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Meany Center sets the stage, Henry Art Gallery’s Viewpoints closes soon, and more

April 16, 2020

‘Hands-on’ classes online? How some instructors are adapting to a new teaching environment

A postal service box with lab materials inside

When the UW announced it was moving its spring quarter 2020 classes entirely online to combat the novel coronavirus, instructors across campus faced a new, uncharted challenge.

April 13, 2020

UW team illustrates the adverse impact of visiting ‘just one friend’ during COVID-19 lockdown

After weeks of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, people of all ages may be asking: What could be the harm of visiting just one friend? Unfortunately, it could potentially undo the goal of social distancing, which is to give the COVID-19 virus fewer opportunities to spread. According to a website set up by researchers…

January 21, 2020

A foundation for ‘safe motherhood’ created with and for the Somali community

On a recent Saturday evening, a dozen women gathered around a table at a community room in the White Center neighborhood of Seattle, settling in with snacks and conversation. The evening’s program would be more education than entertainment, an opportunity to discuss topics so sensitive that, without the group of women assembled that night, might…

August 29, 2019

Crowdsourced archaeology shows how humans have influenced Earth for thousands of years

Regions of the map turn purple as the time-lapse counter advances, showing the spread of agriculture over time.

A new map synthesized from more than 250 archaeologists worldwide, including from the University of Washington, argues that the human imprint on our planet’s soil goes back much earlier than the nuclear age.

June 4, 2019

Soundbites: Graham Pruss on vehicle residency

Graham Pruss has been researching vehicle residency in Seattle for nearly a decade. He established the methodology for counting the vehicle-resident population for All Home’s annual point-in-time count, conducted on one night each January.

May 31, 2019

Seattle’s forgotten street community: UW anthropologist talks about the unique circumstances of vehicle residency

UW doctoral student Graham Pruss has studied vehicle residency for a decade. Photo of an RV being used as a residence on a Seattle street.

Vehicle residents are a significant proportion of Seattle’s unsheltered population. The University of Washington’s Graham Pruss, a doctoral candidate in anthropology, has studied vehicle residency for a decade and speaks about the challenges and solutions facing this community.

March 7, 2019

UW anthropologist connects communities to archive of Khmer Rouge-era Cambodia

This is one of dozens of photographs of Cambodian citizens, taken by journalist and UW alum Elizabeth Becker on her tour of the country in 1978. Photo of young girl in a factory

A new project by Jenna Grant, UW assistant professor of anthropology, uses an archive of photos and documents from the Khmer Rouge era — the donation of a journalist and UW alum — to help facilitate storytelling among Cambodians and Cambodian-Americans.

November 19, 2018

The ‘Swiss Army knife of prehistoric tools’ found in Asia, independent of ancient African or European influence

These artifacts found in China are among the nearly four dozen that reflect the Levallois technique of toolmaking. In a paper published Nov. 19 in Nature, researchers date these artifacts to between 80,000 and 170,000 years ago. Photo of various stones, shaped by knapping.

A study by an international team of researchers, including from the University of Washington, determines that carved stone tools, also known as Levallois cores, were used in Asia 80,000 to 170,000 years ago. With the find — and absent human fossils linking the tools to migrating populations — researchers believe people in Asia developed the technology independently, evidence of similar sets of skills evolving throughout different parts of the ancient world.

October 30, 2018

Study reconstructs Neandertal ribcage, offers new clues to ancient human anatomy

An international team of researchers, including from the University of Washington, has completed a 3D virtual reconstruction of a Neandertal thorax a model that indicates an upright individual with greater lung capacity and a straighter spine than today’s modern human.

October 24, 2018

New center to recognize American Indian and Indigenous Studies

As the discipline of American Indian Studies approaches its 50th year at the University of Washington, a new research center is in the works: the Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, which is supported by multiple colleges and schools.

October 3, 2018

3,500-year-old pumpkin spice? Archaeologists find earliest use of nutmeg as a food

A potsherd artifact found at the Pulau Ay archaeological site. It was one of several pottery pieces containing traces of foods, including the earliest-known use of nutmeg. Photo of small piece of pottery.

On a small island in Indonesia, University of Washington researchers found evidence of nutmeg as residue on ceramic potsherds and is estimated to be 3,500 years old — about 2,000 years older than the previously known use of the spice.

June 12, 2018

Anthropology professor focuses book on the bonds between humans, animals

Radhika Govindrajan’s book “Animal Intimacies” started attracting attention before it was even available to readers. A University of Washington assistant professor of anthropology since 2015, Govindrajan specializes in animal studies, and in the politics and culture of the Central Himalayas, where much of the research for this book was conducted. “Animal Intimacies,” published in May…

May 25, 2018

Anthropologist explores China’s changing art scene in ‘Experimental Beijing’

Sasha Welland's book, "Experimental Beijing," was published by Duke University Press.

On a two-year stint teaching English in Beijing, Sasha Welland got her first glimpse of contemporary Chinese art. Not the antiquities so common in Western museums of Asian art, or the scroll paintings or ceramics or Buddhist sculptures, explains Welland, an associate professor in the University of Washington departments of anthropology and gender, women and…

March 15, 2018

New minor recognizes, celebrates Pacific Islander community

The University of Washington’s new minor in Oceania and Pacific Islander Studies debuts spring quarter. The 25-credit, interdisciplinary program is the result of a longtime effort to elevate the history and culture of an underrepresented, and often misrepresented, community.

January 31, 2018

Reconstructing an ancient lethal weapon

Archaeologists are a little like forensic investigators: They scour the remains of past societies, looking for clues in pottery, tools and bones about how people lived, and how they died. And just as detectives might re-create the scene of a crime, University of Washington archaeologists have re-created the weapons used by hunter-gatherers in…

July 19, 2017

Artifacts suggest humans arrived in Australia earlier than thought

These three axeheads and a square grinding stone were among the finds at Madjedbebe. A team that included researchers from the University of Washington dated artifacts from the dig site in Australia's Northern Territory.

When and how the first humans made their way to Australia has been an evolving story. While it is accepted that humans appeared in Africa some 200,000 years ago, scientists in recent years have placed the approximate date of human settlement in Australia further and further back in time, as part of ongoing questions…

July 3, 2017

Q & A: Janelle Taylor on ‘exemplary friends’ of people with dementia

Dementia affects millions of people around the world; the World Health Organization estimates 9.9 million new cases each year, and the total number of people with dementia is expected to nearly triple by 2050. And for every person with dementia, there are family members and friends who also experience their loved one’s decline. University of…

May 25, 2017

UW anthropologist: Why researchers should share computer code

For years, scientists have discussed whether and how to share data from painstaking research and costly experiments. Some are further along in their efforts toward “open science” than others: Fields such as astronomy and oceanography, for example, involve such expensive and large-scale equipment and logistical challenges to data collection that collaboration among institutions has become…

May 9, 2017

Early human fossils found in South African cave system

This skull, part of a skeleton that scientists have named Neo, was found in the Lesedi Chamber of the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa. Most of the bones in the middle of the face are intact, unlike another skull found in a nearby chamber of the cave system.

An international team of scientists, including one from the University of Washington, has announced the discovery of additional remains of a new human species, Homo naledi, in a series of caves northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. The find includes the remains of two adults and a child in the Lesedi Chamber of the Rising…

April 12, 2017

Why treating animals may be important in fighting resurgent tropical disease

As the World Health Organization steps up its efforts to eradicate a once-rampant tropical disease, a University of Washington study suggests that monitoring, and potentially treating, the monkeys that co-exist with humans in affected parts of the world may be part of the global strategy. Yaws, an infectious disease that causes disfiguring skin lesions…

February 15, 2017

UW affiliate faculty member in anthropology presents her book, ‘Seawomen of Iceland’

Maritime communities take various forms around the planet and through the centuries. Margaret Willson, affiliate associate professor of anthropology and Canadian Studies Arctic Program at the University of Washington, is the author of “Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge,” published in 2016 by University of Washington Press. UW Today asked Willson a few questions…