Department of Anthropology

"As social scientists and public health practitioners familiar with Nepal’s health care delivery and emergency response systems, we recognize that ultimately, the capacity to care for people suffering from COVID-19 in Nepal is severely limited, with roughly 1,500 intensive care beds and just over 800 ventilators in the country. The mountainous terrain throughout much of the country, along with a lack of infrastructure, political marginalization and poverty compound the impacts of infectious disease," write David Citrin, affiliate assistant professor of global health and of anthropology at the UW; Katharine Rankin of the University of Toronto; Galen Murton of James Madison University; and Sienna Craig of Dartmouth College.

Since 1994, alumni and friends in the Multicultural Alumni Partnership have worked together to promote diversity at the UW and address issues of equity and diversity on our campuses and in our community. This year’s promising scholars range from early undergraduates who are still zeroing in on a major to those pursuing graduate and professional degrees.

This week is Nuclear Remembrance Week, a virtual forum to commemorate the 67th anniversary of “Bravo” being tested in the Marshall Islands. Members of Spokane's Marshallese community share their stories. Holly Barker, a teaching professor of anthropology at the UW, is quoted.

Take a look back at the last year of the UW's research of and adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It feels like the pandemic is changing everything, but as vaccine rollout progresses and we squint at what appears to be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, the question to ask now is whether any real changes we’ve had to adopt during a year of pandemic life will stick around in the years to come. The UW’s Steve Goodreau, professor of anthropology, and Fabio Ghironi, professor of economics, are quoted.

Ian Kretzler, a Ph.D. anthropology graduate, and Samson Jenekhe, professor of chemical engineering and chemistry, have been recently awarded honors.

Ancient food scraps found at Australia’s earliest site of human occupation, in the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory, are helping researchers generate rainfall records dating back 65,000 years. A new study led by the University of Queensland and involving the University of Washington provides a glimpse into the region’s climate at the time when people first entered the Australian continent from the north.

The article recounts the story of the Donner Party and asks the reader to imagine being part of the doomed trek. Donald Grayson, professor emeritus of anthropology at the UW, is quoted.

Our primate ancestors might have become “protomusical” to advertise their ability to perform death-defying leaps from tree to tree. David Schruth, a postdoctoral researcher in anthropology at the UW, is referenced.

College of Arts & Sciences Dean Stacey explains that there is an important civic, political, social, and cultural element to an education and that you can get that in a wide variety of majors.

Interested in the College of Arts & Sciences but don’t know what to study? Here are six majors that you may not have discovered yet.

At its final colloquium, the Henry Art Gallery invites academics from the UW and other institutions "to think beyond species."

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.

Ben Fitzhugh, professor of anthropology, explains the results of a new study he co-authored on human migration.

The UW has started offering a new STEM minor in data science, one of the first universities in the country to do so. Ben Marwick, an associate professor of archeology and director of the new data science minor, is quoted.