STUDENT NEWS....

Congratulations to Zenobia Carver for receiving the Who's Who Among Students at UCF award for the 2007-08 year. Zenobia is a major in Anthropology and Psychology.

On October 6, 2007, a group of Graduate students from BIPEDAL APES (Anthropology Club) participated in the Olympics at UCF, an event to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. They came in second place, but won the BIG trophy for donating the most!!! BIPEDAL APES would like to thank all of you who participated and came to support us: the team was, Charles Dionne, Sarah Kindschuh, Roberta Murphy, Mary Rezos, Andy Tetlow, Liz Wallace, and Dennis Wardlaw. Supporters included Lauren Britton, Ed Nuckols, and Jesse Sloan.They would also like to thank the Honor’s Congress for hosting the event, they had a blast!! For more information on BIPEDAL APES, please contact Mary Rezos at mrezos@mail.ucf.edu. Below are some pictures from the event...

Former anthropology student Margaret “Tess” Bonacci was formally sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer; her assignment is in Zambia, where she will be living for two years, focusing on HIV and AIDs education to teenagers.

Former HIM in Anthropology student Paul Fisk is in his second year of the MA in the Department of Education, Culture, and Society at The University of Utah. He will be presenting papers at two professional conferences this year: LatCrit XI-Latino/a Critical Theory and the AESA-American Educational Studies Association.

FACULTY NEWS....

Congratulations to Drs. Diane and Arlen Chase in February 2008 for receiving a $412,000 grant in order to dig deeper into the uncharted jungles of Belize. With the help of the NASA Space Archaeology Program and a UCF-UF Space Research Initiative grant, the Caracol Archaeological Project will be using canopy-penetrating lasers to map Mayan ruins and detail the forest structure in Caracol, Belize. For more details, please read the story in the Orlando Sentinel.

Congratulations to Dr. John Schultz for receiving a grant from the National Institute of Justice in Fall 2007.

Welcome to Dr. Matthew McIntyre who joins our faculty as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2007. Dr. McIntyre, who specializes in biological anthropology, comes from Harvard University.

Welcome to Dr. Sarah "Stacey" Barber who joins our faculty as a Assistant Professor in the fall of 2007. Dr. Barber, who specializes in archaeology, comes from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Congratulations to Dr. Arlen Chase who has been selected as one of three Pegasus professors for 2007-08. The Pegasus Professor Award is the university’s top honor for excellence in teaching, research, and service. For more details, please read the article provided by UCF News and Information.

Congratulations to Dr. John Schultz for receiving the University Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2007. Dr. John Schultz received the award at the 19th annual Founder’s Day Honors Convocation Ceremony held on April 4th. He earned praise for having a significant impact on undergraduate enrollment in Anthropology and for his hands-on teaching efforts that prepare students for their careers. For more details, please read the article provided by UCF News and Information.

Congratulations to Dr. Rosalyn Howard who received promotion to Associate Professor and tenure in May, 2006. Dr. Howard was also awarded a Teaching Incentive Award in 2006. The Looking for Angola Project that she is part of received a $10,000 grant from The History Channel for public anthropology programs in the Sarasota and Manatee county schools, and another to conduct underwater archaeology.

Dr. Leslie Sue Lieberman was recently honored with the Dragutin Gorvanovic-Kramberger Memorial Plaque and certificate from the Croatian Anthropological Society at the 32nd annual School of Biological Anthropology held in June in Zagreb. Dr. Lieberman also organized a second conference ( "Anthropological Perspectives on Women and the Obesity Pandemic: Causes, Costs and Controls") held on the island of Hvar and the proceedings will be published in Collegium Antropologicum with Dr. Lieberman as the guest editor. Dr. Lieberman's article, "Evolutionary and anthropological perspectives on optimal foraging in obesiogenic environments" was recently published in the journal, Appetite.

Dr. Ty Matejowsky received a UCF In-House research grant to support his research on fast food in the Philippines. His article "SPAM & Fast Food 'Glocalization' in the Philippines" will be coming out in the Spring 2007 edition of the journal, Food & Culture. Additionally, Dr. Matejowsky's book chapter entitled "Global Tastes, Local Contexts: An Ethnographic Account of Fast Food Market Expansion in San Fernando City, the Philippines" was just published in the book, "Fast/Slow Food".

Dr. Allyn Stearman's article, " One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Sirion? and Yuqu? Community Forestry Projects in the Bolivian Amazon" was recently published in the journal, Human Organization. Dr. Stearman spent the summer researching among the Yuqu? of lowland Bolivia on their uses of wax and propolis of native stingless bees in the construction of arrows and in other items of their material culture. Dr. Stearman is also currentlyI translating from Spanish to English the book: Pueblos y Miel: El Conocimiento Sobre Abejas Nativas Entre Los Ayoreos de la TCO Guat , by Henriette Szabo and Eugenio Stierlin, Aguag?e. Santa Cruz, Bolivia. 149 pp. This translation and publication in English will make this research available to a wider scientific audience.

Dr. John Walker is featured in the May issue of Science, discussing "Early American Astronomy". Press here to link to this story.

Dr. Ron Wallace's article, "Neural membrane microdomains as computational systems: Toward molecular modeling in the study of neural disease" has been recently published in BioSystems.

Congratulations to Dr. Tosha Dupras on the release of her new book, The Osteology of Infants and Children (co-authored with B. Baker and M. Tocheri, Texas A&M Press, 2005). All the illustrations in this book were done by former UCF Anthropology student, Sandra Wheeler.

Congratulations to Dr. Tosha Dupras and Dr. John Schultz for the release of their new book, Forensic Recovery of Human Remains: Archaeological Approaches (CRC Press, 2005). This book was co-authored with two former UCF Anthropology students, Sandra Wheeler and Lana Williams.

Dr. David Jones and his book, An Instinct for Dragons, were featured on the History Channel's show, "Quest for Dragons" in August, 2005.

Congratulations to Dr. Rosalyn Howard who received a grant from the National Parks Service. The Project title is: "South Florida National Parks*Links in the Broken Chains of Slavery: Finding Freedom Seekers' Trails through the Florida National Parks"

Congratulations to Dr. Tosha Dupras who received tenure and promotion in May, 2005.

Congratulations to Dr. Elayne Zorn who received a Teaching Incentive Award in 2005. Dr. Zorn has also received a sabbatical leave for 2005-2006 to work on a book on culture and ethnonationalism in contemporary Bolivia, and will be doing library research in Gainesville, Pittsburgh and Austin, and ethnographic fieldwork in Bolivia.

Congratulations to Dr. Tosha Dupras who received a Research Incentive Award in 2005.

Dr. Ron Wallace was also recognized at the Founder's Day Convocation for his 30 years of service to UCF.

Dr. Rosalyn Howard was quoted extensively by the Sun-Sentinel in a story previewing the National Underground Railroad dedication event.

Dr. Elayne Zorn was interviewed on the Augustana Public Radio program "About Books" by co-host Faye Clow, of the Bettendorf Public Library Information Center of Augustana College. Dr. Zorn discussed her new book on Andean weaving, Weaving a Future: Tourism, Cloth, and Culture on an Andean Island (University of Iowa Press, 2004). The interview is available on the Internet during April 2005 at http://www.augustana.edu/wvik/listings-aboutbooks.htm.

Dr. John Schultz is featured in "Mummy Autopsy," a new Discovery Channel television show.

Congratulations to Dr. Tosha Dupras who has received a Teaching Incentive Program Award in 2004. Dr. Tosha Dupras was awarded the University Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award at the 16th annual Founder's Day Honors Convocation Ceremony held on April 7th. Dr. Dupras was also presented with an award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for the College of Arts & Sciences. Also honored at the Founder's Day Celebration were Drs. Arlen and Diane Chase, for their 20 years of service to UCF and undergraduate Anthropology student Zachary Blair who was one of the top one percent of students in the College of Arts and Sciences.

At an award ceremony held on March 16th, Dr. John Schultz was presented with a Certificate of Commendation for his assistance to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. He is shown here receiving his commendation from Sheriff Kevin Beary.

At the 2003 Founders Day Awards Ceremony, Dr. Diane Chase was presented with the Pegasus Professor Award by Dr. Gary Whitehouse.	Dr. Eric Van Stryland, Engineering (Pictured on the Left) and Dr. Diane Chase, Sociology & Anthropology (Pictured on the Right) were selected as the 2003-2004 Pegasus Professors.

Cultural anthropologist Dr. Elayne Zorn (red shirt, center) carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Peru and Bolivia during July 2002 as part of a long-term project with the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which is preparing to reinstall its spectacular Hall of the Americas. In this photograph Zorn is speaking Quechua (Inca) with indigenous weavers in Pitumarca, Cusco, Peru, interviewing them about how they set up a loom to weave an exceptionally complicated textile technique called discontinuous warp and weft. This technique was perfected more than a thousand years ago by ancient Andean weavers, but it was believed that knowledge of this technique was lost after the Spanish Conquest of Peru in the 16th century. Zorn's research interests focus on contemporary peoples of highland Peru and Bolivia, in the areas of political economy, tourism, weaving, gender, and writing. She teaches undergraduate anthropology courses that include Peoples of the World, Cultures of Latin America, and the Incas, as well as a graduate course on the Contemporary Maya.