Departmental News

Spring 2023

• Dr. Nicole Taylor on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog

  Dr. Nicole Taylor and co-author Mimi Nichter explore the many kinds of labor involved in maintaining different digital selves across online spaces on the CASTAC (Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology and Computing) Blog.

• 2023 Anthropology Student Research Conference | April 14, 2023

  The Anthropology Department is holding their annual Anthropology Student Research Conference on Friday, April 14, 2023. 

  The conference features paper and poster sessions, a keynote presentation, catered lunch, and a concluding reception with food and drinks. 

  Presentations are accepted in all sub-fields and styles of anthropology, and cash prizes are available to winners!

  • 1st place | $100
  • 2nd place | $50
  • 3rd place | $25

  To submit a paper or poster email your title and abstract (150-200 words) to Drs. Smith and Warms by Sunday, April 2, 11:59 pm. 

   

• 2023 Anthropology Career Workshop

  Join the Department of Anthropology for our 2023 Career Workshop.  Students are invited to explore job prospects and career options with an Anthropology Degree. 

  The workshop will consist of a 65 minute program featuring both faculty presentations a question and answer session.  Advanced registration is required.

  Date | Thursday, April 6th, 2023
  Time | 4:30pm – 5:30 p.m.
  Target Audience | Current TXST UG Anthropology majors and minors

  Please contact Dr. Augustine Agwuele with any questions.

  Visit the Career Workshop Page for the workshop schedule and registration.

   

• Krysten Cruz receives a Scarborough Fellowship from the ASCSA in Athens, Greece

  Krysten Cruz, a doctoral student in biological anthropology, receives a William Sanders Scarborough Fellowship from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens for the fall 2023. The fellowship supports Krysten's dissertation research efforts on the early Mycenaean burial sample from Ancient Eleon in central Greece and provides funding for transportation, housing, and research at the school this fall.

• Dr. Nick Herrmann wins Outstanding Mentorship Award at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Conference

  At the American Academy of Forensic Sciences meeting in February 2023, Dr. Nick Herrmann was awarded the Outstanding Mentorship Award for the Anthropology section. He was nominated by current and former students from Texas State University and beyond. Per the AAFS Anthropology Section call for nominations, "The award is designed to honor mentors who exemplify extraordinary selflessness as they support and contribute to the career development and advancement of students, colleagues, and the discipline of forensic anthropology. This award recognizes an individual who has excelled at mentoring others in achieving their educational and career objectives through moral, social, and intellectual support."

• Archaeological Field School I Texas State University Anthropology

  The 2023 Archaeological Field School will take place during the Summer I semester, from May 30-June 30, 2023, and will be located right here in San Marcos, Texas. We will learn survey and excavation techniques at two archaeological sites on TXST campus: The Freeman Ranch and Spring Lake sites, so you can gain a real field experience in an accredited field school almost in your own backyard. If you are not already in San Marcos, come on down and join us in June to make it your backyard. Our survey and excavation methodology will allow students to learn practical skills used in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) and other applied fieldwork settings, and will include geoarchaeological techniques, paleoenvironmental sampling, digital data recording, and remote sensing with equipment such as ground penetrating radar (GPR). Our research questions driving the projects will allow students to gain experience in the region’s cultural history and archaeological signatures to prepare them to be professionals in Texas and other regions of North America. Enrollment is limited and there is an application process.

  Students should visit the course webpage on the Study In America website and find more details about the field school and access the application.

   

• Doctoral Students Receive $10,000 Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship

  Congratulations to doctoral students Petra Banks, Justin Goldstein, and Emilie Wiedenmeyer who each received a $10,000 Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship. Only fifteen of these awards are given annually and are to support students in the dissertation writing phase. This is really an accomplishment. Thanks to mentors Drs. Hamilton, Herrmann, and Gocha, and to The Graduate College funding specialists Drs. Hilkovitz and Smith for their support.

• ANTH 7352 class project on display in Alkek Library

  Last spring (2022) PhD students in ANTH 7352 conducted an applied, public history project for the College of Liberal Arts. The project, titled "Our COVID Experience" is now on display on the second floor of Alkek Library.

  The exhibit features photos and captions from Texas State Students chronicling their experience with COVID-19. It also includes opportunities for viewers to contribute their own photos online and to participate in a shared discussion on what recovery from the pandemic should look like.

  Stop by and see the exhibit today!

• Ashley McKeown and Todd Ahlman present research at the Society for Historical Archaeology in Lisbon, Portugal

  In early January, Ashley McKeown and Todd Ahlman attended the Society for Historical Archaeology's Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology in Lisbon, Portugal. Todd Ahlman and his colleague Gerald Schroedl presented a paper entitled "Shared Landscapes and Contested Spaces: The Military Landscapes of St. Kitts and St. Eustatius" in the invited symposium "Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective." Ashley McKeown presented a paper entitled "Hiding on Maroon Ridge: The Search for Maroon Settlements on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands" that was co-authored with Todd Ahlman, Texas State graduate student Kallista Karastamatis, and volunteer Kathryn Ahlman. This research was funded by a Texas State Research Enhancement Program grant.

• Texas State University Department of Anthropology graduate students interviewed in Texas Tribune about exhumations in Eagle Pass, Texas

  In Maverick County, 26 bodies pulled from the Rio Grande were buried, some without attempts to identify them. Teams of Texas State students are trying to learn their names so their families can be notified.

  This Texas Tribune article features descriptions and quotes from our MA and PhD students.

• Kate Spradley on MSNBC Jose Diaz-Balart Reports

  Dr. Spradley was interviewed on MSNBC Jose Diaz-Balart Reports about Operation Identification and recent exhumations with students in Eagle Pass, Texas.

• Dr. VandenBroek publishes article in Journal of Business Anthropology (Open Access)

  Dr. VandenBroek recently published an article in Journal of Business Anthropology (Open Access). 

  VandenBroek, Angela Kristin. 2022. “Like Clockwork: Experts and Expertise in Stockholm’s Startup and Innovation Ecosystem.” Journal of Business Anthropology 11 (2). https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v11i2.6780.

  Abstract
  SthlmTech, Stockholm’s startup ecosystem, is famous for being an innovation hub that produces more billion-dollar startups per capita than anywhere else except Silicon Valley. This success, people within the community say, is down to the ecosystem of organizations and experts that facilitate the creation and growth of startups via a well-organized curriculum that guides entrepreneurs through the “business” of starting-up. In this article, I examine this understanding of the ecosystem as a neutral, smooth, and ordered apparatus for maximizing the speed and efficiency of innovation. Specifically, I challenge how this popular conception of the ecosystem conceptualizes expertise and experts as mechanistic components ready to be deployed along the path of entrepreneurs training. By analyzing the expertise of ecosystem experts in practice, this paper aims to demonstrate what the ecosystem curriculum foregrounds and what it obscures and how the ideas behind this curriculum shape much more than routine business procedure.

  

  

   

   

• President Damphousse visits CAS (Center for Archaeological Studies)

  President Kelly Damphousse toured CAS on 1/19/2023 to learn about the archaeological research, curation activities, and student mentoring that takes place through the center.  His visit was also featured in the president’s monthly newsletter The Current and is on his top ten moments of January 2023.