Professor Manduhai Buyandelger presented her paper, "From Secrecy to Flamboyance and In-Between: Shamanism, Migration, and Urban Life in Mongolia" at last November's Humboldt Foundation Workshop, Religion and the City: Inter-Religious Exchanges in Urban Environments, held in Berlin.

On January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order of extraordinary breadth restricting legally recognized refugees and the nationals of seven majority-Muslim countries (including U.S. legal permanent residents) from entry into the United States....

Professor Stefan Helmreich's book, Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond (Princeton University Press, 2016) was awarded the 2016 Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize from the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. The annual prize is given to a member whose book represents the best academic book on science, literature, and the arts.

Professor Stefan Helmreich's interview with Andrés García Molina and Julien Cossette was featured on the website of Cultural Anthropology. The interview is a follow-up to his research article, "Gravity's Reverb: Listening to Space-Time, or Articulating the Sounds of Gravitational Wave Detection", which appeared in the journal's November 2016 issue.

Lecturer Maria Vidart-Delgado discusses her course, The Anthropology of Politics, in the teachingfordisaster series on "Savage Minds", a group blog on "doing anthropology in public".

Manduhai Buyandelger's research on post-socialist Mongolia is featured in MIT News.

Professor Christine Walley's documentary, Exit Zero, has been awarded the 2015 Studs Terkel Media Prize from the Working Class Studies Association. The film which was co-directed and co-produced with Chris Boebel of MIT's Office of Digital Learning, is a moving family story about the aftermath of the closing of the steel mills in Southeast Chicago during the 1980's.

Professors Heather Paxson and Stefan Helmreich were featured in the final episode of the BBC radio 4 series From Savage to Self. This final episode of the series on the history of anthropology is on "Anthropology Faces the Future".

At the end of the Chicago Skyway, just off Exit Zero, lies southest Chicago, once a leading steel-producing region. The city’s steel mills spanned the shores of Lake Michigan, employed hundreds of thousands of workers, and fostered the growth of nearby communities. By the end of the 1980s, however, the industry collapsed and nearly every mill closed, leaving the neighborhoods with non-existent economies and toxic environments. Anthropologist Christine Walley was fourteen when the steel mill that employed her father closed. Walley narrates the personal impact of deindustrialization on her family and friends. Deep-seated feelings of cynicism and disappointment combine with hopefulness for the next generation in this quintessentially American story of a post-industrial city.

At the end of the Chicago Skyway, just off Exit Zero, lies southest Chicago, once a leading steel-producing region. The city's steel mills spanned the shores of Lake Michigan, employed tens of thousands of workers, and fostered the growth of nearby communities.

Goldberg Professor of Humanities, Sociology, and Anthropology Susan Silbey received a "Caring Award" from the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education. The awards are to recognize excellent dedication and mentorship to students.

Associate Professor Erica James and Professor Dennis McLaughlin, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have been awarded 1 of 8 J-WAFS seed grants for their project, "Leverage Points: Opportunities for Increasing Food Production in Developing Countries"

Associate Professor Erica James' research is featured in the Summer 2015 issue of Spectrum.

Goldberg Professor of Humanities, Sociology, and Anthropology Susan Silbey received the 2015 Stanton Wheeler Mentorship Award from the Law and Society Association for her outstanding contributions as a mentor to students of all levels who are working on law and society issues.

Associate Professor Manduhai Buyandelger was interviewed for the May 20, 2015 issue of the American Anthropological Association's Anthropology News. The interview focuses on her research for the book, Tragic Spirits, which won the 2014 Hsu Book Prize.

Associate Professor Christine Walley’s Exit Zero Project uses family stories told across multiple generations to explore the lasting social and environmental impacts of deindustrialization in the former steel mill communities of Southeast Chicago.

Associate Professor Manduhai Buyandelger's book, Tragic Spirits, is on the Shortlists ICAS Book Prize 2015. The International Convention of Asia Scholars has announced the 6 shortlisted books in the social sciences for its biennial award.

If the global diabetes epidemic now kills more than twice as many people as HIV/AIDS, then why do we still understand so little about what it’s actually like to live with it? Institutional numbers charting this worldwide epidemic’s human costs range wildly, variously approximating somewhere between one million and four million annual mortalities from diabetes. This leaves the concerning statistical specter of some three million lives and deaths each year that are estimated by some, disputed by others, and frequently unrecorded by anyone.

Associate Professor Manduhai Buyandelger has been awarded the 2014 Hsu Prize from the Society of East Asian Anthropology for her book Tragic Spirits.

Professor Jean Jackson who has served as former Program Head and was one of the earliest members of our newly formed Program in 1972, has retired after 42 years of teaching and service to MIT.