SAR Board Member Awarded 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship
Brenda Child, the Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has been awarded a 2022 Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Child was a Katrin Lamon Fellow at SAR in 1992-1993 and now serves on SAR’s...
In Memoriam Nancy Owen Lewis (1945–2022)
With great sadness, SAR notes the passing of Dr. Nancy Owen Lewis, our longtime Director of Scholar Programs, Scholar-in-Residence, and tireless advocate, tour guide, public speaker, and prolific author. Before coming to SAR, Nancy received her Ph.D. in cultural...Paul Farmer (1959-2022) and SAR
Dr. Paul Farmer, humanitarian, physician, and anthropologist, died in his sleep on February 21 in Butaro, Rwanda, reportedly of a heart attack. He was 62. Eulogies are pouring in from around the world in recognition of Farmer’s tireless efforts to treat...
Ayahuasca Tourism In Perú: A Tale of Violence and Indigenous Resistance
Abou Farman (Anthropology, The New School) was recently at SAR as a participant in the advanced seminar “Death Culture in the 21st Century,” co-chaired by Shannon Lee Dawdy (University of Chicago) and Tamara E. Kneese (U. San Francisco). Knowing about my interest in Amazonia, Abou passed along information on a recent tragedy in Amazonian Peru that took place not far from the major city of Pucallpa.
The Sound of Prehistory
SAR scholars have pursued many unusual research projects over the decades, but one of the more memorable of recent years was that of Miriam Kolar (Weatherhead Resident Scholar, 2016-2017). Kolar, who received her doctorate from Stanford, is a prominent practitioner of the emerging specialty of archaeoacoustics, which brings together acoustic science and archaeology in an effort to understand how sound was used in used in prehistoric times to coordinate collective activity and, in some cases, to inspire awe during religious rituals.
Climate Change, Skepticism, Scale
On June 1, 2018, the School for Advanced Research and The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico hosted New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert at Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center. The event drew a capacity crowd of more than 700. Kolbert presented a 30-minute talk that was followed by an on-stage Q&A by Terry Sullivan, director of The Nature Conservancy NM, and SAR president Michael Brown. This event, the title of which was “The Fate of the Earth,” was presented under the auspices of SAR’s annual President’s Lecture.
Are Human Bodies Private Property or Part of a Commons?
Are Human Bodies Private Property or Part of a Commons? Michael F. Brown On Wednesday, April 17, 2018, SAR was pleased to host presentations by Nancy Scheper-Hughes (Chancellor’s Professor Emerita, UC-Berkeley) and Òrla O’Donovan (School of Applied Social...
Immigration, Race and Place: Roots and Raices in Los Angeles
Sociologist Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo summarizes the research underlying the book she is writing at SAR, examining the transformation and persistence of communities in South L.A., which has seen a tremendous influx of Latino/a immigration and is no longer predominantly African-American. She focuses on three neighborhoods, on generational differences, and particularly on changing uses of public spaces such as parks.