Department of Anthropology
Discover how anthropology comes alive through our faculty, staff and students. We are proud of our premiere undergraduate and graduate programs that engage students to actively understand the human condition and our primate relatives.
News
- Saidouri Zomaya, M.A. student in Cultural Anthropology, has written an article entitled Al-Hasakah, Syria, & Albany Park, Chicago, USA for the Refugees in Towns project based at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University and funded by the Henry J. Leir Foundation.
- Micah Morton, Ph.D. co-authored an article in Asian Ethnology entitled "Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Shifting State-Society Relations and Emerging Resource Frontiers in China's Southwest Borderlands."
- Congratulations to Kerry Sagebiel, Ph.D for winning the Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction Award.
- Giovanni Bennardo published an edited book titled Cultural Models of Nature: Primary Food Producers and Climate Change by Routledge Press.
- Mitch Irwin, Ph.D. published an article in Folia Primatologica documenting the social behavior and female dominance of wild diademed sifakas (a type of lemur).
- Mark Schuller, Ph.D. was elected president of the Haitian Studies Association.
Events
NIU Anthropology Anti-Racism Statement
As anthropologists of NIU, we join the voices in the United States and around the world in condemning recent and continued acts of anti-Black violence and racism. We grieve the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others to count at the hands of state-sponsored police violence. We stand in solidarity with our students, faculty and staff who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); and with the Association of Black Anthropologists, read the statement against police violence and anti-Black racism.
We recognize the legacies of colonialism, racism, and white supremacy in the history and development of the discipline of anthropology. We pledge to reckon diligently and continually with that history in our efforts to decolonize teaching, research, museum collections, field sites, and mentorship; to recruit faculty, staff and graduate students with the intent of further diversifying our department community; and to continue to develop anti-racist pedagogy that affirms our diverse students who have the power to enact change in our field and in the world. We are still learning, and we still have work to do—there are no easy answers or quick fixes in this struggle.
As scholars, activists, and educators, we declare our long-term commitment to advancing social justice and demanding action against power relations that result in oppression in our department, institutions, organizations and communities.
