By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences will host a trailblazing American diplomat next week to continue the college's Year of China initiative.

Former U.S. Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch will speak on “Leadership and Education in a Globalizing World: China’s Challenge” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in Room 118 of the White Hall Classroom Building on UK's campus.

Bloch’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the "Passport to China: Global Issues & Local Understanding" course taught by UK sociology Professor Keiko Tanaka.

Ambassador Bloch, the first Asian-American ambassador in American history, has had a broad career in U.S. government service. She is currently president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, a nonprofit organization working

By Erin Holaday Ziegler, Arielle Parker

A University of Kentucky club is bringing anthropology to life and giving students hands-on experience with a prehistoric weapon whose popularity peaked 30,000 years ago.

Since its founding last year, the CATLATL Club at UK has introduced many students to the atlatl: a long-range, spear-throwing weapon that resembles a bow and arrow and ball thrower.

The atlatl, which employs basic physics to launch a dart at a designated target, is a spear-like device with three main parts: the handle (grip), the shaft and the peg. The dart is located at the rear of the atlatl and then launched by snapping the wrist. The atlatl launches a dart with more force and speed than when thrown by hand. And in prehistoric times

Dean Mark Kornbluh sits down with Ann Kingsolver, a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the new Director of the Appalachian Research Center and the Appalachian Studies Program. Find out about her passion for the region and how she plans to strengthen UK/Appalachia connections

The University of Kentucky Department of Anthropology welcomes renowned political reporter Mark Allen Peterson to campus this week to discuss the struggle between a confident future and controversial history for contemporary Egyptians.

A former political journalist in Washington D.C., Peterson will present the first lecture of the UK Department of Anthropology's Annual Colloquium Series titled "Egyptian Youth in Urban and Virtual Spaces" at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21 in Room 230 of UK's Student Center. His talk is the first colloquium for the 2011-2012 series with the theme "Youth and Urban Space in the Middle East."

"Peterson's lecture, and the

Erin Koch’s forthcoming book, tentatively titled “Free Market Tuberculosis: Managing Medicine in post-Soviet Georgia” and under contract with Vanderbilt University Press, is being awarded the Norma L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize for the best project in the area of medicine.

The CATLATL Atlatl Club is for students and faculty to get together in order to participate in experimental  archaeology by learning to make
and use atlatls.

This club allows for physical activity, artistic expression, and a chance to learn about anthropology.

If you like anthropology or are interested in learning more about anthropology and archaeology this is a club you should check out. For more information you can contact them at kycatlatl@gmail.com. Their president is Brandon Ritchison, his email is brandon.ritchison@uky.edu, and their advisor is George Crothers, his email is george.crothers@uky.edu

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

Chad Montrie, professor in the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, will be visiting the University of Kentucky to discuss the history of environmentalism and its connection to the modern-day struggle against mountaintop removal (MTR) on Oct. 20.

His talk, titled, "Confronting Environmental Mythology, Making a New Environmental Movement," will take place at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 20 in the Niles Gallery of the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library.

Montrie will examine common notions about the origins and development of environmentalism in the United States, highlighting militant opposition to strip mining in Appalachia during the 1950s and 1960s as a precursor to contemporary efforts to end (MTR).

Montrie suggests that acknowledging underground miners’ critical involvement in that preceding

See this Power Point to learn more about Scott Hutson's work with Maya of Yucatan in the summer of 2011!

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The emotional suffering and clinical treatment associated with infertility is wide-ranging and ever-changing.

In the Middle Eastern world, many of the couples unable to have children suffer a social stigma as well, according to Marcia Inhorn, William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University.

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences has chosen the following professors as new department chairs: associate professor Deborah Crooks, Department of Anthropology; associate professor Jeff Clymer, Department

A Kentucky-produced educational film on the state's archaeology did more than just debut on the west coast.

"Historic Archaeology: Beneath Kentucky's Fields and Streets," produced by the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS), the Kentucky Heritage Council (KHC) and Voyageur Media Group, Inc, garnered three awards at the 8th Annual Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival in Eugene, Ore. This program, the third volume in the council's popular “Kentucky Archaeology” series, was made possible with support from the Federal Highway Administration and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Chosen as one of only 18 films screened in front of judges and an audience during this year's festival, the film won for Best Script and Best Public Education Value, and was one of three finalists in the Most Inspirational category. 

The Archaeological

A former chemistry student digs with small tools, the size of those a dentist might use, next to an aspiring business titan from another life, who lightly brushes away dirt clods with almost maternal care.

"Sometimes I'll be working, and three or four hours will fly by," the former business student says. "It's absorbing."

Both are part of a team working to record and analyze the remains of over 125 patients buried on the historic grounds of Eastern State Hospital, the second-oldest psychiatric hospital in the United States.

David Pollack, director of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS) and adjunct  professor of anthropology at the University of Kentucky, has brought together professional archaeologists and anthropology graduate and undergraduate students for the project. 

Pollack and his team of 10 braved cold in February and storms in April

Christie Shrestha, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, was contacted by the United Nations' High Committee on Refugees to publish an abridged version of her MA thesis, which was published in 2010. Her thesis, "Power and politics in resettlement: a case study of Bhutanese refugees in the USA," is based on research conducted in 2009 in Lexington, Kentucky.  

The article, as it appears in the UNHCR series, "New Issues in Refugee Research," can be found here. 

2011 has marked a variety of successes for the University of Kentucky Anthropology Department.  Among the notable achievements and publications released this year are: 
 

Hsain Ilahiane, associate professor of Anthropology, has released a briefing about the ongoing fight for democracy in North Africa and the Middle East. Ilahiane's document was presented to the Society for Applied Anthropology's Human Rights and Social Justice Committee. The full report is available in .pdf format at the Society for Applied Anthropology's website. 

Ilahiane has carried out research in Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa, and his areas of theoretical interest are globalization, development and information and communication technologies, and political ecology. 

UK Anthropology professors Diane King and Hsain Ilahiane's comments on the uprisings

At the 2011 annual meeting for the Society for Applied Anthrpology in Seattle, UK Anthrpology professors Diane King and Hsain Ilahiane, and graduate student Karen Rignall discussed "Anthropological Insights into the 2011 Uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East." 

To listen to their comments via podcast, click here.

University of Kentucky anthropology professor Hsain Ilahiane first became attracted to the study of anthropology due to its prominent focus on people.

"You put yourself in the shoes of others in an attempt to comprehend," he explained. "This translation – it's meaningful."

Understanding and educating both sides of an issue frames the work of UK's entire Department of Anthropology, from Monica Udvardy's work on gender and symbolism in Africa and Diane King's advancement of honor killing awareness in the Middle East, to Juliana McDonald's efforts locally to educate engineers at Lexington's Newtown Pike

An exhibition on the results of the excavations by University of Kentucky faculty of an ancient Greek fort will debut at the Lexington Public Library - Central Library before moving to Italy, where it will remain on permanent display.

"A Greek Mountain Fort in Southern Italy. University of Kentucky Archaeological Investigations at Monte Palazzi (Passo Croceferrata, Grotteria, Calabria)" will be on exhibit March 26 through May 1, in the library’s gallery.

Paolo Visonà, adjunct associate professor of art history in UK’s Department of Art, will give a lecture on the Monte Palazzi archaeological project at 6 p.m. Monday, March 28, in the library's theater. A gallery reception will also be held from 5 to

Graduate student Ryan Anderson has started a blog called "Anthropologies," in which contributors explore contemporary anthropology through essays, short articles, and opinion pieces written from diverse perspectives. By presenting various viewpoints and positions, this site seeks to highlight not only what anthropology means to those who practice it, but also how those meanings are relevant to wider audiences.

Anthropology professor Sarah Lyon’s New Book: Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair Trade Markets has just been released. 

Lyon's ethnographic analysis of fair-trade coffee analyzes the collective action and combined efforts of fair-trade network participants to construct a new economic reality. Focusing on La Voz Que Clama en el Desierto, a cooperative in San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala, and its relationships with coffee roasters, importers, and certifiers in the United States, "Coffee and Community" argues that while fair trade does benefit small coffee-farming communities, it is more flawed than advocates and scholars have acknowledged.

Through ethnographic fieldwork with the