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Our World, Our Stories: Theodora Reader 2008
In June 2008 Mr. Willam Dustin Cantrell and Ms. Elizabeth Pfeiffer (BSU anthropology graduate alumni and anthropology instructors) published the book Our World, Our Stories: Theodora Reader 2008 (Drinian Press). As stated in the Drinian Press catalog: "Anthropologists Wm Dustin Cantrell and Elizabeth J. Pfeiffer edited this small volume of student stories from Jamaica. The book grew out of a seminar led by these two instructors from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The result is a collaboration between students enrolled in the seminar and students in the Theodora School in Negril, Jamaica. Through the eyes of local residents, readers will see some of the real-life challenges on the other side of paradise."
The Negril, Jamaica field trip was a 2008 summer immersive learning opportunity offered through the Department of Anthropology. Concerning this research effort, former BSU anthropology faculty member Dr. Luke Eric Lassiter (co-author of the award winning book The Other Side of Middletown: Exploring Muncie's African American Community and Professor of Humanities and Anthropology, Graduate College, Marshall University), states in the book's liner notes that, "Squarely centered in the Ball State University tradition of engaged and immersive learning, this unique community-university partnership combines collaborative writing strategies with grounded and local story. The authors should be commended for compiling a reader that will surely have impact for some time to come." Our World, Our Stories: Theodora Reader 2008 is available at Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.
The Archaeology of North American Farmsteads
In August 2008, Dr. Mark D. Groover, an associate professor of anthropology, published The Archaeology of North American Farmsteads, an invited contribution to the historical archaeology series The American Experience in Archaeological Perspective through the University Press of Florida. The following information about the book appeared in the University Press of Florida book catalog description:
From the early colonial period to the close of World War II, life in North America was predominantly agrarian and rural. Archaeological exploration of farmsteads unveils a surprising quantity of data about rural life, consumption patterns, and migrations across the continent. Mark Groover offers both case studies and an overview of current trends in farmstead archaeology in this exciting new work. He also proposes a research design and makes numerous suggestions for evaluating (and re-evaluating) the significance of farmsteads as an archaeological resource. His chronological survey of farmstead sites throughout numerous regions of North America provides fascinating insights to students, cultural resource management professionals, or general readers interested in learning more about what material culture remains can teach us about the American past. Farmstead archaeology is a rapidly expanding component of historical archaeology. This book offers important lessons and information as more sites become victims of ever-accelerating development and urbanization.
"An excellent introduction to the material legacy of farming in the United States from the 1600s to the 1950s"--Donald L. Hardesty, University of Nevada, Reno
"Groover's approach directly challenges the common misconception by many agencies and state historic preservation offices, which consider farmsteads to be redundant resources without important information potential, by demonstrating a wide range of important research topics and results from the colonial era into the twentieth century."--Barbara J. Little, National Park Service
"In this concise volume, Groover argues for the central place of the material record provided by archaeology in documenting and interpreting the everyday lives of rural Americans."--John McCarthy, forthcoming review in Journal of Southern History
Awards and Recognitions
Congratulations to Ms. Christina Blanch, BSU instructor of anthropology and graduate alumnus, for receiving the Excellence in Education Award from BSU Extended Education. Christy received the award for excellence in her teaching efforts in the BSU prison education program. Approximately 100 BSU faculty members teach in the prison education program. Christy was one of only two instructors honored with this award at the correctional education meeting in August 2008. The Excellence in Education Award recipients are selected by students in the BSU prison program.
Christy's 2006 BSU anthropology thesis, "Because of Her Victorian Upbringing:" Gender Archaeology at the Moore-Youse House, was also recently published as Volumes in Historical Archaeology 42 in the historical archaeology series funded by The Conference on Historic Site Archaeology, edited by Stanley South.
Congratulations to Mr. Eric Schissler, BSU anthropology graduate student and recipient of the Lambda Alpha National Anthropology Honor Society's 2008 Charles R. Jenkins Award "by reason of noteworthy contribution in the advancement of the study of Anthropology." Eric received the Jenkins Certificate of Distinguished Achievement in spring 2008 for cultural anthropology thesis fieldwork that he conducted at the Hindu temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia during winter 2008.
Congratulations to Dr. Hisato Kawata for recently completing the doctoral program at Indiana University in August 2008. Dr. Kawata is a BSU anthropology alumnus, receiving the M.A. degree in 1994. His Indiana University dissertation is titled "Something" That You Can't Say: Indescribable Intelligibility and "Otherness" in the Making of Art and Ethnography
BSU Anthro Alumnus on PBS Nova H. floresiensis episode
The November 11, 2008 PBS Nova episode described the efforts being made to understand the unusual human remains found on the island of Flores in Indonesia. The remains have been designated Homo floresiensis by some paleoanthropologists and are thought to possibly represent a dwarf species of ancient humans. The program featured as its stone tool expert Mark Moore of the University of New England in Australia. Mark received his M.A. degree from the BSU Department of Anthropology in 1991.
Congratualtions to Dr. Evelyn Bowers for recently being elected 2008-2009 president of the Ball State University Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.
Sweden recognizes Ball State faculty member James M. Nyce for assisting one of its universities
During summer 2008 Ball State University assistant professor of anthropology Dr. James M. Nyce was honored by Sweden for assisting one of that country's institutions of higher education make the challenging transition from college to fully accredited university. Nyce received a medal from government officials after the Swedish National Defence College became the country's newest university. Established in 1818 to train personnel for Sweden's military and national defense operations, the university is now under civilian leadership and is expanding the number of programs it offers. As a visiting professor from 1998 to 2000 and 2005 to 2008, Nyce was among the school's academic leaders that helped refocus its mission and move the university from a vocational to a more academic curriculum. "It was a very long but rewarding process," he said. "For the university, it was a tremendous shift in operations and culture. I believe they'll be a leading academic institution in Europe for many years." He is the only American nonresident in Sweden awarded this honor. It is the second recognition he has received while teaching in Sweden. In 1996, Nyce was named a docent, or full professor, in information science by Linköping University. As a cultural anthropologist, Nyce, who received his doctorate from Brown University in 1987, studies how information technologies emerge and are used by organizations in the workplace. (News story from BSU Update, June 23, 2008, Vol. 28, Issue 36)
Recent Anthropology Faculty Publications, Awards/Recognitions, Presentations, and Grants
Archaeology
Award
Blanch, Christina
2008 BSU Extended Education Excellence in Education Award.
Refereed Book
Groover, Mark D.
2008 The Archaeology of North American Farmsteads. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Journal Articles
Groover, Mark D.
2009 Exploring Hoosier Material Culture: Architectural and Landscape Archaeology at the Moore-Youse House and Huddleston Farmstead. Tennessee Archaeologist, in press.
Hicks, Ronald
2009 Place and Time in the Tana. In Ulidia 2: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales, edited by Ruairi O huIginn and Brian O Cathain, pp. 296-312. Maigh Nuad (Maynooth): An Sagart.
2009 Cosmography in Tochmarc Etaine. Journal of Indo-European Studies 37:115-129.
Journal Article in Edited Volume
Stine, Linda France, Melanie A. Cabak, and Mark D. Groover
2008 Blue Beads as African-American Cultural Symbols. In Perspectives from Historical Archaeology: African Diaspora Archaeology, edited by Christopher C. Fennell, pp. 361-387. PAST Foundation. Originally published in Historical Archaeology 1996 30(3):49-75.
Published Thesis
Blanch, Christina L.
2008 "Because of Her Victorian Upbringing:" Gender Archaeology at the Moore-Youse House. Volumes in Historical Archaeology 42. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Technical Report
Lowrey, Lauren and S. Homes Hogue
2008 Faunal Analysis. In Tranquil Hill Planatation: The Most Charming Inland Place, edited by Michael Trinkley and Debi Hacker, pp. 125-139. Chicora Foundation Research Series 66. Chicora Foundation, Inc., Columbia. ISBN 978-158317-067-0.
Grants and Sponsored Research
S. Homes Hogue, Principal Investigator
2008 Analysis of the Faunal Remains from St. Paul Parish Plantation (38CH2091) and West Pasture (38CH123) Archaeological Sites. Chicora Foundation, Inc., Columbia, South Carolina.
McCord, Beth
2008 Indiana state planning grants to prepare National Register Nominations for two prehistoric habitation sites in Hamilton and Marion counties and to conduct several projects in Huntington, Miami, and Wabash counties: (1) an archaeological survey of 900 acres in the upper Wabash River Valley to record threatened archaeological resources, (2) to conduct a survey of mound sites in the southern half of the drainage basin, and (3) to conduct documentation of three mounds at Roush Lake for State and National Register nominations.
Biological Anthropology
Refereed Journal Article
Hogue, S. Homes and Rebecca Melsheimer
2008 Integrating Dental Microwear and Isotopic Analyses to Understand Dietary Change in East-Central Mississippi. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 228-238.
Technical Report
Hogue, S. Homes
2008 The I-69 Corridor: Bioarchaeology in the Mississippi Delta. In Times River: Archaeological Syntheses of the Yazoo Basin and Central Mississippi River Valley, edited by Janet Rafferty and Evan Peacock, pp. 182-200. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Presentation
Hogue, S. Homes and John Dudgeon
2008 The Application of Laser Ablation Time of Flight ICP-MS (LA-TOF-ICP-MS) to Identify Historic Burial Dental Stains. Paper presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Vancouver, Canada.
Service
In 2008 Evelyn Bowers became a member of the Education Committee for the American Association of Physical Anthropology.
In fall 2008 Evelyn Bowers was elected 2008-2009 president of the Ball State University Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.
Cultural Anthropology
Awards and Recognitions
Nyce, James M.
2008 Recipient of Sweden's Bronze Medal for curriculum efforts related to the Swedish National Defence College.
James M. Nyce was also featured in the cover story of the Swedish magazine, Chief Security Officer, Summer 2008.
Book
Cantrell, William D. and Elizabeth J. Pfeiffer (editors)
2008 Our World, Our Stories: Theodora Reader 2008. Drinian Press.
Journal Articles
Crowe, Stephen, Gregory Harmon, Anna Smitherman, Steven Viall. Tyniqua Birdsong, Kevin Brauner, Tara Johnson, Aaron Lucas, Caleb Mercer, Rebekah Richardson, Autumn Sexton, Matthew Sharp, Kyle Stevens and James M. Nyce
2008 A Theater of Self and Family: Mobile Devices, Cultural Idioms and Appropriation. International Journal of Mobile Marketing 3(1):41-44.
Persson, Per-Arne and James M. Nyce
2008 The Design of Appropriate Tools and Resources for the Intelligence Community Journal of the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (15)3:3-18.
Conference Presentations
Cantrell, William Dustin and Elizabeth J. Pefiffer
2008 Improving Correctional Education from the Inside: An Applied Project. Paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, March 2008, Memphis, Tennessee.
Pfeiffer, Elizabeth J. and William Dustin Cantrell
2008 Jamaica: Our World, Our Stories: Anthropological Field Trip in Jamaica. Paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, March 2008, Memphis, Tennessee.
