CAS
Connections
Official newsletter of American University's College of Arts and Sciences
Departmental News!
• The 2008 Interrogating Diversity Conference: Representation, Power and Social Justice will be held at American University March 21and 22. For more information, please visit the conference website: http://american.edu/cas/anthro/indiv/.
• The Point Foundation announced that it has granted scholarships to 30 outstanding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students. The Point Foundation provides financial support, mentoring and hope to meritorious students who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Indian born filmmaker and American University student, Harjant Gill is reviving the Carlos Enrique Cisneros Point Scholarship. Harjant moved to the United States at 15, and came out at 16. For Harjant, making films is about casting a spotlight on urgent and often overlooked social issues, and making marginalized members of society - gay, lesbians and other minority groups - feel less isolated and more understood.
Two of the four films Harjant made include: Some Reasons for Living, an ethnography exploring society's intolerance of transgender individuals, and EVERYTHING, an autobiographical short about growing up Sikh and gay. Both films played at numerous film festivals worldwide, including Frameline SF Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and OUTFEST LA.
Harjant is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Anthropology at American
University in Washington, DC and works for the Human Rights Campaign. His
upcoming film, Milind Soman Made Me Gay is a documentary exploring how gay
South Asian men in America negotiate sexual desire with their religious and
cultural beliefs, while simultaneously dealing with homophobia and racism.
The Point Foundation is a publicly supported, 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Prospective donors and scholar applicants can learn more about these scholars
and The Point Foundation at www.thepointfoundation.org.
• Dr. Joan Gero recently attended The "Coexistence in the Past-
Dialogs in the Present" conference which was an event of the World Archaeological
Congress in Japan. She organized a session for this congress called "The
Ethics of Practice in International Archaeological Research.” While
in Japan, Gero also attended the Executive Council of the World Archaeological
Congress as the Senior North American representative. This meeting resulted
in a decision to draft an international code of ethics for research done in
foreign countries.
• Anthropology PhD students Maria Amelia Viteri and Ryan Mahon are planning a social justice and documentary film trip to Ecuador to learn about the struggles of indigenous people in the Andes and the Amazon. The trip has an anthropological/ethnographic focus and participating students will be encouraged to learn how to produce films for social justice.
• PhD student Michelle Coghill will join students from other universities
in New Orleans for an "alternative spring break" in March to help
with the clean-up effort. Michelle will also help facilitate social justice
discussions with student and volunteer groups.
Potomac River Archaeological Survey
A new research initiative in the DC area building on earlier excavations above
the fall line of the Potomac River. We are focusing on the excavation of prehistoric
archaeological sites related to the agricultural revolution in the local region.
We know that people have lived in the Potomac Valley for at least 12,000 years.
The earliest residents (e.g. before circa AD 1000) were hunters and gatherers
living in small mobile groups and in relatively egalitarian societies. Some
around AD 1000 people in the Potomac Valley began to organize into relatively
sedentary groupings and begin the first experiments in rank and class society.
These changes were driven by a new agricultural subsistence base that had
profound effects on many aspects of society. In the summer, 2002, PRAS conducted
excavations at the Winslow site near Poolesville, Maryland, a small village
was occupied by Potomac Valley Native Americans circa AD 1200., the earliest
phase of the transition to stratification in this area. Our continuing research
program includes on both the excavation of this village site and the comparison
of its assemblage with other nearby but later prehistoric villages. Already
we have found evidence suggesting a transition for relatively egalitarian
village life to dependence on specified leaders to organize the social and
economic life of these peoples by the time of European contact in the early
seventeenth century. This so-called agricultural revolution has been studied
worldwide and our research represents one of the first attempts to piece together
this puzzle in the Potomac River Valley. It also represents a continuing and
active commitment to Middle Atlantic and local prehistory on the part of our
Anthropology Department at American University.
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