Through the Department of Sociology and Anthropology this year, seven students successfully defended their masters thesis:
- Theartis Butler “Cultural Exchange: Defining the Native American and African Slave Interaction at Rich Neck Plantation”
- Kari O’Doran “A Figurative Analysis of Grave Goods Excavated from the Classic Maya Village of Ciudad Nuevo Cuscatlán to Examine the Community’s Relationship with the Ilopango Volcano”
- Kiera Eckhardt “Developing Qualitative Research Questions for Illinois Post-Release Prison Analysis”
- Rebecca Ma “Chop Suey Habits: The State of the American Chinese Restaurant During COVID Times”
- Max Manthou “Non-Zero Sum Sport: Pickleball and the Theory of Coopetition”
- Kenyetta McGowens “’May I have a ward?’: An ethnographic look at the gentrification in Houston’s Third Ward”
- Sarah Patterson “Identifying Handsaws from Cut Marks on Bone: A Microscopic Trait Analysis”
We welcomed 10 new students into our graduate programs:
Vanessa Hernandez and Ryleigh Hickman were enrolled in our accelerated masters program, meaning they will spend this year finishing their senior year as anthropology majors in our undergraduate program as well as completing the first year of coursework for their anthropology masters. This is a challenging program, and we are delighted that we have two students in their cohort for the very first time!
We also have two new ACED students, Laura Keeran and Sierra Mack-Erb. Our two incoming archaeology graduate students are Julian Marvel and Charles Roelant. Our incoming Japanese studies student is Elise Ulrich, and we have three incoming cultural anthropology M.A. students: Rebekah Baughman, Apollo Johnson, and Alexander Koch.
Although ISU in general seems to have fewer graduate assistantship opportunities than we have had in the past, we are very proud to say that we have been able to offer some form of aid for all of our incoming graduate students!
