News and Events

Upcoming Events

  • Winter 2026 Speaker Series: Alexa Duchesneau

    Alexa Duchesneau will give the second talk in the annual Anthro & Friends Winter Speaker Series, titled “Simians and the Story of Us: What Biological Anthropology Brings to STEM.” In an increasingly divided world, Biological Anthropology and Primatology are a bridge between divided academic disciplines: the social sciences and the hard sciences. The combination of observational studies and hypothesis testing places these fields in the unique position of being truly interdisciplinary. This talk introduces Biological Anthropology and Primatology and makes the case for why such fields should be present at a liberal arts institution. Alexa’s research on a population of wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator) is used as a case study.

    McCardell Bicentennial Hall 104

    Open to the Public

  • Winter 2026 Speaker Series: Jasmin Msuya

    Jasmin Msuya will give the first talk in the annual Anthro & Friends Winter Speaker Series, titled “Rethinking Language of Instruction in Public Secondary Schools in Tanzania: Ethnographic Case Study on the Implementation of the Educational Language Policy in the Classroom.” Jasmin’s research centers on how the transition from Kiswahili instruction in primary school to English instruction in secondary education shapes teaching, learning, and language ideologies in a semi-urban Tanzanian public secondary school. Grounded in an ethnographic case study design, she examines how teachers, students, and adult family members experience, negotiate, and respond to Tanzania’s Educational and Training Policy, which designates Kiswahili as the language of instruction in public primary school and English as the language of instruction in secondary school. The abrupt shift from Kiswahili to English instruction worsens educational inequalities that for decades have divided students into the dichotomy of rural and urban, and public and private. Amidst this dichotomy, contrasting language practices and resources expose the educational language policy gaps whereby the elite or middle class are more advantageous, unlike the working class.

    Munroe 311

    Open to the Public

News and Accomplishments

November 2025: Poetry and illustrations by Fulya Pinar, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, were published in the latest issue of Otherwise Magazine. You can read the corresponding interview with her here.

September 2025: Marybeth Nevins, Associate Professor of Anthropology, gave the keynote presentation at the Anthropologie Linguistique dans la Québec et l’Ontario conference on September 26, 2025. Her talk was titled, Born in a Storm: A Short Narrative History of Linguistic Anthropology.

August 2025: A group of Middlebury anthropology students created a new online magazine called “Anthro Action.” Check out the first issue here!

Department Newsletters

For archived issues, contact the Department Coordinator.

Recent Faculty Publications

Fitzsimmons, James L.

2024 “Centuries ago, the Maya storm god Huracan taught that when we damage nature, we damage ourselves,” The Conversation; https://theconversation.com/centuries-agothe-maya-storm-god-huracan-taught-that-when-we-damagenature-we-damage-ourselves-238180.

2021 “Termination and regeneration: the use of ash in ancient Mesoamerica,” in Agent of Change: The Deposition and Manipulation of Ash in the Past, edited by Barbara Roth and E. Charles Adams, pp. 213–238. Berghahn Press, New York.

2018 “Transformations at Cuello: Results from the 2017 Season of the Classic Cuello Archaeological Project,” in Archaeology in the Eastern Maya Lowlands: Papers of the 2017 Belize Archaeology Symposium, John Morris, Melissa Badillo, and George Thompson, eds., pp. 121–130 (with Natalie Figueroa ’18 and Prasanna Vankina ’18). Belmopan, Belize: Institute of Archaeology.

Nevins, M. E.

2024 Lessons From Fort Apache: Beyond Language Endangerment and Maintenance. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 

Oxfeld, Ellen

2020 “The Moral Registers of Banqueting in Contemporary China,” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs.

2020 “Life-Cycle Rituals in Rural and Urban China: Birth, Marriage and Death,” in Handbook on Religion in China, Stephan Feuchtwang, ed., pp. 110–132. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

2020 “Bitter Greens and Sweet Potatoes: Food Practice and Memories of Hunger in Rural China” in Food Insecurity: A Matter of Justice, Sovereignty, and Survival, Tamar Mayer and Molly Anderson, eds., pp. 166–179. New York: Routledge.

2020 “Rural Chinese Families: The Continuing Relevance of Moral Obligation,” in Routledge Handbook of Chinese Culture and Society, Kevin Latham, ed., pp. 174–194. New York: Routledge.

Pinar, Fulya

2025 “Deportation as punishment and the everyday war on migrants from Turkey to the United States,” Middle East Research and Information Project, https://www.merip.org/2025/06/deportation-as-punishment-2/

Sheridan, Michael

2024 Roots of Power: The Political Ecology of Boundary Plants. London: Routledge. Paperback edition.

Stoll, David

2024 “Why immigrants need U.S. border enforcement,” Quillette, November 24, 2024. https://quillette.com/2024/11/26/immigrants-also-need-usborder-enforcement-us-mexico-border-control-trump latinos/

2018 “David Stoll: A Rush to Judgment?” (critique of the Jerry Sandusky trial), vtdigger.org, April 6.

2019 “Desperate Refugees or Desperate Debtors? Why the Latest Border Surge Is Bad News for Democrats,” American Interest, April 10.

Department of Anthropology

Munroe Hall
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753

Caitlin Harder, Coordinator

Munroe Hall 206

(802) 443-5671

harder@middlebury.edu

James Fitzsimmons, Chair

Munroe Hall 109

jfitzsim@middlebury.edu