AAPA Professional Development Awards!

Since 2009 the American Association of Physical Anthropologists has been recognizing early career researchers with a small but mighty professional development grant ($5000). I received one of these in 2010 which launched a project for which I otherwise had no funding, leading to one publication and several conference presentations so far. The 2013 competition was announced in the call-for-papers for the Knoxville meeting.

• Applicants must have completed the Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree in physical anthropology or an allied discipline. 
• Applicants must be conducting applied or academic research that is within the disciplinary boundaries of physical anthropology. 
• Applicants must be junior faculty members (including postdoctoral scholars, lecturers, and assistant professors) and must be non-tenured at the time of the award.

Membership in the AAPA is NOT a requirement. An applicant may receive only one Professional Development Grant during their career. The program is directed toward the career progress of individuals, therefore co-authored/multi-authored applications will not be considered. Completed applications must be received on or before January 15, 2013 (This person's birthday!).

Looking ahead to AAPA 2012

Before you know it, AAPA 2012 will make landfall in Portland, Oregon (you will see this link from me again and again). Wanted to let you know about two exciting things we've got planned!

1) 3rd Annual BANDIT Happy Hour!
Holy yes, this is happening. And this year we've got a new time: Friday evening, 6-7pm, right before the interest group meetings. We hope this new time will encourage more BANDITs to attend and meet colleagues.

2) Anatomy Education & Career Workshop!
The American Association of Anatomists (the other AAA) has awarded me and my UIC colleague Alison Doubleday an Education Outreach Grant to organize a workshop at the AAPA meetings to open a discussion with graduate students about the advantages and caveats about pursuing graduate training, teaching experience, and faculty careers in the anatomical sciences. We have a wonderful panel of biological anthropologists who have pursued an anatomically-oriented path in their scholarship and teaching. We will also be awarding a student (undergraduate or graduate) presentation that exemplifies the marriage of anthropological and anatomical research approaches. More details will follow, but if you are or have a student planning to present anatomical research at the AAPA meeting, consider applying for this award!

The workshop is tentatively scheduled for Saturday afternoon, 2-3pm, immediately after the Career Development Workshop, and a few hours before the Student Awards Reception, where we hope to announce the winner of the anatomy prize. Please stick around for all of Saturday to attend these great student-centered events!

Yay me! 2011 AAA Leadership Fellow

I am very pleased to announce to the BANDIT readership that I have been selected as one of two Leadership Fellows by the American Anthropological Association for 2011. Professor Heide Castañeda of University of South Florida is the other Fellow. Dr. Castañeda and I will be matched with more established anthropologists who are involved in AAA governance; we will learn what goes into planning and executing the annual meeting and how the association works behind the scenes. It's a fantastic opportunity and I am very grateful to the AAA officers for selecting me. I also have the BANDIT community to thank because I think our dialogue here on the blog and especially the passionate conversation here and elsewhere online regarding the AAA Long Range Plan and attendant philosophical debates played an important role in my being selected. Thank you, and I will share as much of my fellowship experience with you as I can. See you in Montreal!

AAA Leadership Mentoring Award Program

The American Anthropological Association is pleased to announce the annual AAA Leadership Mentoring Award Program. The purpose of this mentorship/award program is to provide a unique opportunity for anthropologists early in their careers to learn about AAA and leadership opportunities and to encourage future leadership in the association. Anthropologists three to five years beyond completion of their terminal graduate degree are encouraged to apply. Each year a group of three to five awardees (mentees) will be paired with a mentor chosen from among AAA leadership. Mentors will be available to mentees throughout the year to answer questions related to AAA. Mentees will shadow mentors at the AAA Annual Meeting where there will also be a lunch scheduled for all mentors and mentees to share their experiences in the program.

AAPA Student Prize Winners!

The winners of the AAPA 2011 Student Prizes have been announced. Congratulations to the many talented biological anthropology graduate students who impressed the judges with their excellent writing and presentations! The future of the discipline is in good hands.

Juan Comas prize: Richard Bender, University of Colorado, Boulder. Stable isotopes (13C and 15N) track socioeconomic differences among urban Colombian women.



Earnest Albert Hooton prize: Vanessa Hale, Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine. Evaluation of methods for preserving fecal microbial DNA from the spider monkey.



Mildred Trotter prize: Amber Heard-Booth, University of Texas at Austin. Eye size and locomotion: A test of Leuckart's Law in mammals.



Ales Hrdlicka Prize: Cara Ocobock, Washington University in St. Louis. Daily energy expenditure in highly active humans in a natural temperate environment.



Sherwood Washburn Prize: M. Teague O'Mara, Arizona State University School of Human Evolution & Social Change. The ontogeny of feeding ecology in ring-tailed lemurs.



Pollitzer Prizes. These are awards of $500 in honor of Dr. William S. Pollitzer. They are designed to help students defray the costs of attending the AAPA meetings.

Essay topic:
In the age of personalized genomics, genetic ancestry testing, and medical genetic testing, do disciplines such as osteology, paleontology, primatology, human adaptation, etc., have relevance anymore for understanding modern human evolution and biology?


Pollitzer Prize Winners:

Andrea Baden

Claire Barrett

Michael Berthaume

Nicole Burt

John Crandall

Ileana Diaz

Heather Garvin

Jan F. Gogarten

Lesley Gregoricka

Nanda Grow

Lauren Halenar

Nicholas Holowka

Zachariah R. Hubbell

Gail Hughes-Morey

Heather Jarrell

Sam Kemmis

Alexandra Klales

Alicia Krzton

Sarah Lacy

Denise K. Liberton

Sara Kane Lynch

Charla Marshall

Jaime Mata-Miguez

Monica McDonald

Stephanie Meredith

Emily Middleton

Thierra K. Nalley

Emma Nelson

Teague O’Mara

Daniel Parker

Chris Percival

Laurie Reitsema

Joshua Robinson

Elizabeth Rowing

Aaron Sams

John M. Starbuck

Robert Stark

Natalie Uhl

Vivek Vasi Venkataraman

Fernando Villanea

Darice Westphal

Victoria Wobber

Pollitzer travel awards for AAPA - DEADLINE JANUARY 20th!!

If you are or know a biological anthropology student who plans on attending the Minneapolis meetings in April, please note that the deadline for the Pollitzer travel award ($500) is tomorrow, Thursday, January 20th. This is a great source of assistance for our future colleages so please spread the word!

Biological Anthropology Section student paper prize winners!

Many congratulations to BAS student prize winner Allison Foley of Indiana University. Her paper DISABILITY AND DISEASE IN THE ANCIENT MIDWEST: A PALEOPATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MORTON SITE, IL took top BAS honors at the 2010 AAA meetings!
Foley, M.Sc. in Archaeology (University of Edinburgh, 2004), is a Future Faculty Teaching Fellow with an appointment as a Visiting Lecturer at Indiana University South Bend in Anthropology. She is enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Biological Anthropology at Indiana University (Bloomington). The title of her dissertation is “Trauma in the Central Illinois River Valley: A Paleopathological Analysis of the Morton Site.”

Congratulations also to the Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically):
Allison Cantor, University of South Florida (poster)
MATERNAL DIET IN RURAL COSTA RICA: IDENTIFYING CULTURAL NORMS AND CHANGING TRENDS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENTAL ORIGINS OF OBESITY-RELATED DISORDERS.

Carolyn Jost Robinson, Purdue University (paper, w/Melissa Remis)
SYNERGISTIC HUMAN-WILDLIFE RELATIONSHIPS IN A PROTECTED AREA: ECOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS.

Mary Elisabeth Timm, University of Nevada Las Vegas (paper, w/Debra Martin and Jamie Vilos)
FISHING AND FARMING IN THE DESERT: AN ANALYSIS OF SACRO-ILIAC ENTHESES IN A BRONZE AGE (C. 2200-2000 BC) POPULATION

Deadline Extended: AAA BAS Student Awards!

Message from Dr. Katie MacKinnon:
If you have any students who will be presenting at this year's AAA meeting in New Orleans, please alert them to this great opportunity:

The Biological Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association is currently accepting applicants for our annual Student Poster/Paper Award! The competition is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. The abstract and poster/paper must represent the original work of the student.

If the student is not the sole author, a letter from the student's advisor, stating that the work presented is primarily that of the student, is required to accompany the abstract. Criteria: Posters and papers will be evaluated by members of the BAS Executive Committee using the following criteria: excellence in presentation, originality of topic, and intellectual creativity. Award: $250 award, to be announced at the BAS Business meeting during the AAA, plus publication in the BAS column of the AAA Newsletter, together with the winning abstract as space permits.

HOW TO APPLY:
The student must already have a poster or paper accepted for the 2010 AAA meeting. By November 8 (extended deadline!), they should send their name, paper title, and session title to me (Student Prize Committee Chair) at mackinn@slu.edu
Please spread the word amongst your students and colleagues, and forward on to any relevant faculty/advisors.

Website:
http://www.as.ua.edu/bas/StudentPrize.htm (Note: website currently being updated so check back if it's not working at this time. If you have students who are interested, please make sure to send them my email or forward this message.)


Thanks!
Katie

Pollitzer travel awards for AAPA

If you are or have students who would like to attend the AAPA meetings in Minneapolis but funds are in short supply, please check out the announcement for the AAPA William Pollitzer Student Travel Awards. This is an award of $500 in honor of Dr. William S. Pollitzer. It is designed to help students defray the costs of attending the AAPA meetings. Student qualifications: This award is open to all AAPA student members (undergraduate and graduate). You do NOT have to be giving a paper to compete or receive an award.

Last year the awards committee gave out several of these, so please consider applying!