Alumni News Summer 2017

Allison Formanack (MA ’11) and Richard Bender (MA ’09) both PhD candidates, presented a poster titled "Examining Mobile-Homeownership in Urban Land-Lease Mobile Home Communities: an Anthropological Perspective" based on their collaborative research that outlines three scenarios for mobile home purchases despite numerous financial risks associated with these housing units. The Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making features research from an interdisciplinary field of social sciences in addition to private and public/government agencies on matters related to consumer financial decision making. This annual conference is co-sponsored by the CU Center for Research on Consumer Financial Decision Making and the Leeds School of Business.

 

You can view their poster via ResearchGate here

 

 

 

 

Sara McCabe (Anth, Econ '93) produced the feature documentary The Three Hikers, the story of three Americans imprisoned in Iran and their families’ fight to save them.  The Three Hikers is a compelling look at the strength of the human spirit set against the backdrop of Iranian-US political tension. The journey involves leading personalities, including scholar Noam Chomsky, author Reza Aslan, activist Lonnie Ali, political expert Gary Sick, and Human Rights Watch researcher Faraz Sanei, as well as celebrities Muhammad Ali and Sean Penn. The film is currently available on Amazon, Time Warner/Spectrum, Comcast, Vimeo on Demand, Vudu, Cox, hoopla digital, DISH, and FlixFling.  Soon to be available on iTunes.  The film premiered at AFI DOCS in DC and screened at Woodstock Film Festival, ArcLight Documentary Series in LA, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, AmDocs in Palm Springs, Salem Film Festival, Ashland Independent Film Festival, Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival, and Bentonville Film Festival.  Watch the trailer on YouTube here
Ms. McCabe is currently Education Director of The Tutor Boost.

Marnie Thomson (PhD '16) has accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Washington and Lee University. Thomson is excited to be at this small liberal arts college for the 2017-2018 academic year. 

Study finds link between protein, obesity rates in Latin women
Tracy Bekelman (PhD ’16) got the attention of news outlets such as MSN with the publication of her dissertation:
Bekelman TA, Sanatmaria Ulloa C. Dufour DL, Marin-Arias L, Dengo AL. 2017. Using the protein leverage hypothesis to understand socioeconomic variation in obesity. American Journal of human Biology.

See one of several articles in the press here:

Chris Morris (PhD ’14) will be leaving his position as an assistant professor at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York for a tenure track appointment in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University. His new location in Fairfax, VA will place him close to the action in Washington, D.C. (if that’s a good thing).

Cultural Factors Complicate Zika Prevention in American Samoa
While the Zika virus is well documented in South and Central America, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the mosquito-borne disease known to cause severe birth defects is also spreading in the U.S. territory of American Samoa, a group of islands in the South Pacific with a population of approximately 55,000. Research conducted by recent graduate Michaela Howells (PhD ’13) has been picked up by NBC News