Student News and Notes

Congratulations to our summer 2009 graduates in Anthropology & Sociology:

Edith Martin and Shemeika Shelby.

Congratulation to our spring 2009 graduates in Anthropology & Sociology:

Kathleen Collette, Mary Gruenberg, Rosi Mayfield, Brent Wetzel, Terri Boteler, Christian Brandon, Allison Combes, Melody Sharp, Adam Smith, and Gerald Steele.

Anthropology

Congratulations to Jessica Kowalski who earned her master's degree in Anthropology Summer 2009.

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Shan M. M. Winn. A revered and influential teacher, Dr. Winn was a founding member of the anthropology program at USM and served as professor until his retirement in 1995.

Graduate student Cassie Chandler was awarded an Americorps Campus-Link Internship at the Hattiesburg Zoo for this summer. She is currently involved in a project assessing behavior patterns associated with introduction of a new group member among the howler monkeys.

Recent graduate Dave Martin, now in the doctoral program at Southern Illinois, will have an article (co-authored with Marie Danforth) entitled "An Analysis of Secular Change in the Human Mandible Over the Last Century" appear in the December issue of the American Journal of Human Biology.

Graduate student Terri Ilgen (with Ju Chou) recently had an article entitled "Investigation of the Enhanced Signals from Cations and Dopamine in Electrochemical Sensors Coated with Nation" appear in the Journal of Electrochemistry. The paper was based on research she conducted previously as a student at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Cindy Ponder, Nicole Harris, and Julie Shedd earned their master's degrees in Anthropology Spring 2009.

Cindy Ponder's thesis, "A Systematic Study of Wound Differentiation Dependent on Bullet Construction Variability", explored the relationships between a bullet's caliber and construction to gunshot wounds produced in the skull. Her research involved shooting pig crania using bullets of a variety of calibers and nose shapes. Her findings revealed a statistical relationship between the bullet's velocity and the number of radiating fractures produced upon impact. She also produced an equation which predicts the caliber of a weapon used in the shooting.

Nicole Harris' thesis, "Aculturation in Southern Louisiana: Cajun and Native American Foodway, 1755-1955", looked at the interaction of the Native American and Cajun cultures between 1750 and 1950 using foodways. Integrating data from ethnohistoric, folkloric, and ethnographic sources, she was able to document how the two groups grew to have a very close dependence upon each other as they survived in the bayou regions of south Louisiana.

Julie Shedd's thesis "Anthropological Literature on Social Phobia: An Examination of Publishing and Indexing Patterns", examined social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder, specifically to establish a basis for further anthropological research and fieldwork. She applied word frequency analysis to thirty-six years of major journals to determine the extent to which shyness has been discussed in past anthropological literature. Her conclusions include proposed solutions to anthropology's endemic gray literature problem and reasons why social phobia should be considered for additional research.

Congratulations to the 2009 initiates into Lambda Alpha, the Collegiate Honorary in Anthropology. This spring, Janna Bass, Danielle Cook, Elyse Geissler, Jessica Kowalski, Kristin Little, Krystal Mixon, Stacy Scott, and Jennifer Winter joined the Beta of Mississippi chapter by achieving a 3.0 gpa on at least 12 hours in the discipline for undergraduates and 3.5 gpa for graduates as well as a 2.75 gpa overall.

The 2009 award for Student of the Year given to Drew Beatty. This year's Lambda Alpha Award for Best Undergraduate Papers in Anthropology was given to Jesse Jones for his project on Latin America. The Irmgard Wolfe Award for Best Graduate Paper was won by Jennifer Winter for her work in historical archaeology. All three are to be commended for their achievements.

Graduate students recently successfully defending their thesis proposals include Mike Fedoroff, who is looking at prehistoric cooking technology in the Mississippi Pine Belt, and Jessica Kowalski, whose thesis work examines Plaquemine ceramic patterns at Winterville.

A number of graduate students have recently given papers representing a wide variety of projects at professional conferences over the last several months. They include:

• Coastal Development Strategies Conference, Biloxi MS (May 2009): Barbara Hester, Danielle Cook, and Lynn Funkhouser (with Marie Danforth and Amy Young), Recent Archaeological Investigations on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
• Society for American Antiquity, Atlanta GA (April 2009): Jessica Kowalski, Peter Van Dyck and Diana Flosenzier (with Ed Jackson), A Tale of Two Pits: Feasting and Politics at the Winterville Chiefdom.
• American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Chicago IL (April 2009): Danielle Cook, Voices from the Past: An Analysis of Ancestry of a French Colonial Cemetery in Biloxi, Mississippi.
• USM Graduate Research Symposium, Hattiesburg MS (March 2009): Danielle Cook, Real Vs Ideal: A Cultural Approach to Bioarchaeology; Jessica Kowalski, Plaquemine Ceramics: A View from Winterville; Kristin Little, Globalization and Our Post-Modern World; Heather Sanchez, Mobilizing the Masses: Self-Reported Stress Symptoms and Social Action. (winner: Best Paper in Anthropology)
• Mississippi Archaeological Association, Natchez MS (February 2009): Michael Fedoroff, Digging Features with Class: Methods of Identification and Classification of Pine Hill Clay/Sandstone Feature Type. Jessica Kowalski, Plaquemine Ceramics: A View from Winterville.
• Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Charlotte (November): Danielle Cook, The Effects of the Woodland-Mississippian Cultural Transition on Health Patterns in East Central Mississippi: Evidence from Infection. Michael Fedoroff, Pine Hills Cooking Technology. Lynn Funkhouser, Terri Ilgen, and Danielle Cook (with Marie Danforth and Harold Webster), Excavation and Analysis of Skeletal Material from a Mexican War Hospital Cemetery. Barbara Hester, French Colonial Archaeology on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Jessica Kowalski, Plaquemine Ceramics: A View from Winterville.

Sociology Honors

Andrea Thornhill and Brandon Christian shared Sociology Student of the Year honors for 2008-2009.

Lacy Brown is the 2008-2009 winner of the Alpha Kappa Delta Award for Best Undergraduate Paper in Sociology.

Terri Boteler and Melody Sharp are the a recipient of the 2008-2009 Department of Anthropology and Sociology Outstanding Service Award for her work with Family Network Partnership.

Alpha Kappa Delta (ΑΚΔ), the International Sociology Honor Society, announces its Spring 2008 initiates: Brandon Christian, Lauren Persons and Lane Standige. Acceptance into ΑΚΔ is based on maintaining high grades in both the student's sociology course work and overall university course work.

Undergraduate Sociology Theses
2008-2009

Michael Ide (Honors, 2008) "Sí Se Pudo: A Case Study Analysis of Differential Student Participation in the National Taco Bell Boycott"

Matthew Rook (Honors, 2008) "Beyond Tara?: Race, Gender, and Class in Contemporary Cinematic Representations of White Southern Femininity"

Rachael Huddleston, (Honors, 2008; Sociology Minor): "Across the Gender Line"