This past fall, the History of Anthropology Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association awarded its inaugural Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Prize to Nala K. Williams, doctoral candidate in anthropology and Black Studies at Yale University, for the paper “‘Feather-Bed Resistance’ and Racial Vindication in Eslanda Goode Robeson’s African Journey.” In an exceptionally well-researched and well-argued paper, Williams profiles the intellectual and professional journey of Eslanda Robeson, a Black expatriate American anthropologist who trained at the London School of Economics in the 1930s and subsequently authored a multi-genre ethnography entitled African Journey. In a nuanced analysis, Williams examines the innovative yet fraught efforts by Robeson to develop an anthropological approach towards race and racism at the LSE during a period when Malinowski was at the height of his powers. William’s history reminds us of the ways that anthropology has been a paradoxical tool that reinscribes its own authority while also serving the subversive political projects of others.

The runner-up was Maria Murad, doctoral candidate in anthropology at Oxford University, for her paper, “The Life of Kaatxwaaxsnéi: A Biography of Florence Shotridge.” Murad’s paper examines the work of Kaatxwaaxsnéi or Florence Shotridge, the first known Indigenous American woman to lead an anthropological expedition, the Wanemakar expedition, in the 1910s. Through a careful analysis of Shortridge’s varied forms of work as a Chilkat blanket weaver, cultural exhibition performer, and an assistant at the Penn Museum, Murad restores indigenous agency in the history of anthropology and unsettles received narratives of knowledge production.

For more information about this prize, please contact Dr. Andrew Newman, andrew.newman@wayne.edu.

An invitation for all working on the history of anthropology, broadly construed: Are you reading and writing about classic anthropology texts in courses or research? Do you use primary sources created by anthropologists in your scholarship? Is your work concerned with definitions and classifications of human kinds, or are you reckoning with legacies of anthropological fieldwork or collections in the present?

Please join for a History of Anthropology Review information session: Wednesday, February 11th at 4pm GMT, 11am ET, 8am PT on Zoom. Register here to attend.

Come learn about publication opportunities with the History of Anthropology Review, an online, open access, scholarly magazine. HAR is the work of an editorial collective of early career researchers and offers a wide variety of formats particularly suited to early publishing experiences. 

We hope to support you to leverage your coursework, Master’s research, or a tangent you’ve had to cut from your doctoral thesis into something to be shared with our readers. HAR is also actively looking for new members to join our collective and shape our (online) pages. 

Check out some examples of work we publish in Field Notes, Reviews, Clio’s Fancy, Teaching Resources, and Generative Texts.

In the session we will introduce the publication, genres of work we solicit, and field questions about the editorial process at HAR. 

Questions? Suggestions? Email us at editors@histanthro.org.

There are signs of a Goffmanian turn in political economy, alongside renewed interest in the biographical trajectory of Goffman himself. What are, or could be, the hallmarks of a Goffmanian political economy? How did political economy concerns and questions figure in Goffman’s work and thought? What might the systematic incorporation into political economy scholarship (broadly defined) of Goffmanian concepts and sensibilities look like? What distinctive insights does the existing Goffman-influenced political economy scholarship offer?

This workshop, timed to follow the Economic History Society conference, aims to bring together scholars who have engaged with the Murdock Atlas in their research, and who are interested in an open, cross-disciplinary, and forward-looking conversation on the merits, limitations, and pitfalls of using the Atlas in social science research.

Panel P083 “Beyond Polarised Histories of Anthropologies: Female Ethnographers and Folklorists between the Mid-19th and Early 20th Centuries [History of Anthropology Network (HOAN)]” will be held in hybrid format at the EASA2026 Conference “Anthropology: Possibilities in a Polarised World”, Poznań, Poland, 21-24 July 2026.

Coordinated by Fabiana Dimpflmeier (Gabriele d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara), Maria Beatrice Di Brizio (Centro di Ricerca MODI – Università di Bologna), and Elena Emma Sottilotta (University of Cambridge) the panel aims to overcome polarised histories of anthropologies, exploring the multiple roles of female scholars in the development of the emerging disciplines of ethnography and folklore between the mid-19th and the early 20th centuries.

The Call for Papers closes on 26 January 2026. Further details are available on the webpage for Panel 083.