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.
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