Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

Mar 14, 2024

Braiding Knowledges to Transform Science: Climate Change, Cultural Places, and Food Sovereignty research at the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science

Dr. Sonya Atalay

Visiting Professor in MIT Anthropology • Provost Professor of Anthropology at UMass-Amherst • Director, NSF Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science

Mar 14, 2024 Thursday, March 14th 4-5:30pm, Reception to follow in Bldg 56 Lobby 5:30 - 6pm 56-114

Abstract:
How do we bring previously disparate ways of knowing, Indigenous Knowledge and “Western” or mainstream science, into right relationship with one another for mutual thriving of land and culture? At a time of accelerating environmental change and complex, overlapping challenges, we need a plurality of perspectives to innovate solutions. This talk focuses on work being carried out by a team of international, interdisciplinary, predominantly Indigenous scientists from the US, Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand as part of the newly funded Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science. I’ll share how our team, which includes archaeologists; climate, environmental, and water scientists; scholars with expertise in Indigenous knowledge systems and education, foodways, and museums and heritage, are collaborating to explore ethical practices and protocols of braiding knowledges, the seeds for building new research worlds. The talk highlights efforts to bring braiding methodologies into mainstream scientific practice through a transdisciplinary approach that reflects Indigenous understandings of place in which the urgent and interconnected areas of climate change, cultural places, and food sovereignty and security are the focus.
 
Bio:
Dr. Sonya Atalay (Anishinaabe-Ojibwe) is an Indigenous archaeologist, utilizing community-based participatory methods to conduct research in full partnership with Indigenous communities. Dr. Atalay’s scholarship crosses disciplinary boundaries, incorporating aspects of cultural anthropology, archaeology, critical heritage studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies. She’s currently involved in producing a series of research-based comics about repatriation of Native American ancestral remains, return of sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) law, and is Director of the NSF-funded, multinational Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS)
Mar 15, 2024

"Prototyping anthro-engineering for sustainability education and solution-building at MIT and beyond" MCSC Friday Lunch

Mar 15, 2024 Mar 15 12- 1 pm MCSC Office 105 Broadway (Building NE36) on the 7th floor.

Hear from undergraduate students and instructors involved in the MCSC-supported seed award project, “Anthro-Engineering Decarbonization at the Million Person Scale,” about their efforts to bridge anthropology and engineering to explore the design of a culturally appropriate, affordable, and sustainable intervention to create a pathway to decarbonization in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, the coldest and most polluted capital city in the world.

Presenters: Iselle Barrios (’25), Dr. Lauren Bonilla (MIT Anthropology), Grace Gardner (’24), Madeline Hon (’24), Kiran Mak (’25), and Ella Trumper (’24)

Apr 3, 2024

Anthro Tea

Apr 3, 2024 Wed Apr 3 4-5pm Anthro HQ E53-335

Come relax with us and enjoy some fun conversation! No need to RSVP; just show up and bring your friends!

Apr 9, 2024

Jason De Léon Book Talk "Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling"

Jason De Léon

Director Cotsen Institute of Archaeology | Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o and Central American Studies UCLA

Apr 9, 2024 Tue, April 9 4-5:30pm 56-114

In this talk Jason De León will discuss his new book "Soldiers and Kings", a long-term ethnographic study focused on understanding the daily lives of Honduran smugglers who profit from transporting migrants across the length of Mexico. Using the stories of several smugglers, he examines the relationship between transnational gangs and the clandestine migration industry, as well as the difficulties of doing ethnography in this violent and ethically challenging context.

May 6, 2024

“Seeds of Guamuchil”: Feminist activism-research and a women’s prison writing project in Mexico with Rosalva Aída Hernandez

Rosalva Aída Hernandez

Radcliffe Institute (Harvard)

May 6, 2024 Monday, May 6 - 4-5:30pm Margaret Cheney Room, 3-308

Mexican anthropologist Aída Hernández, currently a Fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute, will join us to discuss her feminist activism-research in Mexico through the work of a creative writing project for imprisoned women she has helped lead. The event will feature a screening of a short film about the project: Semillas de Guamúchil (“Five women who discover creative writing in prison share their poetry now in their life at large”). We hope you can join us!

May 8, 2024

MIT Anthro Tea

May 8, 2024 May 8 4-5pm Anthro HQ E53-335

Come relax with us and enjoy some fun conversation! No need to RSVP, just show up and bring your friends!