Recent Alumni

Cultural and linguistic anthropology, media studies, urban architecture, postcolonial state, and infrastructures.

 

Degrees and Education

M.Phil., Sociology, Delhi School of Economics
M.A., Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University
B.A.(Honors), Journalism, University of Delhi

Awards

Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation (2018-19)

Research Description

Cultural and linguistic anthropology, media studies, urban architecture, postcolonial state, and infrastructures.

Yan Cai is interested in investigating the range of sociopolitical variation and identifying factors and forces that produce Pacific island societies (mostly chiefdoms) with characteristics, as well as to investigate how these forces interact with each other in single cases. Her dissertation specifically focuses on the role of local scale productive differentiation and economic interdependence in the development of socio-political complexity in Ngkeklau stonework village of Palau (1200-1800AD). Her research attempts to reconstruct the nature and degree of  productive differentiation and other kinds of social differentiation (wealth, prestige and ritual differentiations) in the Ngkeklau village by analyzing the inter-household variation of archaeological assemblages. By studying the extent that any kinds of differentiation characterize households within Ngkeklau village and the connection between them, her research is going to examine the anthropological hypothesis about the relations of agriculture productivity, community structure and local-scale productive differentiation, that is generated based on the comparison of four other Pacific island societies.

Degrees and Education

M.A. Major in Archaeology, Jilin University, 2010-13
B.A. Major in Archaeology, Xiamen University, 2006-10

Awards

Teaching Instructor, University of Pittsburgh (2018 summer)
Teaching Assistant, University of Pittsburgh (2014-Now)

Sarah Kennedy is an archaeologist whose research focuses on marginalized labor, power dynamics, social identity, and foodways practices in colonial Peru. Her dissertation research explores the social dynamics of 17th century silver refining mills in Peru’s Lake Titicaca Basin, using a combination of spatial, faunal, botanical, and soil chemistry analyses to examine daily, household practices. She has previously instructed students in zooarchaeological analysis and has taught introductory courses in archaeology and cultural anthropology, as well as upper-division courses such as Human Diversity and The Origin of Cities.

Publications

(2020). VanValkenburgh, P., Kennedy, Sarah A., Rojas Vega, C., and G. Hassler. “El Contrato del Mar: Maritime Subsistence at Carrizales, Zaña Valley, Peru.” Pages 336-396. In Prieto, Gabriel and Daniel Sandweiss, eds. New Perspectives on Andean Maritime Communities. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.

(2019). Kennedy, Sarah A., Chiou, Katherine, and P. VanValkenburgh. “Inside the Reducción: Crafting Colonial Foodways at Carrizales and Mocupe Viejo, Zaña Valley, Peru (1570-1700).” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 23(4):980-1010. DOI: 10.1007/s10761-018-0481-2.

(2019). Kennedy, Sarah A. and S. M. Norman. “Introduction: Status and Identity in the Imperial Andes.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 23(4):807-815. DOI: 10.1007/s10761-018-0491-0.

(2019). Kennedy, Sarah A. and K. Quave. “Identificando contextos domésticos Inka por medio de microartefactos: el sitio de Cheqoq (Maras, Cuzco).” [Identifying Inka Domestic Contexts Through Analysis of Micro Artifacts: The Site of Cheqoq (Maras, Cuzco)]. Qillqana: Revista Arqueológica del Cusco 1(1):42-63. Cusco, Peru.

(2019). Quave, K., Kennedy, Sarah A., and Covey, A. “Rural Cuzco Before and After Inka Imperial Conquest: Foodways, Status, and Identity (Maras, Peru).” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 23(4):868-892. DOI: 10.1007/s10761-018-0483-0.

(2016). Kennedy, Sarah A., and P. VanValkenburgh. “Zooarchaeology and Changing Food Practices at Carrizales, Peru Following the Spanish Invasion.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20(1):73-104. DOI: 10.1007/s10761-015-0319-0.

Degrees and Education

MA - Anthropology – University of Florida (2014)
BA - Anthropology, Spanish – University of Wyoming (2010)

Awards

Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellowship in Pre-Columbian Studies (2019-2020)
John Carter Brown Short-Term Fellowship (2019)
Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (2018)
Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship (2017-2018)
National Geographic Society Young Explorer’s Grant (2014)
Foreign Language Area Study (FLAS) Fellowship (2014)

Ljiljana Pantović is a cultural and medical anthropologist interested in how women’s health is shaped, experienced, and negotiated in Eastern Europe. Her research aims to understand the impact and effect of market-based private healthcare on the existing public, universal healthcare landscape in post-socialist Serbia. Her dissertation aims to understand how and why both patients and providers move between the state-provided public healthcare system and the newly emerging private healthcare practices in order to establish trust and continuity of care within the untrusted, understaffed and underfunded state public healthcare system.

Degrees and Education

MA in Gender Studies (2012-2013), Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Thesis title: Eugenics and the Nation in the Writings of a Turn-of-the-Century Serbian Physician: the case of Milan. Jovanović Batut
MA in Ethnology and Anthropology (2011 - 2013), Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia. Thesis title: Rodno odgovorno budžetiranje u Srbiji. Anthropološki pogled na javne politike ( Gender - responsive budgetin
BA in Ethnology and Anthropology (2007 - 2011), Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia. Thesis title: The social life of a TV show: Biopoli tics and Battlestar Galactica

Awards

Social Sciences Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (2016-2017), University of Pittsburgh
Klinzing Grant for Dissertation Research (2016-2017), European Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh
Andrew Mellon Pre doctoral Fellowship (2015-2016), University of Pittsburgh
3Minute Thesis, 3rd Prize Winner for the Social Science Division, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
Best Master’s Thesis in Ethnology and Anthropology 2011/2012, Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, University of Belgrade (2012)
Best undergraduate of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade (2012)
Best undergraduate student of the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology of the class of 2007, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, (2011)
Recipient of the top 1000 students’ award, “Dositeja”, Ministry of Youth and Sport, Serbia (2010-2016)