African Language Scholar Wins Guggenheim Fellowship
CAS prof sheds light on centuries-old written language By Susan Seligson When he was growing up in Senegal, Fallou Ngom spoke six languages. He has applied his fascination with language toward cultivating knowledge of, and respect for, a written derivative of Arabic script called Ajami. Although long ignored by colonial powers and the West, Ajami […]
Professor Cheryl Knott featured at NSF.org
For the last 18 years, Cheryl Knott of Boston University has been racing the clock. While she researches orangutans in the rainforests of Gunung Palung National Park in Borneo, the numbers of this magnificent ape steadily plummet. The outlook for orangutans–one of human’s closest relatives–is dire because there are only a few tens of thousands […]
We Are Told to Call It Chicken: Airline Food & How to Fix It
BY Corky White @ The Atlantic I’m sick and tired and I am not going to take it anymore. A week ago on YouTube I saw a horrible thing: extruded chicken mass, like piles of pinkish silly putty spiraling out of a faucet. This is the stuff that goes into your chicken patties and nuggets. […]
After a hard day’s work in Afghanistan…
… Petraeus reads about Afghanistan. After spending 16-plus hours each day running the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, American General David Petraeus tries to thumb through a few pages of a book each night before his eyes close and it falls to the ground. The most recent topic? Afghanistan of course.
Professor Fallou Ngom in Bostonia
Professor Fallou Ngom was featured in Bostonia’s article Lost Language highlighting his work on Ajami.
New Professor Appointed
Jeremy DeSilva (PhD in Biological Anthropology, University of Michigan) will become an assistant professor of biological anthropology in the Department of Anthropology this fall. His elegantly conceived and executed thesis research appears to have resolved 25 years of acrimonious debate concerning the amount of daily activity that “Lucy” and other early human ancestors in the […]