Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Welcome to Georgetown's Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Welcome to Georgetown's Department of Sociology and Anthropology website. A leader in scholarship and research, the department is home to important players in the academic world whose work is fresh, exciting, and innovative, and who are dedicated to bringing that same intellectual spirit into the classroom.

      

Welcome to the website of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.  We continue to experiment with the web technology to find ways to let you know what is happening to Sociology and Anthropology at Georgetown.  With some luck, we hope to post a few photographs of us somewhere in our constantly changing website.

This year we have an unusual arrangement regarding the Chairperson appointment.  I will serve as Interim Chairperson until March.  Then Professor McDonald will assume the responsibilities of the Chair for the balance of the spring semester and the summer.  I will be returning to where I am working on behalf of President DeGioia to develop partnerships between Georgetown and Chinese universities.

This year we have been very excited by the news that one of our Sociology majors, José Zachary Canto (“Zach”), has won a George Mitchell Scholarship to for the 2008-09 academic year.   In Ireland , Zach will be continuing the kind of research he began in Professor Marullo’s community-based urban studies course.

Our faculty have been as active as ever doing research, traveling the world, publishing books and articles and squeezing in a little rest and recreation.  You can check their latest research and publication efforts by clicking on their individual web pages.  For a special feature regarding how they spent last summer vacations, click here for the Sociology Unit or here for the Anthropology Unit.

This year Professors Gwendolyn Mikell, Sam Marullo and Timothy Wickham-Crowley are on sabbatical.  In place of the Sociologists, we welcome back Professors Mashayekhi and Schiwietz who have rejoined us as visiting faculty for this year.   Also, joining us full time as visiting faculty is Professor Sarah Stiles.

You will be happy to learn that Hanadi Salih, our office administrator who makes our operation run like a top, was married last year and is now expecting a baby.  Temporarily Hanadi’s place is being filled very ably by Neris Fleming.

We are writing this at the end of the fall semester.  It has been another good semester.  Both our majors in Sociology and the Anthropology as well as the faculty are doing well.   We hope to hear from you all when you get a chance. 

Best wishes,

Dennis McNamara, S.J.

William F. McDonald

Headlines

    Georgetown Students Awarded Mitchell Scholarships
    Georgetown University seniors Katherine Boyle (COL '08), a government major from Gainesville, Fl., and José Canto (COL ‘08), a sociology major from Baltimore, Md., are among 12 George J. Mitchell Scholarship recipients selected nationally for the 2008-2009 academic year.
    Unity Among Catholics Focus of New Book
    Professor Joseph Palacios argues in his new book that what unites Catholics is a sense of being Catholic -- a social imagination that motivates them to promote justice and build a better world.
    Local Network Exploration
    Through unconventional courses on urban anthropology, Anthropologist Melissa Fisher pushes her students to explore the complex cultures and social networks they encounter in everyday interactions.

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