From all of us at UGA Anthropology, congratulations to the class of 2021! We are so proud of you and all of your hard work. Throughout the challenges and changes of the past year, you did it! We look forward to seeing what you accomplish next.

This year, we had three graduate students earn their PhD in Anthropology. Congratulations to Dr. Isabelle Holland Lulewicz, Dr. April Smith, and Dr. Katharine Napora!

We are excited to announce a new minor in Biological and Medical Anthropology!

Congratulations to UGA undergraduate Anthropology students, Anya Jaye Lesser, Abigail Roegner, and Sasha Severtson, whose articles have been published in The Classic, the Writing Intensive Program’s journal of undergraduate writing and research.

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Birch on receiving the 2021 Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching! This award was established during the 1991-1992 academic year to honor the late U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell, and to recognize outstanding instruction by faculty members early in their academic careers. S.

With more than 9 years of work experience with World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan), I had a chance to develop my insight into environmental challenges and nature conservation in Pakistan. Working with the organization, I learnt about different environmental issues from climate change to watershed management and species conservation. Being Coordinator Communications at WWF-Pakistan, it required me to engage with various government and non-government organizations including media on the issues related to conservation.

The UGA Today article, "How do people solve global problems?" quotes both Dr. Birch and Dr. Kowalewski as they discuss collaborative problem-solving methods and the archaeological evidence behind them. The article also notes the new book, “The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.”

Research conducted by UGA Department of Anthropology alumnus, Dr. Jacob Holland-Lulewicz (PhD '18), is featured in Archaeology Magazine's "Top 10 Discoveries of 2020." Dr. Holland-Lulewicz is currently a lecturer in archaeology within the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. Congratulations to Dr.

"When disinformation makes sense: Contextualizing the war on coal in Appalachian Kentucky" by PhD candidate, Shelly Biesel, is now available for early view in Economic Anthropology. This manuscript utilizes "qualitative interviews, participant observation, and discourse analysis" in order to "explore how war‐on‐coal disinformation becomes a commonsense explanation for many dealing with coal industry recession."

Professor and Ethnoecology and Biodiversity Lab Director, Dr. Virginia Nazarea, along with University of Georgia alumna (B.A. '13) and Syracuse University PhD candidate, Terese Gagnon, recently edited Moveable Gardens: Itineraries and Sanctuaries of Memory to be released in 2021. This book also features UGA Department of Anthropology contributors, including PhD candidates, Melanie Narciso and Emily Ramsey, as well as alumnus, Dr. James R.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the University of Georgia (UGA) recently announced a partnership that connects the interdisciplinary expertise of UGA’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS), with the vast on-the-ground experience of USACE’s Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) Initiative to form the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN).