Anthropology at Princeton University

This summer, Princeton students are heading to Rio de Janeiro as part of a new Medicine & Health Policy Internship. This program inaugurates a new partnership between Anthropology at Princeton University, Brazil LAB, and the Institute for Health Policy Studies —Brazil's leading independent health policy organization. Aashna Pandey ’27 and Emily Popek ’29 will conduct hands-on research within Brazil’s public health system, exploring topics from maternal health to medical governance alongside IEPS experts.

This opportunity is sponsored by Pace Center for Civic Engagement, Princeton University, Princeton Office of International Programs's International Internship Program, and Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

🔗https://bit.ly/4uFFl5X

🍦I scream, you scream, Anthropology screams for ice cream! 🍨

Our annual Ice Cream Social brought students, faculty, and staff together to celebrate the end of the year 🎉
🎓Honoring Seniors
💫Celebrating Juniors
🤝Welcoming new majors
🖼Showcasing Senior Thesis Photography

📸Don't miss even more photos on our website: https://bit.ly/4dwIqi5

🎉We are proud to celebrate Anthropology major Genevieve Shutt, one of the 2026 Spirit of Princeton Award Winners! 🐅

This award recognizes students for their positive contributions to campus life and we're thrilled to see Genevieve’s work recognized. 👏

🔗Anthropology bit.ly/4wvygqk
🔗 ODUS bit.ly/42vFFIH

Anthropology Major Genevieve Shutt Wins 2026 Spirit of Princeton Award Genevieve Shutt, a senior majoring in anthropology with a minor in African American studies, has been named one of eight recipients of the 2026 Allen Macy Dulles ’51 Spirit of Princeton Award. The award has been presented annually by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students since 1995 to r...

The Future of (Data) Work Conference explored the histories, politics, topographies, and lived realities of data work around the world, centering the people behind the AI systems that dominate our present to imagine alternative futures.

🎉 Congratulations Dr. Sastrawati! 🎉

On May 1, Anthropology graduate student Alexandra Sastrawati successfully defended her dissertation “In the Folds of Cities: Provenance, Canvas, And the Edgework of Sovereignty.”
Alexandra's dissertation defense committee included her two co-advisors Professors João Biehl and Laurence Ralph, as well as her two examiners Professor Carolyn Rouse and Deborah Thomas (UPenn).

Read more about Dr. Sastrawati's research🔗https://bit.ly/48Znbnt

A packed room and a lively discussion followed Professor Rana Barakat's talk on her new book 📕 Ongoing Return: Mapping Memory and Storytelling in Palestine.

From her work "unsettling museums" at Birzeit University Museum to her teaching "Colonialism on Display" at Princeton, she examined how collections and storytelling help frame "return" as an ongoing, lived practice across time in Palestine.
Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
The Humanities at Princeton
Near Eastern Studies Department, Princeton University

🎉 Congratulations Doctor Sanusi!🎉

On April 28, Anthropology graduate student Aderayo Sanusi successfully defended her dissertation “Convivial Nigeria: The Struggle for Self-Sufficiency.”

“Convivial Nigeria: The Struggle for Self-Sufficiency” debates a new approach for social scientific knowledge and study of economic growth and development. Drawing on twenty-four months of multisited ethnographic fieldwork in Nigeria, Aderayo challenges Marxist and neo-Marxist accounts which often presume market exploitation as the central logic of capitalism. Through critical analysis of the political economy of substitution as articulated in archives and by the lived experiences of people who intentionally and/or unwittingly engage in activities related to imports in Nigeria, Aderayo elicits reconstructive elements of capitalism which empower marginalized peoples to increase their incomes, decarbonize the environment, and begin to optimize economic growth and development.

Aderayo's dissertation defense committee included her two co-advisers Professors Julia Elyachar and Rena Lederman, as well as her two examiners Assistant Professor Hanna Garth and Professor Daniel Smith (Brown U).

📚🌎 Standing room only for a conversation that challenged how we think about borders, deportation, and movement.

In her April 7 talk, Amelia Frank-Vitale discussed her first book, Leave If You Can: Migration and Violence in Bordered Worlds, examining migrant caravans, deportation, and everyday life in Honduras’s urban margins. She highlighted how detention and deportation often intensify mobility, producing repeated and circular journeys shaped by violence and constraint.

Joined by Ulla Berg  and Ernesto Castañeda Frank-Vitale also reflected on ethnographic craft, accountability to interlocutors, and the importance of representing people’s words and experiences with
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What happens after the rule of law? Professor Jessica Greenberg explores this question through the tensions shaping human rights and legal institutions today. 👉 Read more:

Jessica Greenberg on "After the Rule of Law" Professor Jessica Greenberg spoke on her latest project and book as well as more generally on the rule of law, the role of crisis talk, and the culture of legal institutions such as the European Court on Human Rights. As Greenberg confessed at the beginning of her lecture, she would unfortunately no...

The Humanities at Princeton publishes Q&A with Professor Amelia Frank-Vitale on her new book Leave if You Can: Migration and Violence in Bordered Worlds.

Faculty Author Q&A: Amelia Frank-Vitale on ‘Leave If You Can’ — We seek to foster creative scholarship, transformative teaching, and intellectual collaboration by bringing humanities departments and programs into dialogue with arts and sciences.

Join us to explore the histories, politics, topographies, and lived realities of data work around the world, centering the people behind the AI systems that dominate our present to imagine alternative futures.