News

Phd Student Jonathan Malindine featured in Hakai Magazine

Jonathan Malindine, PhD student in Sociocultural Anthropology, has been featured in Hakai Magazine. This magazine which focuses on science, society, and the environment from a coastal perspective takes a look at Malindine's research on Halibut Hooks and its importance in Alaska Native identity. Malindine has conducted month-long research on these wood hooks at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Support Center where he studied and photographed the specimens.

November 30: Research Presentations "Trauma, Memory, and Narrativity" with James Brooks

State Highway 31: A Road Trip Through the Heart of Modern India

October 12: Intradisciplinary Discussions: "Development" with Casey Walsh and David Lawson

Instruction Begins

Instruction Begins for Fall Quarter 2018. Welcome to all New Students and Welcome Back to those continuing their studies!

Tiger-charming, ritual healing and mental illness in the Sundarbans region of deltaic Bengal

Presentation by Annu Jalais, PhD (National University of Singapore)

Mental illness and suicides are very widespread in deltaic Bengal – especially in the Sundarbans region. One of the ways in which mental illness is triggered amongst the islanders of the region is through the purported “fear” one “catches” after having seen or been in some sort of “interaction” with nonhuman entities. Following those who have worked on various forms of human-animal environments, I choose the word “nonhuman” (which includes animals, spirits, certain trees, gusts of wind) as it better allows me to talk of the natural world from the Sundarbans islanders’ point of view. When someone “catches fear”, that person is seen as needing prompt intervention lest it ends up disturbing the victim’s mental well-being and potentially even causing death. A ritual healer, customarily a person who works in the forest as a “tiger-charmer”, usually provides the “cure”. Research suggests that ritual healing may actually be therapeutically effective. However, for one to be able to explain how it works, one needs to take into account a particular cosmological worldview where humans and nonhumans are part of a common world. This is gaining importance in the domain of ecopsychiatry and this presentation offers an ethnographic contribution towards a greater understanding of it in the Sundarbans.

Commencement Tea 2018 Photos

Photos from our 2018 Commencement Tea and Award Ceremony. Congratulations to our award recipients and to all of our graduates!

Professor Amy Boddy Featured in The Current

Professor Amy Boddy's research on cancer has recently been featured on The Current. Her research takes on cancer from an evolutionary and ecological perspective. In a larger context, her research and UC Santa Barbara as a whole are part of the Arizona Cancer and Evolution Center which focuses on understanding cancer in new and innovative ways.

Be sure to read more about it here: http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2018/019059/ace-ing-cancer-research