2006 Annual Report 2006 Annual Report Table of Contents Chairman’s Foreword.................................................................................. 3 President’s Report ....................................................................................... 4 Program Highlights Research Grants and Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships ...................... 6 International Programs .......................................................................12 International Symposia and Symposia Publications....................... 14 Other Foundation Programs and Activities...................................... 15 Individual Research Grants Dissertation Fieldwork Grants ........................................................... 17 Post-Ph.D. Research Grants .............................................................. 26 Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships.......................................................... 30 Conference and Workshop Grants .......................................................... 31 International Collaborative Research Grants.......................................... 34 Wadsworth International Fellowships ..................................................... 35 Initiatives Grants........................................................................................ 38 Historical Archives Grants........................................................................ 39 Grant Making Statistics............................................................................. 40 Financial Statements................................................................................. 48 Leadership.................................................................................................. 58 Reviewers (during 2006)............................................................................ 59 Staff ............................................................................................................. 60 2 2006 Annual Report Chairman’s Introduction Richard C. Hackney, Jr. Chairman of the Board of Trustees In 2006 the Foundation has undergone a number of changes instituted by the new President, Leslie Aiello. Among these are the launch of the new Wenner-Gren website and the introduction of web-based application and review procedures. We have also revised and expanded the Foundation’s grant programs to ensure that we meet our mission to support significant and innovative anthropological research and to foster the creation of an international community of research scholars in anthropology. These are all discussed in the 2006 President’s Report that follows. However, 2006 also marked another major change for the Foundation. This was the retirement of the longest-serving member of the Wenner-Gren Board of Trustees, Dr. Frank Wadsworth. Frank joined the Board in 1970 as a young English professor. Throughout his long tenure at Wenner-Gren, he has worked tirelessly and been an astute adviser for generations of trustees, staff and anthropologists associated with the Foundation, not to mention four Wenner-Gren presidents. His 36 years of extraordinary service include ten years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees (1977-1987), ten years as Vice Chairman (1994-2004), membership in the Executive Committee since its inception in 1992, Chairman of the Nominating Committee (1987-2004), and crucial roles on three presidential search committees. The Foundation is indebted to him for its survival and well-being. He steered it through a period of crisis during his chairmanship, making some very difficult and at times unpopular decisions along the way. The current strength of the Foundation, both its strong fiscal basis and the confidence it enjoys within the anthropological profession, is largely the result of his determination and guidance. In honor of his long-standing service, the Foundation has changed the name of its Professional Development International Fellowships program to the Wadsworth International Fellowships program. This program supports students and scholars from countries where anthropology is under-represented to study at internationally recognized institutions. In 2006 alone, twenty-six international students have been supported through this program. Frank retired from the Board in May 2006 and his presence will be missed by the entire Wenner-Gren community. The Wadsworth International Fellowships program is just one small way that we will be reminded of the work, enthusiasm, and grace that he brought to the Foundation. Richard C. Hackney Jr. Chairman, Board of Trustees 3 Wenner-Gren Foundation for 2006 Annual Report President’s Report Anthropological Research Leslie C. Aiello, President This year saw the implementation of many of the initiatives that were planned and developed during 2005, my first year at the Foundation. We also have a number of new initiatives underway. On July 1 we launched a new website to provide a clear and intuitive portal for the Foundation’s many programs and other activities. We are particularly proud of the site's interactive map of the world showing the geo- graphical breadth of the research carried out by our grantees, the searchable grantee database, the overall design of the site and the ability it affords us to communicate easily and effectively with the an- thropological community. The numerous images on the website provided by our grantees also illustrate the breadth of modern anthropological research supported by the Foundation. Together with the website we have also launched a web-based application and grant review system that has many advantages over the paper-based system previously in use. Among the most important bene- fits is the ability to promptly provide all grant applicants full reviewer feedback in time for those whose grants are declined to reapply for the next deadline, particularly those who are declined in the first stage of the review process. Other benefits include the ease with which applicants can now apply to the Foun- dation and the economies in processing the applications once received. Along with this new public face of the Foundation, we have revised our information and application ma- terials with the aim of improving and clarifying all of our grant-making activities. We have also taken this opportunity to revise some of our programs in order to provide a better service to the field and increase the international reach of the Foundation. In particular, we have added a South African Fellowship to our Wadsworth International Fellowships program. This fellowship is designed to support African stu- dents working towards doctoral degrees at South African universities. It updates the Foundation’s long- term program of support to anthropology and archaeology at the University of Cape Town and the Uni- versity of the Witwatersrand. We also have expanded our Wadsworth Short-Term Fellowship to cover training opportunities as well as library research for international students and scholars from countries where anthropology is under-represented. In addition, we have increased the maximum amount of money available through the International Collaborative Research Grant to encourage training activities to help build anthropological capacity in countries where it is needed. Finally, we have laid the ground- work for a new Institutional Development Grant worth $125,000 over five years and designed to aid aca- demic departments in countries where anthropology is underdeveloped. Over the past few years applications for our Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship have increased considerably. While this reflected a definite need in the field for writing fellowships, there was also the danger that the 4 corresponding increase in the number of fellowship awards was shifting the focus of the Foundation from funding research to supporting the publication of research already completed. To maintain our pri- mary aim of funding anthropological research and encouraging international anthropology, these prestig- ious fellowships are now limited to eight or nine per year. In addition to the steady increase in the number of Hunt Fellowship applications over the past few years, this year saw a particular increase in applications across all of our programs. We believe that the in- crease in applications for our individual awards is largely due to our new systems, which provide feed- back in time for declined applicants to apply again in the same year. The increase in our other programs is most probably due to the clarity of the new website, which better advertises the availability of these awards and facilitates the application procedure. This year we have also actively promoted the Foundation by attending and presenting grant-writing workshops at a number of high-profile anthropological conferences including the American Association of Physical Anthropology (March, in Anchorage, Alaska), the European Anthropological Associa- tion (August, in Budapest, Hungary), the European Association of Social Anthropology (September, in Bristol, UK) and the American Anthropological Association (November, in San Jose, CA). At the AAA meeting we sponsored a number of additional events, including: an evening reception, where we intro- duced our new website and funding initiatives; a Presidential Panel, "Roots of Human Sociality: A Four- Field Approach," which stemmed from the 134th International Wenner-Gren Symposium on "The Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Interaction"; and a book launch reception for three interna- tional symposium volumes published in 2006. These initiatives and activities