Annual Report for 2008 “Supporting worldwide research in all branches of Anthropology” 2008 Annual Report TABLE OF CONTENTS Chairman’s Introduction............................................................................3 President’s Report .....................................................................................4 Program Highlights ....................................................................................6 Institutional Development Grants .............................................................8 International Symposia, Workshops, and Sponsored Meetings ............10 Hunt Postdoctoral Fellows ........................................................................17 Wadsworth Fellows....................................................................................22 2008 Grantees Dissertation Fieldwork Grants .............................................................26 Post-Ph.D. Research Grants ................................................................38 Conference and Workshop Grants......................................................42 International Collaborative Research Grants .....................................45 New and Continuing Wadsworth Fellowships....................................46 Initiatives ...............................................................................................49 Historical Archives Program................................................................50 Major Grant Program Statistics.................................................................51 Financial Statements .................................................................................58 Leadership ..................................................................................................69 Reviewers during 2007 ..............................................................................70 Staff .............................................................................................................72 2 2008 Annual Report Chairman’s Introduction Seth J. Masters Chairman of the Board of Trustees The Board of Trustees, Officers, and Staff of the Wenner-Gren Foundation are pleased to publish this 2008 annual report. Wenner-Gren is committed to its support of the global anthropology community, and funds its operations and programs from the investment returns achieved on its endowment portfolio. The broad decline in capital markets as a result of the credit crisis in 2008 has not spared the Foundation. Fortunately, the Foundation's management procedures and conservative financial policies have helped us navigate this difficult period better than many peers. Our Budget and Investment Committee, chaired by Bill Cobb, deserves special acknowledgement for the Foundation's superior long-term investment record. As reviewed in this report, under President Leslie Aiello's leadership and vision we have critically refined and expanded our programs, communications, and global relationships. Our systems and procedures have been enhanced to service an increasing volume of grants applications. And our expanded web site and internet capabilities have enabled us to better communicate worldwide. Our ability to keep abreast of the issues facing the profession and to measure our success in achieving our goals would not be possible without the collaboration, advice, and contributions from the community we serve. Recognition and gratitude should be especially given to past and present Advisory Committee members as well as to the many others who have participated in the Foundation's programs and activities. This is my first year as Chairman on the Board and I thank you for such an enriching Wenner-Gren experience. Seth J. Masters Chairman, Board of Trustees Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research 3 2008 Annual Report President’s Report Leslie C. Aiello, President 2008 has been both an extremely successful and a challenging year for the Foundation. The award of the first two Institutional Development Grants was a major highlight. These grants provide $125,000 over five years to support doctoral training in anthropology departments located in countries where the discipline is underrepresented and where there are limited resources to support academic development. Because of the high quality of the applications received, the Board of Trustees generously approved two Institutional Development Grants in 2008 rather than the anticipated one. The awards went to the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Códoba, Argentina and to the National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (see Program Highlights). The Foundation looks forward to working closely with both of these institutions over the next five years to achieve their development goals. Other highlights included three meetings sponsored under the International Symposia and Workshop program. One of these meetings was held at the Foundation offices in New York City ("The Anthropologist as Social Critic: Working towards a More Engaged Anthropology” sponsored in association with the American Anthropological Association), one was held in Portugal (“Working Memory and the Evolution of Modern Thinking”), and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico ("Corporate Lives: New Perspectives on the Social Life of the Corporate Form” sponsored in association with the School for Advanced Research). The outcomes of all of these meetings will be published as special issues of the Foundation-sponsored journal, Current Anthropology, under our new initiative to publish International Symposia outcomes in a form that is electronically accessable. An additional meeting (“Sustaining Cultural and Biological Diversity in a Rapidly Changing World: Lessons for Global Policy”) was held at the American Museum of Natural History and sponsored jointly by the Foundation, AMNH, and Terralingua (Salt Spring Island, BC). The Foundation was also represented at a number of anthropological meetings including the American Anthropological Association where we sponsored a Presidential symposium on “Anthropology Put to Work,” ran a grant- writing workshop together with the National Science Foundation and co-organized an evening reception with Dr. Setha Low, the AAA President, and the AAA-sponsored Council on World Anthropologies. The reception highlighted the significance of the diversity of international voices and approaches to the field. In 2008 the Foundation also partnered with the New York Academy of Sciences Anthropology Section to host monthly evening seminars. This initiative continues in the tradition of the Wenner-Gren supper conferences, which from 1944 until the late 1970s were an important feature the Foundation’s intellectual involvement with the New York Anthropological Community. We are pleased to offer a venue 4 to the NYAS Anthropology Section and look forward to a continuing collaboration in hosting these stimulating events. The number of applications received by the Foundation continued to increase in 2008. Across our six major grant programs (Dissertation Fieldwork Grants, Post-Ph.D. Research Grants, Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships, Conference and Workshop/Grants, International Collaborative Research Grants, and Wadsworth Fellowships) the number of applications received by the Foundation increased by 11% over 2007. The current year is our largest year to date and the Foundation is pleased that this reflects a vibrant international interest in anthropological research. The number of awards made in 2008 was, however, 3% less than in 2007. This decrease was primarily in the Dissertation Fieldwork and Post- Ph.D. Research Grants where the success rates were purposely reduced in the second half of the year. This was a direct response to the then deteriorating financial situation. The Foundation is dependent entirely on its endowment and our major goal is to fund as many grants as possible while at the same time preserving the endowment for future generations of anthropologists. The primary focus in the last quarter of 2008 was to balance projected grant expenditures for both 2008 and 2009 against the reduced expected income from the endowment. This necessarily involved some difficult (and on-going) decisions in relation to success rates, maximum grant amounts, and possible program closures. The Foundation survived similar financial conditions in the mid-1970s and as a result has continuingly planned for adverse financial circumstances. Part of the strategy is to fund large numbers of relatively small research projects rather than fewer numbers of costlier, long-term initiatives. This permits a rapid reduction (or increase) in success rates (and expenditure) as the situation requires. Our current strategy is to reduce the success rates across the Foundation’s programs while at the same time to plan in detail for future possible funding reductions as may be necessary. I would like to thank the Board of Trustees and the Wenner-Gren staff for their ongoing support and trust through these current very trying times. We are all determined to carry on the Foundation's mission to support anthropological research now and in the future. There is no reason to believe that we will not be entirely successful in this endeavor. Leslie C. Aiello President Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research 5 2008 Annual Report Program Highlights Program highlights for 2008 include the introduction of a new Institutional Development Grant program, the award of the highly competitive Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships, the selection of six international scholars to train under our Wadsworth