CSU Department of Anthropology and Geography

05/18/2026

Congratulations to our Class of 2026 graduate students in Anthropology and Geography! You did the thing! 🎉🎓🍾

We cannot wait to see where you bring and grow your scholarship, teaching, and engagement to communities and universities around the country and the world!

05/16/2026

How sweet it is! Congratulations Anthropology & Geography Class of ‘26! Savor the moment and all your hard work! You’ve earned it!

05/15/2026

On your feet for yourrrrrr 2026 Anthropology and Geography graduating class!

Congrats to all our graduating majors, minors, and certificate students!

05/15/2026

On your feet for yourrrrrrrr 2026 Anthropology and Geography graduating class!

Congratulations to all our undergraduate majors, minors, and certificate students!

05/13/2026

Congratulations to undergraduates Reagan Kuhn and Caitlyn BucknerBackstrom who won top awards and recognition at this year's MURALS and CURC research conferences, respectively!

Kuhn, a graduating Anthropology major and Botany minor, won the MURALS Rising Star Award for their presentation, "Expanding Outreach with Illustration: Bringing Rare Plants to Life," and which combined research and knowledge from anthropology and ethnobotany. Kuhn presented several of their own botanical illustrations as part of their presentation and research.

BucknerBackstrom, an Anthropology major, won Top College Honors: College of Liberal Arts at CURC for her poster, "Evolution of Hand Anatomy, Stone Tools & the Origin of Symbolic Thought." Her research explored when, why, and how did humans evolve the ability to create art? BucknerBackstrom looked at the development of hand anatomy across different human and primate species and how it ties to brain development drawing on biological anthropology, psychology, and art history and theories for her project. BucknerBackstrom's project is advised by Kim Nichols, associate teaching professor.

Cheers to both students on their outstanding scholarship and accolades!

Images 1-4 show Kuhn presenting their poster and research at MURALS and illustrations of botanical species from the university herbarium (courtesy Kuhn).

Images 5-6 show BucknerBackstrom and her poster at CURC (courtesy BucknerBackstrom).

05/05/2026

Maybe Mike, Eleven, Will, Dustin and friends were onto something with their Dungeons & Dragons obsession in Stranger Things?

New research from Prof. Jeffrey Snodgrass and the Ethnographic Research and Teaching Laboratory, in the journal Transcultural Psychiatry, suggests that tabletop role-playing games like D&D can have surprising therapeutic effects on players who may relate to their characters in highly personal ways and even as symbolic secondary selves. The research from Snodgrass, CSU graduate students, and colleagues found that gamers can achieve improved self-esteem and identity and feel greater social support and sense of “safety” through role-playing experiences and communities on a therapeutic level.

Read more about Snodgrass and team’s latest findings in PsyPost, a psychology and mental-health news site.

Immersing yourself in a tabletop role-playing game could boost your real-world self-esteem. According to a new Transcultural Psychiatry study, building strong, personal bonds with fictional avatars allows players to safely explore and improve their actual identities.

04/30/2026

Alumna Teresa Mares (ANTH BA 2002) returned to campus this April to speak about her research and most recent book, Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain, which she coauthored with Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern (University of California Press, 2025). Her and Minkoff-Zern’s book explores how food work is valued and the pathway to a more just and sustainable food system through improving labor conditions and organizing across sectors to address systemic inequalities.

Mares is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Vermont and the Director for the Graduate Program in Food Systems. Her research focuses on labor in the food system, food security and food sovereignty, and migration from Latin America - drawing on political economy and ethnographic research to gather and frame findings. Those interests first took seed as a CSU student, when Mares studied cultural anthropology and participated in the 2001 Ethnographic Field School, directed by Prof, Kathy Pickering. “I learned ethnography through Professor Pickering and the field school, and really began to think hard about how we can use ethnography in a responsible and community-based approach,” Mares said.

Read more about Mares and her work https://collegian.com/articles/featured/2026/04/category-science-the-food-system-is-not-broken-csu-alumna-co-authors-book-on-labor-in-the-food-system/

Thanks to all who attended Mares’ talk and to Assistant Prof. of Geography Carrie Chennault and Associate Prof. of Sociology Joshua Sbicca for coordinating the event.

04/28/2026

When is a river not a river? What sounds like a Zen riddle is a crucial research and management question in Colorado, especially with a looming summer of water shortages.

Geography faculty Jacob Petersen-Perlman and a CSU team are now examining how Colorado and other states establish standards for instream flows – actual water in a river or lake needed to support ecosystems as well as human uses. Their work will provide guidance for how Colorado and other states can enhance environmental and legal protections for rivers and bodies of water.

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Jacob Petersen-Perlman and an interdisciplinary group of CSU researchers are examining how Colorado and other states measure and establish standards for instream flows – actual water in a river or lake needed to support ecosystems as well as human uses.