Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson was part of a collaborative team of nearly 50 social scientists whose publication “Governance and Conservation Effectiveness in Protected Areas and Indigenous and Locally Managed Areas” Annual Review of Environment and Resources.48: 559-588 has just come out. It is available here.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson presented “Feeling Climate Change in the Unruly Environment of Central Belize” for the roundtable “How Does Climate Change Feel? (Re)Thinking Cultural Embodied Responses To Environmental Precarity” at the 2022 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, held November 9-13 in Seattle, Washington.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson traveled with three students who worked with and were mentored by Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed this summer through SCOPE to represent Southwestern at the Universities Studying Slavery Fall 2022 Conference, held September 28–October 1 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Southwestern’s panel was titled “Revealing Race and Exploring White Dominance at a Small Liberal Arts School: How Southwestern University Confronts (Ignores?) Its White Supremacist Foundations.” Johnson presented a paper coauthored with Reed titled “An Overview of the Southwestern University Racial History Project”; Maria (Cony) Cameron ’24 presented “Exploring Policy and Racial Climate”; Aspen Coriz-Romero ’24 presented “Building Communities of Care and Organizing Resistance at Southwestern University”; and Kellie Henderson ’23 presented “Early Life of Black Students and Faculty on Southwestern University Campus.” The panel was well attended, and attendees (primarily faculty) were very impressed with the students.

​​On April 13, Southwestern University’s Upsilon Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA), hosted its AKA Spirit of Giving Virtual Awards Ceremony. The awards were presented to faculty members and a deserving student leader for their commitment to supporting students of color on the Southwestern University campus. The awards are given in honor of the philanthropic deeds of Vice President for University Relations and Strategic Initiatives Paul Secord and his family. This year’s recipients were Eugenia Gabrielle Agobe ’22, psychologist and Assistant Director of the Counseling and Health Center Rachel McNally, Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala, Professor of Spanish and Chair of Latin American and Border Studies Carlos De Oro, Professor of Sociology Reggie Byron, Associate Professor of Education Alicia Moore, and Assistant Professor of Sociology Erika Grajeda. For more details, see the event program.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson’s review of Rajeshwari Dutt’s book Empire on Edge: The British Struggle for Order in Belize during Yucatán’s Caste War, 1847–1901 was recently published in The American Historical Review.