Department Celebrates Latest Award Winners and Honorees

Anthropology staff - 25 May 2016

Faculty members Helen Vallianatos and Kisha Supernant received recognition at the Faculty of Arts "Celebration of Excellence", May 12, 2016

Associate Professor Helen Vallianatos received the Arts Research Award for Associate Professors.

Helen Vallianatos




Dean of Arts Lesley Cormack, Professor Helen Vallianatos and

Professor Michael O'Driscoll, Associate Dean of Arts (Research).

Photo courtesy of the Faculty of Arts.




Assistant Professor Kisha Supernant (promoted to Associate Professor effective July 1, 2016) received the Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching (Early Career). This is a central university award given to a faculty member within their first five years of employment at the University of Alberta.

Kisha Supernant




Dean of Arts Lesley Cormack, Professor Kisha Supernant and Professor

Pamela Willoughby, Chair of Anthropology, at the Arts Awards night celebration.

Photo courtesy of the Faculty of Arts.





Professor Mark Nuttall, our Tory Chair, will receive the 2016 J Gordin Kaplan Award for Excellence in Research. This award is the top research award at the University of Alberta, and celebrates one's entire career. The University of Alberta will be honoring and recognizing Dr Nuttall at the Celebrate! event being held in the Myer Horowitz Theatre on the afternoon of September 21, 2016, at which time he will be presented with his plaque.


The Center for the Study of the First Americans (based at Texas A and M University) promotes research about the earliest inhabitants of North and South America. The latest issue of its bulletin, Mammoth Trumpet, included an article by Martha Deeringer celebrating the career of Dr. Ruth Gruhn, Professor Emerita of Anthropology. Along with her late husband, Dr. Alan Bryan, also a Professor in our department, Ruth was a pioneer of the now accepted theory that the Clovis archaeological sites were not the earliest in the Americas. In this article, she is called "the First Lady of American archaeology" as well as "A beacon in First American studies".

Emeritus Professor Raymond Le Blanc was honoured at a special session of the Canadian Archaeological Association Annual Meeting on May 7, 2016, in Whitehorse, Yukon. Ray's career in Yukon, Alberta and Arctic archaeology (spanning five decades) was celebrated by colleagues and former students in a session with 15 papers, followed by informal comments from other colleagues and former students. See the story by Anthropology grad student Jennifer Hallson for more information.

And last, but certainly not least, our former APO, Ms. Joanne McKinnon, received the Arts Outstanding Lead Administrator Award at the May 12, 2016 Arts awards night. While this application was prepared by Chairs of the four departments she currently serves, the Department of Anthropology wishes to acknowledge her years of exemplary service to us.

Joanne McKinnon





Vice Dean of Arts Stuart Landon, Ms. Joanne McKinnon and Dean of Arts Lesley Cormack

at the Arts awards night May 12, 2016.

Photo courtesy of the Faculty of Arts.