We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jean Debernardi has been appointed as Acting Chair of the Department of Anthropology beginning her term July 1, 2017. Jean DeBernardi received her training as a cultural anthropologist at Stanford, Oxford, and the University of Chicago and has been teaching at the University of Alberta since 1991. She has done ethnographic research on Chinese popular religion in Malaysia and Singapore, evangelical Christianity in Singapore, and religious and cultural pilgrimage to the Daoist temple complex at Wudang Mountain, China. In 2009 she launched a new project exploring contemporary tea culture. Her research has given her the opportunity to explore China outside of its urban areas, including Wuyi Mountain, long famed for its premium teas, and also to experience a wide variety of China's local food cultures. Back in Edmonton she enjoys growing heirloom tomatoes, sour cherries and saskatoons.