Dr. Michael Blakey Receives the President's Award from the American Anthropological Association
Dr. Michael Blakey will receive the President's Award from the American Anthropological Association during their Annual Meeting. The Annual Meeting will be held from November 17-21st in Baltimore, MD and is focused on the theme "Truth and Responsibility." The American Anthropological Association says that the theme is "a call to reimagine anthropology to meet the demands of the present moment. The imperative to bear witness, take action, and be held accountable to the truths we write and circulate invites us to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities. To whom are we giving evidence and toward what ends? For whom are we writing? To whom are we accountable, and in what ways?"
The recipient of the President's Award is selected by the current American Anthropological Association president and presented at the Annual Meeting each year. Dr. Blakey will receive the award for his research on the Lower Manhattan African Burial Ground. In his announcement letter to Dr. Blakey, American Anthropological Association President Dr. Akhil Gupta remarked: “Although we have not had a chance to meet in person, I am a great admirer of your work from afar. It thus gives me great pleasure to inform you that you will be receiving the AAA President’s Award for your incredibly important work on the Lower Manhattan African burial ground; and for your advocacy for decolonizing the anthropological canon.” At William & Mary, Dr. Blakey teaches classes surrounding biological anthropology and racial ideology and directs the Institute for Historical Biology. Congratulations Dr. Blakey!
