Congratulations Dr. Michael Blake



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Congratulations to Michael Blake who takes over as our new Anthropology Department Head on July 1st!

Message from Michael Blake – Head of Department:

I feel both honoured and privileged to be taking on the headship role for the Department of Anthropology. Our department has a superb team of dedicated staff members, and enthusiastic graduate and undergraduate students, accomplished postdoctoral fellows, and outstanding faculty members whose research and teaching has helped to make UBC a global leader—and, I’m proud to say, has propelled us to one of the top 25 anthropology departments in the world.

Many decades ago, when I was an undergraduate anthropology major at UBC, I never imagined that, one day I would become the department head (also known as department chair in some universities). But, now that I am, the prospect of working together with our outstanding team of anthropologists—all of whom have enduring links to cultures and communities both locally and around the world—is truly inspiring. I am excited to begin working with colleagues, staff and students to help broaden and strengthen our department’s ties to other programs at UBC and to other universities and community groups—especially First Nations communities—in B.C., Canada and abroad.

Anthropologists aim to understand our human diversity—past and present, global and local—through a set of specialties: socio-cultural, archaeological, linguistic, museological, medical and biological. Each of these branches of anthropology has its own set of methodologies and theoretical perspectives, but we all share a basic curiosity about the nature of cultural differences and similarities. Never has this cultural focus been so important as it is today, at a time of heightened political rhetoric, regional conflict and global inequity—much of which seems to be rooted in a lack of interest in and a general misunderstanding of socio-cultural diversity and cultural history. Our research and teaching in the coming years will continue to build anthropology’s unique contribution to understanding who we are and where we are going.

I invite you to view our faculty, postdoc, and student profiles and learn about the enormous wealth of teaching and research initiatives in which members of this department are engaged. I’m confident that you’ll be amazed.

1 July, 2016
Professor Michael Blake



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