Congratulations to Phillip Cash Cash, Christopher Roos, and Noah Thomas who were recently notified that they will receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship for 2007-2008! According to the ACLS this gives the Department of Anthropology the unprecedented distinction of receiving three awards simultaneously in a single department of the the total of 65 fellowships. Both the Provost and the Dean were informed of this by the ACLS representative who was visiting the UA campus Tuesday, April 16th.

Earlier this year, Phillip Cash Cash completed his joint NSF/NEH Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) Fellowship which granted him a year in the field documenting the Nez Perce and Sahaptin languages, two endangered sister languages in the southern Columbia Plateau (USA). The data he collected under this project entitled, "A Filmic Language Documentation of Nez Perce and Sahaptin," will form the basis for his Ph.D. dissertation research.

Christopher Roos' dissertation research explores the relationship between land use, climate, and fire regimes over the last 1500 years to inform adaptive management of Southwestern ponderosa pine forests today. Comparisons of geoarchaeological data to independent archaeological and climatic data indicate that fire and environmental histories of the Mogollon Rim region of east-central Arizona were influenced by both climate and American Indian land use. Between AD 1200-1400, Pueblo villagers used fire to recycle nutrients within a non-swidden, shifting agricultural strategy. This type of land-use fit within natural fire cycles in terms of seasonality and frequency. Beginning in the late AD 1500s, Western Apaches used fire to transform the productive landscape by burning at higher frequencies and outside of the natural fire season resulting in a change in ecosystem structure. Both Pueblo and Apache anthropogenic burning regimes were less sensitive to long-term climate change than areas that experienced only natural burning. These conclusions suggest that prescribed anthropogenic burning may produce pine forests that will be less vulnerable to catastrophic fires than those exposed exclusively to natural burning.

Noah Thomas' dissertation research explores seventheenth century mining and metallurgy in New Mexico, documenting the development and adaptation of European metallurgical practices in this frontier region of the Spanish Empire through the analysis of archaeological, material analytical, and ethnohistorical data. He is particularly interested in the dynamics of technology transfer between Pueblo artisans and laborers and Spanish metallurgists, researching the development of the technologies evident archaeologically in terms of the social and economic contexts present in the early New Mexican colony.

The American Council of Learned Societies is launching a new, significant fellowship program providing support for young scholars to complete their dissertation. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Early Career Fellowship Program will award fellowships in two categories: Dissertation Completion Fellowships and Fellowships for Recent Doctoral Recipients. A grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supports this program.

The Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships are to assist graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences in the last year of Ph.D. dissertation writing. This program aims to encourage timely completion of the Ph.D. Applicants must be prepared to complete their dissertations within the period of their fellowship tenure or shortly thereafter.

ACLS will award 65 Fellowships in this competition for a one-year term beginning between June and September 2007 for the 2007-2008 academic year. The Fellowship tenure may be carried out in residence at the Fellow's home institution, abroad, or at another appropriate site for the research. The Fellowships include funds for university fees and research support (together with stipend the award may total up to $33,000) but may not be held concurrently with any other major fellowship or grant.