 
 
Hello and thank you all for clicking
into the Department of Anthropology's
2020
graduation recording. I'm EJ Sobo,
chair of the department, and on behalf of
all of us I want to say how happy we are
to be able to come together with you to
honor our graduates.
Graduation is as any anthropology
student knows
a rite of passage, and at the end of this
transitional life event, students
normally are told by someone like me to
turn their tassels.
So before we get started I want every
graduate to make sure
that you have some kind of tassel
stand-in to turn.
Something that holds meaning to you
related to school that you can hold in
your right hand for now.
Go ahead and press pause if you need to
go get something.
Okay now put your symbolic tassel on
your right side please,
and when you're done with this video I
want you to bring it over to the left
side of your head
to signify this pivotal transition.
Before you get to that point however we
have a lot to do and
yes i'm going to mention the elephant in
the room. The pandemic that's led to this
screen-mediated graduation.
No, it's not ideal and what's happened is
horrendous
but I need to point out that COVID-19's
emergence gives us a chance to rethink
the system that we humans have created.
As Ahrundanti Roy observes, historically
pandemics have forced humans to break
with the past
and imagine their world anew. This one is
no
different. It is a portal, a gateway
between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it,
dragging our prejudices, our greed, our
dead rivers, and smoky skies behind us.
Or we can walk through ready to imagine
another world.
And ready to fight for it.
The notion of stepping from one world to
the next has special
resonance for anthropologists and even
more so at graduation time.
Did you know that the word graduation
and the word degree
both have roots in the Latin word for
step?
Not only should this step be noted and
celebrated
by those who have earned the right to
take it and by those who are close to
them.
It should also be made toward the light
and you have been given a clear
mandate in this regard by the present
global situation.
As someone now trained in anthropology,
you more than anyone
are equipped with the tools we need to
move society forward.
As anthropologists, you know that the
best way to fully grasp problems
and therefore to answer them is to view
them through a systems lens. Taking
account of context.
You've learned to look at the big
picture and to ask comprehensive
questions without losing sight of
significant small details.
Not only today's problems but also
today's careers
require flexibility, ingenuity, and the
ability to understand the systems
in which we are immersed and enmeshed.
Anthropology gives you a big advantage
in that regard.
It's distressing I know that we can't do
a live graduation ceremony with you
today
but your achievements are no less
important to us for that.
Dr. Isaac Ullah, our Undergraduate Advisor
is going to call each of your names
today.
Master's thesis students will be hooded
virtually by their chairs,
and at the end of this presentation in
which Dr. Arion Mayes and Sam Kobari have
put together for you.
I invite you to turn your tassels.
Transferring them from right to left.
A performative act by which you will
graduate.
Before all this can happen, it's my great
pleasure to introduce this year's
Outstanding Graduating Senior.
Every year the faculty elects an
Outstanding Graduating Senior
and this decision is made not only based
on grades but
on overall contribution to our
department's community.
This year we elected Molly Scheid.
Congratulations Molly! In our tradition
the Outstanding Graduating Senior in
turn selects their Most Influential
Faculty member
and Ms. Scheid has selected Savanna
Schuermann. Congratulations Ms. Schuermann!
To have made an impact like that on a
student's life is surely a blessing
and vice versa. I know as Savanna
Schuermann wrote to me,
students like Molly are the reason I
teach. Her passion for the more deeply
understanding complex contemporary
social and environmental problems is
strikingly apparent
and it is driven by her desire to help
solve them.
Molly, you embody the class of 2020's
capacity and will
to better the world. We salute you along
with your class and with our graduating
Master of Arts students.
We have another award to confer thanks
to the generous support of a very
important group, the Friends of
Anthropology.
We deeply appreciate the Friend's support.
One of the privileges of SDSU
anthropology graduates is to become a
member of the Friends of Anthropology. So
if you see an email this summer from the
Friend's, be sure to open it up.
Okay with that i'd like to step out of
the frame, so that the rest of the
ceremony can move forward.
Congratulations class of 2020.
Hello my name is Fred Conway and I'm
speaking for the Friends of Anthropology.
A group of alumni and others just who
support the Department of Anthropology
and its students. We extend our heartiest
congratulations to all the graduates
this year,
both seniors and masters students who
are receiving their hoods.
We have always supported graduation
through a reception
and gifts for the graduating seniors.
This year
unfortunately , we can't have the
reception but graduating seniors are
invited to pick up their gifts
at the anthropology department office
once it reopens.
Spencer Lee Rogers was one of the most
influential members
of the anthropology faculty through much
of the 20th century.
To honor him, the Friends give an award,
the Spencer Lee Rogers alumni award to
an exceptional
graduating senior. Students are nominated
for this award by faculty.
The students are invited to submit an
essay about their time in anthropology
at SDSU
to the Friends of Anthropology. A panel
of Friends,
two from San Diego and three from around
the country
read the essays this year and selected
the winning senior.
Hello this is Dr. Philip Greenfeld,
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at
San Diego State University.
I want to congratulate all of the
anthropology graduates in the class of
2020
and wish to announce that
Katherine Isola has been awarded the
Spencer Rogers
prize for this year. Congratulations
Katherine!
I also want to remind you that
all of the 2020 graduates are eligible
to pick up
a Friends of Anthropology commemorative
mug
from the department office when the
department reopens.
Again thank you very much for
all of your hard work over this last few
years,
and congratulations on your graduation.
Thank you for joining us as we celebrate
the confirmant of the degree
of Master of Arts in Anthropology.
Gracias (foreign)
The Master of Arts in Anthropology is a
comprehensive program that requires
determination,
perseverance, and passion for research
topic.
Candidates must develop a research
agenda that includes the mastery of
scholarly literature on their topic.
They must develop methodologies to
obtain sufficient data, and employ a set
of theoretical paradigms
to interpret that data. All of which
comes together
in their thesis. I turn the mic over to
Dr. Arion Mayes.
Thank you. The Department of Anthropology
and I,
Arion Mayes are proud to confer the
Degree of
Master of Arts on Roberto Carlos Vega.
The title of his thesis, A histological
analysis of a late formative period
population,
from Cerro de la Cruz in the lower Rio
Verde Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico.
His additional committee members are Dr.
Ramona Perez,
Department of Anthropology and Dr.
Barbara Bailey,
Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Congratulations!
Ramona. Thank you. The Department of
Anthropology
and I, Ramona Perez are proud to confer
the Degree of Master of
Arts to Angel Francis Bucci.
The title of her thesis, The female
experience in perpetual flux.
How collegiate runners negotiate and
construct health,
success, identity, and passion for sport.
Her additional committee members
included Dr. David Kamper from the
Department of Anthropology and American
Indian Studies
and Dr. Susan Cayleff, Department of Women's
Studies.
Congratulations Angel! Dr. Mayes.
Congratulations to you both, Angel and
Carlos.
We commend you on your success in this
unprecedented time.
We are really sorry we cannot be there
in person to hood you
but accept our virtual hug and we know
we'll be able to do it soon.
Congratulations job well done. We are
so very proud of you and we look forward
to your continued success
to you and your family.
I can't find the stop record.
As the undergraduate advisor
in the major of anthropology it is my
distinct pleasure
to announce the names of the 2020
graduates
in anthropology. Normally I'd ask you to
hold your applause to the end,
but considering the circumstances, I say
this year when you hear the name of your
graduate
give them a big cheer! And without
further ado
here are your 2020 anthropology
graduates.
Elaine M Aguayo
Haley Alexander
Jacklyn Alexis Bedoy
Bianca Belmonte
Matthew Paul Brackmann
Cody Draco Brown
Kevin Christian Brown
Karyme Castro
Nuri Heart Chun
Marilyn Elena Click
Douglas Clay Cooper
Megan Louise Corcoran
Antonio Jaime Cortez
Gillian Kate Dean
Delana Noreen Delgado
Sophia Julie Dominguez
Alison Marie Doyle
Bill Ela Ebuen
Emma Farr
Lauren Christa Fogelberg
Jennifer Woodruff Fusco
Abhijeet Garcha
Elizandra Granillo-Espinoza
Michelle Irais Guitard
Kristina J Helton
Veronica M Hughes
Katherine Amy Isola
Milan Jade Joinson-Szekerka
Aryana Kaypour
Rebecca Ruth Kennedy
Jenna Nicole Lencioni
Kellen Lovell
Alex Jesse Martinez
Anna McKinney
Sonia Mendoza
Alazar Semere Mesfun
Isabella Angelica Montalvo
Melanie Barbara Moore
Graciala Estafania Morales Osoria
Terri Lynn Mylan
Clarissa Arlene Ochoa
Ana Elizabeth Partida
Daniel Loren Piel
Justin Weekes Plowden
Desseray Alondra Reyes Ponce
Angeles Vianey Riverol Landa
Alexis Nicole Rogers
Melissa Ann Ruegg
Robert D Sanchez
Molly Madeline Scheid
Saiam Seifi
Hannah Lynne Skrentny
Emma Kellys Sommers
Cassandra Elizabeth Rose Sylva
Angelique Thompson
Jill L Van Wormer
Jessica Wenceslao
Gretchen Nicole White
Ninoska Patricia Wilson
Heather Hewes
Marco Antonio Loza
Pedro Gomez
Arthur Gregory Shesin
Thank you all
and congratulations!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
