Professor named leadership fellow

Aaron Thornburg named American Anthropology Association Leadership Fellow

Aaron Thornburg, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology at EOU

October 23, 2015

ARLINGTON, Va. – Aaron Thornburg, Ph.D., an assistant professor of anthropology at Eastern Oregon University, joins a select group of peers in his field as a 2015 American Anthropology Association Leadership Fellow.

The AAA Leadership Fellows program is designed to provide a unique opportunity for anthropologists early in their careers to learn about the association and leadership opportunities it presents. Each year a group of three to five leadership fellows is paired with a mentor chosen from among AAA leadership.

Mentors are available to fellows throughout the year to answer questions related to AAA, and fellows shadow their mentors at the AAA Annual Meeting. Bernard Perley, Lorena Madrigal and Ted Hamann are mentors this year.

Joining Thornburg as fellows are Carrie C. Heitman, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Vanessa Martinez-Renuncio, associate professor of anthropology at Holyoke Community College. All three will be honored in an award ceremony at the 114th AAA Annual Meeting November 19 in Denver, Colo.

More than 6,000 anthropologists are expected to attend the meeting, which will shed light on some of the world’s most pressing issues, including public health, racial tension, the Middle East, social change and climate change.

Thornburg has been teaching anthropology courses since 2007 and has additional relevant experience in academic publishing and human factors research. His professional accomplishments include editing, along with fellow anthropologists Mariela Nuñez-Janes (U North Texas) and Angela Booker (UC San Diego), the essay collection “Deep Stories: Practicing, Teaching and Learning Anthropology with Digital Stories,” which is under license to publish with De Gruyter Open.

Thornburg earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Florida, a Master’s of Philosophy in Linguistics at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with a Graduate Certificate in Education Policy Research at Duke University.

About the American Anthropology Association

Founded in 1902, the American Anthropological Association, with more than 10,000 members, is the world’s largest professional organization of anthropologists. The association is dedicated to advancing human understanding and tackling the world’s most pressing problems.