Kathryn Dudley wins Conrad M. Arensberg Award
Dudley, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, received the lifetime achievement award in honor of her outstanding contributions to the anthropological study of work.
Kathryn Dudley, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, has been awarded the Conrad M. Arensberg Award by the Society for the Anthropology of Work.
The prize, awarded biennially, is a lifetime achievement award given in honor of outstanding contributions to the anthropological study of work.
On November 22, Dudley’s career as a sociocultural anthropologist was celebrated at the American Anthropological Association meeting in New Orleans. Across the two panels, ten speakers—all current or former students of Dudley—reflected on “how Dudley's incisive questions as a mentor shaped their diverse fieldwork experiences and career trajectories, putting a spotlight on the work of mentorship itself, and how such generative mentorship has shaped research of the precarious worlds of work that we navigate alongside our interlocutors,” according to the award citation.
The first panel featured Carrie Lane (CSU Fullerton), Katherine McNally (Yale University), Benjamin Slightom (Yale University), Chloe Taft Kang (Northwestern University), and Ruth Yow (Georgia Institute of Technology), while the second included Karilyn Crockett (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Alison Kanosky (CSU Fullerton), Joseph Plaster (Johns Hopkins University), Sylvia Ryerson (Yale University), and Donald Braman (George Washington University).
The Arsenberg award is the newest addition to Dudley’s accolades. Her previous honors include the Margaret Mead Award presented jointly by the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association for scholarly work that communicates anthropological knowledge to a broadly concerned public.
Dudley is the author of The End of the Line: Lost Jobs, New Lives in Postindustrial America (University of Chicago Press, 1994), Debt and Dispossession: Farm Loss in America’s Heartland (University of Chicago Press, 2000), and Guitar Makers: The Endurance of Artisanal Values in North America (University of Chicago Press, 2014). Her short documentary film “Black Land Loss” (2004) examines African American farmers’ class action lawsuit against the USDA.
Dudley’s current research focuses on political controversies over federal management of wild horses on America’s public lands today.