Faculty members are recognized for book, article

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Two faculty members — Nancy Ries and Graham Hodges — recently were honored for their publications.


Hodges, the George Dorland Langdon Jr. Professor of History and Africana & Latin American Studies, was recognized for his biography David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City.

He was awarded the Underground Railroad Free Press’ 2010 Hortense Simmons Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge, the highest honor bestowed in the international Underground Railroad community.

The biography examines the life of the African-American Ruggles, an Underground Railroad agent who assisted more than 400 freedom-seekers in their escapes, including Frederick Douglass.

Ries, associate professor of anthropology and peace and conflict studies, was awarded the Cultural Horizons Prize by the Society for Cultural Anthropology for her article “Potato Ontology: Surviving Postsocialism in Russia.”

The Cultural Horizons Prize is awarded yearly by a jury of doctoral students for the best article appearing in the journal Cultural Anthropology.