Visiting Author to Recount her Work with Mali's Starving Children

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Biocultural anthropologist Katherine Dettwyler will visit Washington College on Monday, April 11 to give a personal account of her fieldwork among malnourished children in West Africa. The talk, “Dancing Skeletons: Twenty Years Later,” will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, the John S. Toll Science Center, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. A book signing will follow.

Dettwyler’s 1993 book, Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa, won a Margaret Mead Award for its portrayal of the harsh realities the author faced in researching the hungry children of Mali and how she struggled as an objective observer, a friend, and a mother to deal with the emotional strain. Her lecture will expand on the experiences she has written about, focusing on the importance of global nutrition and health.

An Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Delaware, Dettwyler has been teaching the subject since 1973. She also has spoken at conferences around the globe as an advocate for breastfeeding.

Her talk at Washington College is sponsored by the Lambda Alpha honor society, the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, and the Center for Environment and Society.

For more information, visit http://www.washcoll.edu.