I am delighted to announce that I have accepted a position as assistant professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, DC (unrelated to AUC, my current employer). I will become part of a faculty of public scholars I have long admired, and will have the chance to work with a great group of students at the BA, MA and PhD levels. It will be difficult to leave behind my beloved community of colleagues, students, and other friends here in Cairo, and I hope to find ways to maintain the bonds I've formed here and strengthen the ties that exist between AU and AUC. They share a name, after all. I will be moving to the belly of the beast this summer.

Also, exciting news on my web front: Due to an underwhelming comment response, despite the fact that I know you're reading this (I have my ways), I have made commenting one step easier. You may now comment anonymously (i.e., without registering). There's still an element of control in that I have to approve comments for them to be posted. I promise, this is only so spammers don't find a way to sell viagra on my site. I will not censor. So go on, give me your best shot. You may want to shoot me an email letting me know you've commented so I'll know to look- I haven't figured out yet how to get Drupal to alert me on its own (hints, tech geeks?).

Finally, I've neglected to move the following into archives. Both were great events at which I met wonderful people, co-presenters and audience members alike. And if you'll look to the left, you'll see an event I'm very excited about, the AUC Before Community Conference. Soon it'll link to a program.

Wednesday, Nov. 19th, 1-2pm
Making Anthropology into a Public Issue, panel discussion organized by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, with Rob Borofsky, Naomi Schneider, Emily Martin, and Adrienne Pine

Thursday, Nov. 20th, 8am
AAA panel: "Latino Migrant Health in Troubled Times: Dealing with Structural Vulnerability, Xenophobia and Politics"