We’re proud to announce this year’s recipients of the AAA Awards.
Congratulations to all the honorees for their work in advancing the field of anthropology. Awards will be presented to honorees at the 2025 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Honorees will also be featured in the November/December issue of Anthropology News.
Learn more about all AAA Prizes and Awards.
Tiên Dung Hà
The David M. Schneider Award
The David Schneider Prize honors innovative work on kinship, culture theory, and American culture. Tiên Dung Hà, a PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at Stanford University, receives the 2025 prize for research that explores how science and spirit converge in efforts to identify remains from the Vietnam-American War. Her award-winning paper examines how Vietnamese state actors and scientists navigate both DNA evidence and spiritual beliefs, caring for bones and personhood beyond death. Hà’s work reflects Schneider’s legacy by rethinking the boundaries between biology and ritual, science and symbolism, and the politics of kinship and remembrance.
Teresa Yejoo Kim
The Dissertation Fellowship for Historically Underrepresented Persons in Anthropology Award
The AAA awards this fellowship to support outstanding dissertation research by historically underrepresented doctoral candidates in anthropology. Teresa Yejoo Kim, a PhD candidate at UCLA, is a sociocultural anthropologist of transnational Korea whose work examines how diaspora, race, mobility, and neoliberal governance intersect with Korea’s division and transpacific militarism. Her dissertation focuses on the political economy of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, analyzing how local communities cultivate peace to produce a “neoliberal security frontier.” Kim’s research brings critical insight to policy debates on peace and unification across Korea and the broader transpacific region.
Karen Leslie Kramer
Conrad M. Arensberg Award
The Conrad M. Arensberg Award honors those who advance the study of anthropology as a natural science. Dr. Karen L. Kramer, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah, receives this award for her integrative research on human population growth. Drawing on three decades of fieldwork with Yucatec Maya and Savanna Pumé communities, her work combines biological, environmental, and demographic data to examine how ecological and evolutionary factors shape fertility and cooperation. Kramer’s research provides critical insight into family planning, environmental uncertainty, and the evolution of human sociality, furthering anthropology’s understanding of population from a natural science perspective.
Jonathan Marks
Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology
The Franz Boas Award honors AAA members whose careers reflect extraordinary service to the anthropological profession. Jonathan Marks, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, receives this award for his influential contributions to biological anthropology, human diversity, and science communication. With a career spanning scholarship, teaching, and leadership, Marks has published widely on genetics and human origins, held notable fellowships, and received multiple book and service awards. His long-standing commitment to cross-field scholarship and public engagement exemplifies the spirit of this award and his enduring impact on anthropology as both science and discipline.
Chip Colwell
Anthropology in Media Award (AIME)
The Anthropology in Media Award recognizes excellence in communicating anthropology to the general public. Chip Colwell, program director for public anthropology at the Wenner-Gren Foundation and editorial director of SAPIENS Magazine, receives the 2025 award for his outstanding contributions across media platforms. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Atlantic, and his TEDx Talk has reached over 1.5 million viewers. With 13 books, numerous fellowships, and over 70 academic publications, Colwell bridges scholarship and public engagement, making anthropological insight accessible, compelling, and relevant to broad audiences worldwide.
Faye Ginsburg & Rayna Rapp
Robert B. Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology
Faye Ginsburg, David Kriser Professor of Anthropology at New York University, is honored for her visionary work at the intersections of media, culture, and disability studies. As cofounder of NYU’s Center for Disability Studies and the Center for Media, Culture & History, Ginsburg has consistently advanced anthropological understanding in anticipatory modes. Her publications, including Contested Lives and Disability Worlds, explore emerging social terrains with insight that shapes future-oriented research and practice.
Rayna Rapp, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at New York University, receives this award for her groundbreaking scholarship on gender, reproduction, and disability. Her influential book Testing Women, Testing the Fetus reshaped the field’s approach to science and biomedicine. Through collaborative works such as Disability Worlds and How to be Disabled in a Pandemic, Rapp has modeled how anthropological theory and method can anticipate and respond to profound societal change with clarity, depth, and urgency.
Karen A. Morris
Setha M. Low Engaged Anthropology Award
This award honors projects that apply anthropology in service of social justice and community engagement. Karen Morris, Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and co-founder of the LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, receives this year’s award for her pioneering work on care, kinship, and aging. Now in its seventh year, the project brings together diverse LGBTQ+ generations through dialogue, art, and collaborative research, creating a dynamic, evolving model of community-driven, queer ethnographic practice rooted in mutual learning and social transformation.
Jennifer Coffman
AAA Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology
This award honors educators who have made outstanding contributions to undergraduate anthropology instruction. Jennifer Coffman, Professor of Integrated Science and Technology at James Madison University, receives this year’s award for her dedication to interdisciplinary, experiential teaching that inspires students to engage deeply with anthropological perspectives. A political ecologist and cultural anthropologist, Coffman integrates human-environment relationships into the classroom, drawing from research in East Africa and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Her teaching fosters critical inquiry, field-based learning, and a commitment to understanding complex global and local environmental issues through an anthropological lens.