2021 Award Recipient

Dr. Carlos Velez-Ibáñez

Dr. Carlos Velez-Ibáñez has been selected to receive the 2021 Solon T. Kimball Award for Public and Applied Anthropology. The Kimball Award honors exemplary anthropologists for outstanding recent achievements that have contributed to the development of anthropology as an applied science and that have impacted public policy.

Dr. Velez-Ibáñez’s contribution to anthropology over the arc of his career is exemplary. Through his application of anthropological methods and theory, he has given voice and presence to individuals, families, and communities who have been ignored and marginalized, particularly his work with individuals entangled in the political economy of the U.S.- Mexico border and Latinos across the United States. Dr. Velez-Ibáñez’s work has impacted the fields of cultural ecology, migration, and transborder studies, and more.

His previous honors include the Bronislaw Malinowski Medal in applied anthropology and the 2020 Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology. He was also the first Chicano and foreign anthropologist selected for induction into the Mexican Academy of Sciences as a Corresponding Member.