ANN ARBOR—The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has elected to its membership Conrad Kottak, the Julian H. Steward Collegiate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.

“I’m delighted,” Kottak said. “This is the highest honor you can get in anthropology. I’m proud to be among the other distinguished faculty members in my department who have been elected in previous years.” Four other current or emeritus faculty members have been elected.

Working in Brazil, Madagascar, and the United States, Kottak has researched how local cultures interact with national and global forces.

He has chronicled a village in northeastern Brazil for decades and observed it adapt and globalize. On the other hand, he has seen areas of Madagascar become more isolated and impoverished, due in part to global warming.

Kottak also has examined popular culture in the United States and in Brazil. His most recent work is a study in Dexter, Mich. of how middle class families use media in their daily lives. The book, co-authored with Lara Descartes, a research fellow at the U-M Institute for Social Research, will be published in 2009.

Kottak, who chaired the Department of Anthropology from 1996-2006, has written a dozen books. His textbooks in anthropology, cultural anthropology, and cultural diversity, published by McGraw-Hill, are currently in their 13th editions.

He has received several honors for teaching, including the American Anthropological Association/Mayfield Award for Excellence in the Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology. He is also a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has taught at Michigan since 1968.

For more information on Kottak, visit: www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=441

National Academy of Sciences news release: www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=04292008

Conrad KottakScience news release