Anthropology Faculty Member Earns Recognition

Catherine Fuentes, a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at UNC Charlotte, has received the Paul Farmer Global Citizenship Award, awarded by the Center for a Public Anthropology.

“Dr. Fuentes is to be commended for how she takes classroom knowledge and applies it to real world challenges, thereby encouraging students to be responsible global citizens,” said center Director Rob Borofsky. “In actively addressing important ethical concerns within anthropology, she is providing students with the thinking and writing skills needed for active citizenship.”

The award recognizes Fuentes’ exceptionally effective participation in Public Anthropology’s Community Action Project as well as her wider activities in the public sphere, Borofsky said.

Fuentes specializes in medical anthropology, Hispanic immigrants; and violence and women.  She previously received the Center for a Public Anthropology’s Eleanor Roosevelt Global Citizenship Award in spring, 2010. She works with the United Family Services Domestic Violence Programs and currently serves on the Governor’s Crime Commission.

In December 2012, 23 students in her “Introduction to Anthropology” class were named award winners in a North American competition involving over 3,600 students from 25 academic institutions, sponsored by the center.

The center is a non-profit organization that encourages scholars and their students to address public problems in public ways that are focused on helping others.