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after disaster Carter’s graduate research work includes her photographs of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana (above), which still bears the scars of Hurricane Katrina, and votives (right) in the Basilique de l’Immaculée Conception (Basilica of the Immaculate Conception) in Lourdes, France.
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by Maryanne George
When Rebecca Carter’s family lost their New
Orleans home in Hurricane Katrina, she was struck by how the insurance company’s definition of their home differed from her family’s sense of loss. A doctoral student in sociocultural anthropology, Carter began conducting interviews by phone from her Ann Arbor home about how the hurricane had affected New Orleans residents’ social life and their concept of home. Drawing on her earlier research about religion, suffering, and healing in Lourdes, France, Carter eventually became interested in religious devotion and the role it was playing in local crisis and recovery. In 2007, she began focusing her anthropological field research on New Orleans residents’ devotion to two popular saints within Catholic, Voodoo, and Spiritualist communities: Our Lady of Prompt Succor, a local manifestation of the Virgin Mary; and St. Joseph. “Studying the nature of the religious petitions that people make to these saints can tell us a lot about where people are at,” she says. “Religious services often include general prayers for the recovery of the city, but the specific concerns differ based on their social and geographic conditions.’’ Carter was recently evacuated from her research headquarters in New Orleans when Hurricane Gustav whipped through in September. Circumstances like these, she says, show the broader
The University of Michigan has launched its Graduate Student Donor Challenge to help ensure graduate students like Carter have the funding they need to conduct their groundbreaking research and also cover basic living expenses. Through the Challenge, all gifts to support graduate students will be matched 1:2 by UM President Mary Sue Coleman until $40 million in gifts have been received or until December 31, 2008 — whichever comes first.
On April 7, 2008, the University of Michigan lost a longtime friend and supporter, Samuel Frankel. Frankel studied at UM in the 1930s and, together with his wife, Jean (’36), transformed UM Judaic Studies from a small academic program into a leading venue of research and teaching. In their honor it was renamed the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. The Frankels’ groundbreaking $20 million gift to the College — the largest in LSA history — founded the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, the first of its kind at a public university in the United States.
(Left) Courtesy of the Frankel Center; (right) Jeffrey Becker
finding the strength to rebuild
Honoring Sam
impact of her research. “In the United States we’re dealing with everyday crises and conditions of vulnerability, such as poverty and violence, as well as the impact of larger disasters when they occur,” Carter says. “What goes hand-in-hand with vulnerability reduction is resilience-building. This work can help us understand, from a cultural perspective, how we transition from crisis and vulnerability to resilience and sustainability.” Carter is taking compelling pictures of churches and religious artifacts and says photography is playing a large role in her work. Carter’s graduate work is supported by grants from several organizations, including the Department of Anthropology and the Center for the Education of Women. Carter says applying for grants is competitive and stressful. To make matters worse, her health insurance, which costs $500 a month, plus her basic living expenses, are not covered by grants, she says. At the time she was interviewed for this story, Carter was bracing for another evacuation due to Hurricane Ike. The storm ultimately bore west and did millions of dollars worth of damage to the Galveston, Texas, area. Barring another disaster, Carter hopes to begin writing her dissertation in early 2009.
Rebecca Carter
Ruin and Recovery
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To pay tribute to the memory of Sam and his enduring generosity, LSA Dean Terrence J. McDonald recently committed $25,000 in College funds to support graduate students in Judaic studies. The funds will be matched 1:2 through President Coleman’s Graduate Student Donor Challenge Program. “I can’t think of a better way to honor Jean and Sam’s faithful support of the University over the years,” says McDonald. “Twentyfive years ago, Judaic Studies was an academic niche, but now it’s a rich field of study with broad impact in other scholarly areas. The Frankels’ support was transformative, and it’s a privilege to honor Sam’s memory in this way.” In addition to his wife, Frankel is survived by his children Stanley (’63, M.B.A. ’64), Bruce (’67), Stuart (’61), Jo Elyn, and their spouses, as well as numerous grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
In Search of an Ancient City by Rebekah K. Murray
In 700 B.C.E., Italians would gather in Gabii’s
In Gabii (above left), ruins from an 11th century church honoring St. Primitivo jut from the countryside. Before excavating the site, Jeffrey Becker and Jason Farr (above) conduct core samples to explore the layers of archeological material preserved underground.
forum to conduct business, administer laws, and discuss their neighbors over in Rome, another citystate that was expanding rapidly. Eventually, Gabii was swallowed up by Rome, but remnants of its existence endure. Nic Terrenato, a native of Rome and an LSA associate professor of classical archaeology, is preparing to lead a major excavation of Gabii that starts in the summer of 2009, in the countryside outside Rome. But first, with the help of a few graduate students, he is surveying the ground. His team is using instruments such as a magnetometer, which measures magnetic fields, to gain a sense of the city’s layout. To help in that effort, the team has a rough sketch of Gabii from the 1700s. It was made by an English arts dealer who dug in a small area of the ancient city, looking for artifacts to sell. The Englishman’s unsystematic dig turned up “amazing stuff,” Terrenato says, including portraits and sculptures on display in the Louvre in Paris. So the expectations for UM’s dig are high, especially since the dig will be conducted in an area untouched in modern times, thus with a greater potential for ancient layers to be found intact. Additionally, some of the artifacts may be brought back to UM to be displayed in the Kelsey Museum’s new exhibit hall on central campus. Terrenato explains that since many Italian museums are bursting with artifacts, new government regulations allow approved artifacts to be loaned to American universities — with a renewable contract of 99 years. Along with ancient artifacts, including perhaps sculptures and pottery of the same quality as those found centuries ago, Terrenato is hoping to find Gabii’s ancient marketplace. It would be a unique find, Terrenato says, to see the origins of the forum, what became an essential Roman icon, from such an early period in history. Rebekah K. Murray is the Assistant Editor of LSAmagazine.
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