Anthropologist Deborah Thomas Awarded 2020 Gender Equity Award

Deborah Thomas pic

Deborah Thomas, R. Jean Brownlee Term Professor, has been named the recipient of the 2020 Gender Equity Award from the American Anthropological Association. In addition to honoring scholars who work against discrimination against women in anthropology, this award celebrates feminist scholars working to raise awareness of discrimination in anthropology on the grounds of gender presentation of any kind.

Thomas, an educator, author, filmmaker, and artist, also holds appointments in the Department of Africana Studies, the Graduate School of Education, and the School of Social Policy and Practice. She is a core faculty member of the Alice Paul Center for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her research interests include transnationalism and diaspora, race and gender, performance and popular culture, culture and political economy, and more.

Founded in 1902, the American Anthropological Association is the world’s largest scholarly and professional organization of anthropologists. The Association is dedicated to advancing human understanding and applying this understanding to the world’s most pressing problems.

Learn more about Thomas' career in our OMNIA print and multimedia features.

 

Arts & Sciences News

1 / 2
Fourteen from Penn Arts & Sciences Receive Fulbrights for 2025-26 Academic Year

They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in places including Thailand, Austria, Indonesia, Moldova, and many other places.

View Article >
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw Named James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of History of Art

Shaw’s main areas of research include portraiture and issues of representation in the art of the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, from the 1500s to the present day.

View Article >
Hanming Fang Named Inaugural Norman C. Grosman Professor of Economics

An applied microeconomist who integrates rigorous modeling with data analysis, Fang’s research within the field of public economics focuses on health insurance and healthcare markets.

View Article >
Xi Song Named Inaugural Schiffman Family Presidential Associate Professor of Sociology

Song’s research interests include social mobility, occupations, Asian Americans, population studies, and quantitative methodology.

View Article >
Julie Nelson Davis Named Paul F. Miller, Jr. and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of History of Art

Davis specializes in the arts and material cultures of 18th- and 19th-century Japan, with a focus on prints, paintings, and illustrated books.

View Article >
Justin Khoury Named Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Physics and Astronomy

Khoury’s research interests lie at the intersection of particle physics and cosmology.

View Article >