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Daphne Berdahl was born on June 14, 1964, in Freiburg, Germany, to Robert and Margaret Berdahl. She
graduated from Oberlin College, earned her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1995, and was a James Bryant Conant Fellow in German and European Studies at Harvard University. She joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota as an assistant professor of anthropology in 1997 and was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor in 2000. She was also a faculty member in the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Minnesota.

by David Valentine

David Valentine has had a busy year. His book, Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category was finally published in August of 2007, and it has been awarded the Ruth Benedict book prize (SOLGA/AAA), and honorable mention for the Delmos Jones and Jagna Sharff Memorial Prize for the Critical Study of North America (SANA/AAA). Imagining Transgender was also nominated in the nonfiction category for the Lambda Literary Awards, but sadly failed to win. David has continued to write on this topic, including a paper he presented at the first Transsomatechnics conference this past May titled “Sue E. Generous: Toward a Theory of Non-Transexuality." True to form, the main title is a bad pun with good intentions. In this paper, which David told us is his favorite thing he has ever written, he asks us to consider the politics of being non-transexual, which may sound counter-intuitive, but he believes that it is a key question in highlighting how gendered power works out in contemporary society.

As an anthropologist from Germany and a German Studies scholar, it is my heartfelt concern to honor Daphne Berdahl. On my personal academic map, she became the star of the University’s Department of Anthropology. I am desolate knowing that when I come to the University of Minnesota I will not be seeing Daphne again. I not only enjoyed her warmth; my own research and teaching activities have benefited from
her scholarship. I will hence join your department with an acute sense of loss, but also with joy and a feeling of honor. I will do my best to support Daphne Berdahl’s students in their future scholarly endeavors.

I am thrilled to be joining the faculty of the Department of Anthropology. Many of you are already familiar with my work and my teaching—I have been a lecturer and researcher in the department for several years. Most of you also know my husband, Gil Tostevin. It is with great enthusiasm that I accept my new responsibilities as assistant professor. One of the aspects of my new job I look forward to the most is meeting more students—I hope you will stop by my office to say hello!

Katherine Hayes,
I am very pleased to be joining the anthropology faculty at the University of Minnesota. Up until now, I had only known the department, the University, and the region by reputation, so it is exciting to be given the chance to learn them first-hand instead. As an archaeologist, it’s like starting a new site.