Awards, People

Professor receives anthropology award for work on immigration, health, inequality

By Kathleen Maclay

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Seth Holmes, a UC Berkeley associate professor of medical anthropology and public health, is a recipient of a 2016 American Anthropological Association award for his work on immigration, health and inequality.

Seth Holmes' book on migrant farmworkers, health and inequality has earned numerous awards.

Seth Holmes’ book on migrant farmworkers, health and inequality has earned numerous awards.

Holmes, also the co-chair of UC Berkeley’s Center for Social Medicine, was chosen for the Robert B. Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology for research presented in his book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. The book also is available through the UC Berkeley Library.

He traveled with and worked alongside Triqui indigenous people from Oaxaca, Mexico, and connected their forced journey to find work in American fields and orchards to U.S. policies and American expectations of beautiful, cheap foods.

Read more about the award in Anthropology News.

The Textor Prize is the latest recognition for Holmes’ work. It is awarded to an anthropologist whose work “focuses compellingly on protecting or enhancing quality of life or environment” and “anticipates and deals with problems of true seriousness to substantial numbers of people.”

Holmes has donated all book award money and royalties from the sales of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies to farmworker unions, organizations and projects in consultation with farmworkers who appear in his book.