Brown named department's first distinguished alumnus

Keith Brown, a 1955 Iowa State graduate and professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, received the Department of Anthropology's inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award during Homecoming 2005 at Iowa State University.

While he was back on campus, Brown spoke on "The Emperor as an Ethnic and Ancestral Symbol in Contemporary Japan: Nationalism, Ethnicity and the Changing Ideal Japanese."

Brown has conducted long-time field research in Japan where he has documented the significant social, cultural and economic changes that have occurred during a period of major transformation in Japan.

During his tenure as a professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, Brown advised 30 Ph.D. students. Some are or have been deans at their respective universities. Many of them have been chairs of their own departments. And collectively they have an extensive list of scholarly publications making major contributions in their own fields.

Over the years Brown has received numerous teaching awards. He says his most significant is the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000, an award he cherishes because it was given for the last three years of teaching when his career in the classroom was winding down.

"This meant that students and the committee thought I was still an effective teacher," he said.