For Greenfield, giving back to the institution that helped launch his career is both an act of gratitude and a deeply personal tribute. The professorship honors his late daughter, Jennifer Beth Greenfield (1958–84), a gifted young scholar whose passion for cultural anthropology was cut short when after completing a master’s degree she was killed in an automobile accident before beginning her doctoral. By bearing her name, the professorship ensures that her intellectual curiosity and commitment to understanding cultures and communities will continue to inspire future scholars.

“Sidney Greenfield’s gift honors his daughter and strengthens study that will guide future scholars,” said President Michelle J. Anderson. “We thank him for a commitment that will shape learning for years to come.”

Greenfield is thankful to ������Ƶ for helping him discover anthropology and providing the intellectual foundation for a career that has taken him around the world.

“The education I received at ������Ƶ transformed my ambitions and set me on a path of lifelong scholarship,” said Greenfield. “Establishing this professorship in memory of my daughter, Jennifer, is deeply meaningful to me. She possessed a genuine love of anthropology and an enduring curiosity about the world. I hope the Jennifer B. Greenfield Professor of Cultural Anthropology will ensure that her spirit lives on through the work of faculty and students who seek to better understand cultures, communities, and the human condition.”

A Scholar Shaped by ������Ƶ

A 1950 graduate of Franklin K. Lane High School, Greenfield arrived at ������Ƶ intending to study to become an accountant. He graduated magna cum laude with honors in economics in 1954, was elected to Alpha Kappa Mu in 1953 and to Phi Beta Kappa in 1954. Having “discovered” anthropology in his senior year at ������Ƶ he went on the earn a Ph.D. at Columbia University where he studied under renowned economic historian Karl Polany and anthropologist Conrad Arensberg. His economics major at ������Ƶ drew the attention of Arensberg and Polanyi who invited him to join a seminar they offered that had a long-term influence on his research. Greenfield’s dissertation research, conducted in Barbados, examined family organization—an early sign of the interdisciplinary approach that would define his career.

Approved by the CUNY Board of Trustees in April 2025, the Jennifer B. Greenfield Professor of Cultural Anthropology will now help ������Ƶ attract and support outstanding faculty members while expanding opportunities for students to engage in innovative scholarship. Anthropology Professor Patricia Antoniello will serve as the inaugural holder of the chair, bringing her long record of teaching, mentorship, and community-engaged scholarship to this new role.

In creating this enduring legacy, Greenfield has made an investment not only in ������Ƶ, but also in the future of anthropology and in the generations of students who will carry that work forward.

A Career of Global Reach and Intellectual Range

Greenfield’s scholarly life has been marked by deep, sustained engagement with the cultures of the Atlantic world. His early academic appointment at Purdue University took him to Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he spent a summer studying and advising on USAID’s emerging agricultural extension program. Brazil became his lifelong intellectual home: He has returned 23 more times for extended research visits.

His work also took him to Portugal in 1972–73, where he investigated the origins of the Portuguese Atlantic slavery system and the patronage and clientage structures of 15^th-century Portuguese society.

In 1963, Greenfield joined the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Departments of Sociology and Anthropology, where he spent 34 years and served as department chair of the Anthropology Department from 1990 to 1993. His scholarship spans an extraordinary range: family and kinship, patronage and politics, plantation slavery, entrepreneurship, Spiritist (Kardecist) surgery, religion and healing, spirit mediumship, syncretic religions, and the rise of Evangelical Protestantism in Brazilian politics.

He is the author or editor of nine books, producer and director of five video documentaries, and the author of approximately 150 articles and reviews. Representative works include Spirits With Scalpels: The Cultural Biology of Religious Healing in Brazil (2008), Reinventing Religions: Syncretism and Transformation in Africa and the Americas (2001), and Entrepreneurship and Social Change (1986).

Greenfield continues to serve as co-chair of the Columbia University Seminars on Brazil, Studies in Religion and Contents and Methods in the Social Sciences. He is past president of the Association of Senior Anthropology and the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, both sections of the American Anthropological Association.

In 1954, Greenfield married Eleanor “Ellie” Stolz (1936–2023), whom he met at summer camp when she was 16. Ellie, a Hunter College (CUNY) and University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee graduate, taught in the Milwaukee Public Schools and was known for her skill in evaluating children with learning disabilities. After Sidney’s retirement from UW–Milwaukee, the couple returned to New York in 1997.

Through this remarkable gift, Greenfield has ensured that both ������Ƶ and the memory of his daughter, Jennifer, will continue to inspire discovery, scholarship, and cross-cultural understanding for generations to come.

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The research—published as the cover article in the —was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. It focuses on Purgatorius, a small, tree-dwelling mammal that lived about 66 million years ago and is considered the earliest known relative of all primates, including humans. Chester served as lead author on the paper, alongside co-authors Jordan Crowell (also a CUNY Graduate Center graduate), Tyler Lyson, and David Krause of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Until now, fossils of Purgatorius had only been found in northern regions such as Montana and Saskatchewan, leaving scientists with an incomplete picture of how and where these animals evolved.

Chester and his colleagues report the southernmost discovery of Purgatorius fossils ever found, uncovered in Colorado’s Denver Basin. The fossils were recovered through careful screen washing of ancient sediments at the Corral Bluffs study area.

“This discovery helps fill a gap in understanding the geography and evolution of our earliest primate relatives after dinosaur extinction,” Chester said.

The newly discovered fossils are tiny teeth that show a unique mix of features, suggesting they may belong to a previously unknown, early species of Purgatorius. Their presence in Colorado suggests that archaic primates originated in the north and then spread southward, diversifying soon after the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

A lifelike rendering of the archaic primate Purgatorius. (Rendering by Andrey Atuchin.)

The study also challenges long-standing assumptions about where archaic primates lived. Scientists thought Purgatorius might be absent from southern regions during this time, but the new findings suggest that this was likely due to limited fossil sampling, not true absence.

“Our results demonstrate that small fossils can easily be missed,” Chester explained. “With more intensive searching, especially using screen-washing techniques, we will undoubtedly discover many more important specimens.”

������Ƶ Professor Stephen Chester (center) points out dental features on an enlarged model of an extinct mammal to undergraduate research assistants (left to right) Aisha Amir, Aidan Smith, Todd Skahill, and Shruthika Srinivasan) at his lab on campus.

This work was supported in part by a nearly $3 million collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation that Chester and his colleagues received in 2023. Over the five years, this grant will fund ������Ƶ undergraduate research assistants who sifted through excavated sediment in Chester’s laboratory, uncovering fossils of Purgatorius and other vertebrates that lived in the immediate aftermath of the dinosaurs’ extinction.

You can read more about this study in

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A dual-appointed professor in the departments of Anthropology and Children and Youth Studies, Hejtmanek will work as a research fellow in the university’s Memory and Anxiety Laboratory, diving deep into the cultural and psychological underpinnings of modern life. She will also teach in the Graduate School and the School of Governance and Social Sciences, bringing ������Ƶ’s academic spirit to classrooms halfway around the world.

But her vision goes beyond research and teaching. Hejtmanek hopes to build a transnational academic bridge between ������Ƶ and Free University. She will be collaborating with Deans Nutsa Batiashvili and Nikoloz Aleksidze to organize institutional opportunities for students including a field school or a laboratory exchange that promises to enrich the educational experiences of students and faculty on both continents.

An innovative scholar, Hejtmanek is known for exploring the edges of culture—from institutional care for children to the world of CrossFit and strength sports. Her latest book, The Cult of CrossFit (2025), examines how American Christian values undergird the popularity of the exercise regime.

Hejtmanek joins this distinguished cohort of Fulbright Scholars, continuing ������Ƶ’s proud tradition of global engagement and academic excellence.

The Fulbright Program, established in 1946, is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange initiative. With more than 400,000 alumni, including 62 Nobel Prize winners and 44 heads of state, the program connects scholars across borders to tackle today’s most pressing global issues.

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As a student at ������Ƶ, Shelley Vidia Worrell ’01 wondered why there was no Little Caribbean in New York City. There were official city designations for other ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Little Italy, Koreatown, and more. Why not for the well-established Caribbean community of Flatbush? A child of Trinidadian immigrants, Worrell double majored in Caribbean studies and anthropology, graduated, and spent nearly a decade exploring a variety of professional roles in hospitality, media, and the tech sector before shifting to produce a number of film festivals and community events that would evolve into the brand, I AM caribBEING.

Today, caribBEING supports local businesses and raises awareness of Flatbush’s Caribbean culture through events, tours, public programs, and partnerships with public and private organizations. Last year, she opened her own brick-and-mortar that sells sweatshirts, rum cakes, pepper sauces, aprons, souvenirs, and memorabilia. But perhaps the accomplishment she’s deservedly best known for is spearheading the push for the official designation of Little Caribbean in Flatbush, the largest and most diverse Caribbean population outside the West Indies. The neighborhood is now trending from a string of recent accolades, including the 2024 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award by the Preservation League of New York State, and Timeout magazine’s designation as 2024’s “coolest neighborhood in NYC.”

Can you tell us about your background?

I grew up between Flatbush, East Flatbush, and even a bit in Kensington. I started going to Trinidad when I was six months old, just like many children of first-generation Caribbean immigrants. That, in addition to growing up in a Caribbean household in Brooklyn, informed who I am as well as the work that I do today.

I spent all of my early childhood summers in the Caribbean. We would effectively get out of school and then I just remember being in Trinidad with all my extended family. Days were filled with outdoor play, a lot of beach parties, bathing in the rain. And then straight back into the classroom at the end of the summer.

I also have vivid memories of walking to school and just being in the Brooklyn community. I grew up seeing and hearing and speaking with other children like myself and families like ours. The first school that I went to was a Haitian bilingual school. My family talks about me coming home speaking in Creole and singing in French.

Did you enter ������Ƶ knowing what you wanted to study? 

Actually, after I got admitted to ������Ƶ, I went to Trinidad for a bit. I still had some paperwork to get in order, so my father enrolled me in all my courses and that’s how I ended up in Caribbean studies and anthropology. I didn’t have a clear path at that time.

But you stuck with those majors.

I did because it was a way for me to further explore my identity in a more academic way. And I had amazing professors and opportunities. It gave me the opportunity to be on the ground in the neighborhood that’s always been home. I lived off Church Avenue, so I could walk or take the train a few stops, and I was just really immersed in the culture and the community.

How did all of that evolve into caribBEING?

I thought about caribBEING when I was at ������Ƶ, but I didn’t know what it would be. Years later, one of my former classmates was working in cultural programming at the library in Flatbush. She came to me and said, ‘Hey, Shelley, remember when you had this idea about doing caribBEING?’

I had been thinking a lot about the lack of representation in storytelling. So, I ended up doing our first film festival at the Flatbush library. It was sort of the pilot. It was horrible. No one came. It was weird and not what I wanted to do.

Around that time, I would run into [former New York State Assemblywoman] Rhoda Jacobs ’62 a lot during my walks. Starbucks had just opened on Hillel Plaza, and we just always had the same timing. She had been following me and my work, and she ended up helping facilitate us doing our first pivotal public program film screening at ������Ƶ in Whitman Theater. One of my old professors, Regine Latortue, was the moderator.

And from there, we just continued to grow and evolve. Jumaane Williams, ’01, M.A. ’05, [the current New York City Public Advocate] also helped out with some of our film programming, and that one was also a hit. I said, wait, maybe there is more viability to this. Let me see where this is going.

When did you decide to push for the Little Caribbean designation from the city?

I had been spending a lot more time on the ground in the neighborhood. And that’s when the idea for a Little Caribbean came to be. I was asking myself very existential questions, in large part because I had the privilege of having gone to ������Ƶ and studying anthropology and Caribbean studies, of having been to dozens of islands by then and more than 70 countries. My graduate studies in hospitality and tourism and my time in the media made me think about storytelling and representation. And in all that time, no one could answer me one question: Why was there no Little Caribbean? I was determined to push it through.

And you did, in 2017. What has the designation meant for the community?

Now we get to tap some city and state funding. [We receive] media accolades, we have a tour with National Geographic. Cornell University and Pratt Institute have taught classes on Little Caribbean. There have been a lot of benefits for all of us who’ve lived here and made this our home for many generations.

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For over 140 years, Mixodectes has puzzled paleontologists, with much of what was known limited to fragments of fossilized teeth and jaws. But a groundbreaking new study, led by noted paleontologist Chester, has revealed the most complete skeleton of the species ever found. This discovery sheds light on the mammal’s anatomy, lifestyle, and—perhaps most surprisingly—its proximity to humans and other primates on the evolutionary tree.

The study—for which Chester is the lead author—was published on .

First described by legendary paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1883, Mixodectes pungens was a small mammal that lived around 62 million years ago. The new research shows that these creatures weighed roughly three pounds as adults, lived in trees, and primarily ate leaves. Even more striking, the study reveals that Mixodectes was a close evolutionary cousin to humans, as well as other modern primates and flying lemurs — an exciting new link to our distant past.

Mixodectes pungens
(Illustration by Andrey Atuchin)

“This fossil skeleton provides new evidence concerning how placental mammals diversified ecologically following the extinction of the dinosaurs,” said Chester, who is also doctoral faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center. “Characteristics such as a larger body mass and an increased reliance on leaves allowed Mixodectes to thrive in the same trees likely shared with other early primate relatives.”

Co-author of the study and Yale University anthropologist Eric Sargis, added: “A 62-million-year-old skeleton of this quality and completeness offers novel insights into mixodectids, including a much clearer picture of their evolutionary relationships. Our findings show that they are close relatives of primates and colugos — flying lemurs native to Southeast Asia — making them fairly close relatives of humans.”

The newly revealed Mixodectes skeleton is more than just a remarkable fossil — it’s a window into a pivotal moment in mammalian evolution, offering scientists invaluable clues about the origins of some of today’s most fascinating species, including us. And it is just one of many fossils that Chester and his students — including co-author Jordan Crowell, a lecturer at ������Ƶ and Ph.D. candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center — have been studying to understand our evolutionary history.

Skeleton of Mixodectes pungens
(Photo by Stephen Chester)

The skeleton was discovered in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin by co-author Thomas Williamson, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, under a permit from the federal Bureau of Land Management. This rare find includes a partial skull, ribs, vertebral column, and both forelimbs and hind limbs, giving the team crucial insights into how this ancient mammal lived.

At a weight of just 2.9 pounds, Mixodectes was relatively large for a tree-dwelling mammal of its time. The structure of its limbs and claws suggests it was adept at clinging to tree trunks and branches, and its molars, evolved to break down plant material, show it primarily ate leaves.

Interestingly, Mixodectes was much larger than another small, tree-dwelling mammal — Torrejonia wilsoni — found at the same fossil locality. While Mixodectes had a more leafy diet, Torrejonia primarily ate fruit, hinting at a distinct ecological role for Mixodectes among its contemporaries.

In terms of evolutionary placement, two independent cladistic analyses were conducted to determine Mixodectes‘ relationships. The findings confirm that Mixodectes belongs to the group known as primatomorphans — a group that includes living primates and colugos.

Other co-authors include Mary Silcox of the University of Toronto Scarborough and Jonathan Bloch of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

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Professor of Anthropology, author, and champion weightlifter Katie Rose Hejtmanek has explored the CrossFit phenomenon in her latest book, , which examines how this exercise program is shaped by American Christian values and practices, connecting American religious ideologies to capitalist, secular institutions in contemporary American culture.

Drawing upon interviews with gym owners and participants, CrossFit media, and the author’s experiences in CrossFit gyms across six continents, Hejtmanek argues this fitness regimen is both heavily influenced by and deeply intertwined with American Christian values. Offering a new cross-cultural perspective for understanding a popular workout, The Cult of CrossFit provides a window into a particularly American rendition of a Christian plotline, lived out one workout at a time.

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Now a survey being conducted by the sportswear company SPRHRA (Superhera), with the help of Professor of Anthropology Katie Rose Hejtmanek and Cara Ocobock, a biological anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame, aims to improve sportswear to help athletes reach peak performance.

Hejtmanek and Ocobock will analyze the survey data to help SPRHRA produce clothing that fits and feels better. The pair have collaborated on various projects in the past, including a COVID-19 gym closures and well-being project, and the book , which was the subject of a conference at Notre Dame in October 2021.

Hejtmanek has been teaching at ������Ƶ since 2010 and is a cultural anthropologist who studies cultures and processes of self-transformation, such as female empowerment through strength sports and salvation through fitness regimens. She is also the faculty athletics representative at the college and is a world and national champion in masters weightlifting.

With ������Ƶ being home to several women’s athletics teams, Hejtmanek is encouraging those athletes to take the survey and make their voices heard.

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������Ƶ Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kelly Britt (left) meets with King Willem-Alexander (third from left) and community members including Allyson Martinez from Brooklyn Level Up (far right).

The stop on the tour highlighted the ongoing work Britt is doing with the Center for the Study of Brooklyn and the community group . The center is a hub of Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary research, experiential and community-based learning, and nonprofit internships that advance the understanding of Brooklyn’s critical and cultural issues for the public good.

The visit showcased the ecosystem of East Flatbush community-based organizations, small businesses, and residents committed to community resilience, environmental justice, community land trust building, cultural heritage preservation, and small business support.

Learn more about the royal visit from this segment on .

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Professor Katie Rose Hejtmanek (center) stands on the podium with her first-place medal at the USA Weightlifting Masters National Championships.

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