Out of the 23 CSU campuses across California, Cal State San Bernardino is the first to have a CSU faculty member serve in the prestigious SIMA Fellowship program.

Anthropology assistant professor Arianna Huhn, who is director of the CSUSB Anthropology Museum, was selected to work this past summer as a Smithsonian Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History’s annual Summer Institute for Museum Anthropology (SIMA), developing a course on material culture based research methods.

“To be named a Smithsonian Fellow, it’s a badge of distinction,” said Rafik Mohamed, dean of the CSUSB College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “It’s a very selective program, and she has a tremendous academic background.”

Huhn, who has participated in field work in Mozambique and Ghana, Africa, said she worked as a kind of anthropologist during her fellowship.

“Anthropologists, cultural anthropology, is really about observing and seeing how things are done and learning from that,” said Huhn. “It’s such an amazing experience, going through the back halls of the Smithsonian.”

For Mohamed, Huhn’s accomplishment demonstrates the quality of the CSUSB faculty.

“To have our name, CSUSB’s name, out there in front among all of these different people from all around the globe, our faculty can do really great things,” said Mohamed. “We have faculty in this college like Dr. Huhn who can work anywhere.”