This past winter saw the posthumous publication of S. Ann Dunham's anthropological study, Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia (Duke University Press). Ms. Dunham was, of course, the mother of President Barack Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. She also spent formative years in the Seattle area, residing here with her family as a teenager before the family
moved to Hawai'i. It was in 1960—fifty years ago—that she graduated from Mercer Island High School. To help commemorate her presence there, a scholarship in her name is being established by others from that class (see information below). Alice G. Dewey, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Hawai'i (and whose field is also Indonesia), helped oversee the publication of Ann Dunham's book. She is here to help participate in the Mercer Island festivities—and to talk about the life and scholarly work of Ann Dunham. "S. Ann Dunham's Surviving Against the Odds bears witness to her knowledge of and affection for the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia. The book also speaks legions about Dunham's integrity as a cultural anthropologist ... By the mid-1980s Dunham had begun to see the audience for her work made up of not just academics but Indonesians, aid workers, and foreign analysts whose findings affect the lives of ordinary Indonesians. Rather than go with the academic flow, Dunham stayed true to a research program requiring varied and rigorous methodologies, all in an effort to speak truth of power and policy making." - Robert W. Hefner. For more information on the Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund, please see www.stanleydunhamfund.org. Tax-deductible contributions are welcome.