Member News: Ralph Bolton

August 1, 2019

SfAA Member news: Honorary Doctorate, Ralph Bolton 

On May 17, 2019, Ralph Bolton, Professor Emeritus, Pomona College and longtime active member of SfAA, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universidad Nacional San Cristóbal de Huamanga in Ayacucho, Peru. The title of doctor honoris causa was bestowed in an elaborate ceremony presided over by the Rector of the university, Dr. Homero Ango Aguilar surrounded by the council of deans of the university’s various professional schools. This honor was granted in appreciation of Bolton’s scientific contributions to Andean ethnography and of his humanitarian activities as an applied anthropologist from 1962 to the present on behalf of people in indigenous Quechua communities. Bolton is the founder of two nonprofits working to improve living conditions in high-altitude farmers and alpaca herders in southern Peru, The Chijnaya Foundation and the Asociación Pro Desarrollo del Altiplano. This was Bolton’s second honorary doctorate from a Peruvian university. His first honoris causadegree was from the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano in Puno (2016). In 2014, a third Peruvian university, the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, recognized Bolton’s work with its highest award, the Libertador Simón Bolívar Medal of Distinction.