Through their generous support, longstanding UB faculty members Marcia and Ezra Zubrow have established a new award to assist graduate scholarship. The award is officially known as the Marcia and Ezra Zubrow Award in Anthropology, Law, Library Science and Heritage, and aims to provide support to students whose work is in the areas of heritage, culture, legal pluralism, labor policy, or librarianship.

Applicants must be full-time graduate or doctoral students in anthropology or law, or graduate students in information and library science, with a focus on law librarianship.

"During our many years as faculty members at the University at Buffalo, we gained a deep understanding of the importance of making public education truly accessible to all potential students,” the Zubrows said, explaining their desire to support students through this award.

“We are honored to establish this fund to help students — albeit on a modest scale — pursue their educational dreams. In particular, we wish to reward students with exceptional talent and potential in the fields of anthropology, law, and/or librarianship, where their work can make a profound contribution to education broadly defined and to humanity."

This year’s recipients are archaeology student Indigo Aguilar and anthropology student Swagata Biswas.

Indigo Aguilar is a master's student in archaeology at UB, expecting to graduate in spring 2027.

As a Chorotega native, and as a member of one of the smaller and lesser-known communities in Indigenous Central America, Aguilar aims to fight for visibility for invisible Indigenous groups everywhere through researching their archaeological histories and cultures, which are at risk of vanishing completely.

Aguilar’s current research focuses on Indigenous religions and how they influence funerary practices and artwork, as well as memorialization in different cultures throughout Mesoamerica.

Augilar is currently conducting a project in an independent study that will culminate in a theoretical synthesis on funerary archaeology in Mesoamerica, as well as a project for a separate course correlating religious practice, belief, and ritual to datasets on Mesoamerican cemeteries and necropoli in Nicaragua from recent excavations done in the region.

Swagata Biswas is a PhD student in anthropology at UB whose research focuses on the nexus of anthropology, law and cultural heritage, exploring how marginalized communities navigate the boundaries of space and power, from the physical geographies of India to the contested legal landscapes of the United States.

Biswas’s PhD research will apply an intersectional lens to the San Francisco Bay area, examining how Indian immigrants negotiate competing ideas of merit and personhood.

In particular, Biswas’s scholarship will aim to better understand how global meritocratic ideals acquire moral force in the diaspora, and also understand why hierarchies persist even in institutions that claim neutrality.

Biswas contends that, while legal frameworks often demand tangible evidence of discrimination, the exclusion is often symbolic and embodied, reproduced through bodily appearance, food, marriage practices, and subtle “cultural fit” assessments.

Biswas aims to contribute unique, empirical knowledge to this conversation, demonstrating that we cannot create a just workplace or a fair legal system without first understanding the deep, symbolic processes that shape our definitions of merit. 

Marcia Zubrow’s service as a librarian at UB spanned over 40 years. Marcia, who retired in 2022, was head of information services, with responsibility for the team of research librarians who directed students and scholars to critical laws, statutes, cases and legislative histories.

Marcia was also deeply involved in the law school’s Legal Analysis, Writing and Research curriculum, teaching first- and second-year students the techniques of legal research, while also making frequent guest appearances in courses to teach subject-related research skills. Starting at the law library prior to the incorporation of computers, Marcia was also integral to the transition from analogue to digital resources.

As a testament to her membership in, and contributions to, her broader field, Marcia was instrumental in the 1988 NYS Statute amendment intended to protect the privacy of users of printed materials, thenceforward including database information as well. 

Ezra Zubrow is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology. With broad research interests, Ezra is not only an archaeologist, but also works in the areas of arctic anthropology, climate change, simulation models, and human ecology and demography.

He earned a BA from Harvard College and an MA and PhD from the University of Arizona. A UB faculty member since 1977, Ezra has also been a visiting scholar at numerous other institutions internationally.

Highly involved in both professional organizations, research endeavors, as well as departmental and university service, Ezra’s scholarship, publications and service have had a profound impact within the fields of archaeology and anthropology more broadly. A quintessential university citizen, Zubrow served as chair of the UB Faculty Senate from 2011-2015.