Anthropology Graduate Student Association

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Sociocultural Graduate Students
(email followed by "at sign" then "indiana.edu")

Ryan Adams email: RTADAMS advisor: Moran year: 01

Research Interests: economic anthropology, human/environment interaction, agriculture, social class identity, Amazônia, Brazil My research interests include the current and historical development strategies in the Brazilian Amazon, theories of human interactions with the environment, and the expression and formation of identity under differing economic systems. My dissertation topic more narrowly focuses on the expansion of large-scale mechanized soybean production in Santarém, Pará State, Brazil. This new land use is seen as a way to improve the economic potential of the land and the position of Brazil in the world economy. The effects of this development on the communities of small-scale farmers in Santarém remain uncertain.

Christina Alcalde email: CMALCALD advisor: Clark year: 99

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Martha Alhieh email: MALHIEH advisor: Shahrani year: 08

Research Interests: Anthropology of religion, migration and diaspora, gender, Islam in America

Bryn Bakoyema email: BBAKOYEM advisor: Moran year: 01

Research Interests: migration and deforestation, human-environment interactions, economic anthropology, household dynamics, Sub-Saharan Africa I am investigating how increased migration near forest reserves affects forest management in Uganda; taking into account issues such as ethnic differences, production strategies, community forest use, land tenure, and government policy.

Nicholas Belle email: NBELLE advisor: DeMallie year: 05

Research Interests: Native American music and dance My main research interests lie within Native American dance and music culture, specifically powwow and War Dance Societies of Sioux groups in the North American and Canadian Plains- South and North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. I am interested in the development and diffusion of these dance cultures and the role they played in the formation and adoption of new forms of both tribal and pan-Indian identities. I would also like to look within specific culture groups (Grass and Chicken Dancers) in Canada, as many of these dancers exhibit aspects of dance and outfitting that does not seem to be found elsewhere in North America and has not been seen since the original Dance Societies existed hundreds of years ago.

Catherine Bishop email: CPBISHOP advisor: Clark / Stoeltje year: 08

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Laura Blancq email: LBLANCQ advisor: Royce year: 01

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Heidi Bludau email: HBLUDAU advisor: Phillips/Royce year: 04 personal website

Research Interests: identity, ethnicity, nationalism, post-socialism, migration, food, gender, globalization, Eastern Europe, Czech Republic

Okomfo (Ama) Boakyewa email: OBOAKYEW advisor: Clark year: 01

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Kathryn Boswell email: KBOSWELL advisor: Clark year: 01

Research Interests: migration, nationalism/transnationalism, discourse, gender, Islam, Francophone Africa, and colonial history in West Africa My research examines the reintegration of those labor migrants who have repatriated to Burkina Faso since the beginning of the Ivoirian civil war in 2002. It examines the similiarities and differences between these recent repatriates and those who returned before 2002 in an attempt to understand changes to a migration pattern which has historically joined Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast. This examination into the mechanics of these migrants' reintegration in Burkina Faso also exposes a changing discourse in which migrants and their families increasingly engage, revealing new ways of thinking about Burkina Faso as both their nation and their homeland.

Kelly Branam email: KBRANAM advisor: DeMallie year: 00

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Samuel Buelow email: SRBUELOW advisor: Sharani year: 06

Research Interests: Post-Soviet Kazakhstan, identity, gender, sexuality, status, cosmopolitanism, partner choice, marriage, masculinities, advancement strategies

Elizabeth Burbach email: EBURBACH advisor: Stoeltje / Suslak year: 08

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Christina Burke email: CBURKE advisor: DeMallie year: 94

Research Interests: Native North America, ethnohistory, museum anthropology, art and material culture, language and literacy My research area is North America, specifically native peoples of the Northern Plains and Northwest Coast. I'm particularly interested in how American Indians recorded and remembered their histories in pictorial and oral traditions. I explore "Indian histories from Indian perspectives" in my dissertation on Lakota pictographic biographies and calendars (or "winter counts") that were created during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. These images, many of which include native language captions, recorded everyday activities as well as such memorable events as bloody battles, treaty negotiations, natural disasters and new religious ceremonies. Examining these underutilized primary sources (graphic, oral, and textual traditions) contributes to a more accurate and complex view of American Indian history informed by native perspectives.

Lucinda Carspecken email: LCARSPEC advisor: Thomas year: 03

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Pearl Chan email: PECHAN advisor: Royce year: 99 personal website

Research Interests: Chinese diaspora, migration, ethnicity and ethnic identity, oral history, ethnography and literature My current research concerns the processes involved in Chinese migration and adaptation to host cultures and the dynamics of the transnational networks that result. I am specifically examining how Chinese-Canadians situate themselves in their local context and how they place themselves in the larger global idea of a Chinese diaspora.

Jessica Chelekis email: JADELGAD advisor: Wilk year: 05

Research Interests: Household economies, direct selling, gender roles, economic anthropology, Latin America, Brazilian Amazon My research concerns women's work and the informal economy among rural farmers in the Brazilian Amazon estuary and the ways in which prevailing conceptions of gender roles obscure the economic contributions of women. I am specifically interested in the role of direct selling, such as Avon, in household economies and gender roles.

Woojeong Cho email: WJCHO advisor: Phillips year: 04

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Dennis Christafferson email: DCHRISTA advisor: DeMallie year: 92

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Sarah Cluff email: SCLUFF advisor: Clark/Girshick year: 04

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Corinna Cosentino-Quintana email: COQUINTA advisor: Royce year: 01

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Kathleen Costello email: KACOSTEL advisor: Bahloul year: 98

Research Interests: asylum, Scotland, Europe, nationalism, performance, prisons My dissertation is a study of a neighborhood network established in Glasgow, Scotland to support people who have claimed asylum in the UK and are waiting to have their claims evaluated by the British Government.

Evelyn Dean email: EMDEAN advisor: Bahloul year: 04

Research Interests: migration and diasporas, ethnicity and ethnic identity, religion, Jewish cultures (especially Sephardic and Mizrahi), Latin America, Israel, linguistic anthropology, performance theory

Elise DeCamp email: EMDECAMP advisor: Suslak year: 05

Research Interests: performance theory, performativity, authorization/authenticity, race, humor, class, power, discourse analysis, subjectivity, identity and indexicality, embodiment, and sociolinguistics The goal of my research into stand-up comedy is to identify the ways in which stand-up comedians critique or reinforce essentializing public discourses of race in the United States and how they authorize their statements on race through humor and performance techniques as well as their own racial and ethnic backgrounds.  Equally relevant to this research is the perspective of the audience:  Do they receive the comedians’ intended message, if there is a clear one?  How do comics adjust their performance/humor techniques to their audiences to ensure both the success of their routines and the conveyance of their messages?

Evan Dennis email: EMDENNIS advisor: Brondizio/Moran year: 04

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Sarah Dillard email: SARDILLA advisor: Royce year: 07

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Karen DuVall email: KDUVALL advisor: Clark year: 02

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William Eastwood email: WEASTWOO advisor: Stoeltje year: 04

Research Interests: The symbolic power of the Georgian Orthodox Church has worked to cement the Georgian community for hundreds of years. In modern times, in particular, Georgian Orthodoxy has come to the fore in the face of Russian and then Soviet occupation. But what history books and national movements do not tell us about are the thriving non-Orthodox Christian congregations, all of them Georgian, except that they do not practice Orthodox Christianity. Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, and others make up a small minority on the Orthodox-dominated landscape, but their presence is very much felt by the many and distrusted. In particular, I'm interested in the Georgian-Baptist community, one that is 18,000-members strong and active since the mid-1800s. What is their story? How do they see themselves, their faith, their nation, their Orthodox neighbors? Are they finding a public voice? My interests revolve around religion in general, Christianity in particular. In addition, those subjects and theoretical discussions that have my attention are nationalism, nation/state formation, ethnographic representations, the post- modern critique of anthropology, and moving beyond the post-modern critique of anthropology.

Rachel Eyerman email: RAEVERMA advisor: year:

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Raymond Fenio email: RFENIO advisor: DeMallie year: 92

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Ingrid Fichtenburg email: IFICHTEN advisor: Suslak year: 08

Research Interests: My area of interest is in the anthropology of knowledge, and in particular I want to study the production and circulation of knowledge in institutional settings.

Stefano Fiorini email: SFIORINI advisor: Royce/Moran/Brondizio year: 99

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Alejandro Flores email: AFLORES advisor: Brondizio/Moran year: 98

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Selam Hailemaraim email: SHAILEMA advisor: Clark year: 98

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Brandon Hale email: BRAHALE advisor: Clark/Bahloul year: 05

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Shingo Hamada email: HAMADAS advisor: Sterling year: 08

Research Interests: environmental anthropology, anthropology of space and place, ecotourism, Japan, Indigenous rights, Ainu cultural revitalization, collaborative research, decolonizing methodologies

Patricia Hardwick email: PHARWIC advisor: Royce year: 01

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Corey Hayashi email: CHAYASHI advisor: Moran/Brondizio year: 03

Research Interests: ecological anthropology, land use landscape change, deforestation, GIS, Brazilian Amazon region My research intersts are social aspects of deforestation. My studies focus on human dimensions of land-use and landscape change in the Brazilian Amazon using satellite imagery and GIS. MA, Anthropology, University of Hawaii Grad Certificate in Negotiation, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution

Persephone Hintlian email: PHINTLIA advisor: Wilk year: 02

Research Interests: gender, consumption, romance tourism, household economy, transnationalism, material culture, Honduras, Caribbean and Central America My current work focuses on the interpersonal and economic implications of transnationalism and tourism on island and household economies, family structure, and community on Roatan, the Bay Islands of Honduras. I am particularly interested in how gendered and cultural notions of desire, prosperity, and paradise are implicated in consumptive sexual exchanges between islanders, locals, and visitors.

Kellie Hogue email: KJHOGUE advisor: Sterling year: 05

Research Interests: Kinship, Ethnic Identity, Religion, Native North America, Ethnohistory, Collaborative Ethnography Text: My dissertation focuses on the understudied experiences of Native American women who are members of the National Tekakwitha Conference and participate in groups called Kateri Circles. Named for Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th century Mohawk woman, these groups offer Native American people the opportunity to create a social and religious space in celebration of an identity that is both Indian and Catholic. Collectively, Kateri Circles bridge the gap between Native American spirituality and American Catholicism. Specifically, I propose to investigate the various ways individuals in these groups define themselves as both Catholic and Native American. On a broader level, my research seeks to understand how participation in these groups, from one generation to another, affects an individual's social status, network of relationships, and family structures.

Zohra Ismail email: ZISMAIL advisor: Shahrani/Stoeltje year: 04

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Meredith Johnson email: MLJ1 advisor: Royce year: 03

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Lewis Jones email: LECJONES advisor: Wilk year: 07

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Matthew Kerchner email: MKERCHNE advisor: Parnell year: 03

Research Interests: As an applied legal and political anthropologist, I examine democracy promotion in Burma and Liberia, the ethnography of corruption, global governance, use of the internet in indigenous resistance movements, informal economies, and how theories and methods in both legal scholarship and anthropology can inform practitioners in both fields.

Ryan Kiley email: RKILEY advisor: Royce year: 02

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Arwen Kimmell email: AKIMMELL advisor: Stoeltje year: 04

Research Interests: language, gender, law, power, dispute settlement, Ghana, queen mothers, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, literature I plan to study how gender and power are expressed through language during dispute settlement in the Akan queen mother's courts.

Mary Kozub email: MKOZUB advisor: Phillips year: 05

Research Interests: disability in the US (autism), alternative medicine in the US

Erika Kuever email: EKUEVER advisor: Wilk year: 05

Research Interests: China, tourism, economy

Valerie Lambert email: VYLAMBER advisor: Royce year: 01

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Laura Linderman email: LINDERM advisor: year: 08

Research Interests: caucasus, Georgia, time conceptions and consciousness, ways of knowing, sociolinguistics My work focuses on how Georgians define, perceive and internalize concepts of time. I am investigating the relationship between concepts of time and the Georgian language structure, particularly how concepts of time help inform Georgian cultural discourses and ideologies.

John Lorinskas email: JOLORINS advisor: Royce/Shahrani year: 02

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Jacek Luminski email: JLUMINSK advisor: Royce year: 04

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Kimberly J. Marshall email: KJM1 advisor: Royce/Jackson year: 04

Research Interests: My research focuses on Navajo Christianity: unique in its lack of emphasis on denominations (even Methodist Navajos worship like Pentecostals), but also characterized by a strong Fundamentalist bent which eschews the use of any kind of traditional religious practices or beliefs. Thus, the use of African American Gospel tunes translated into Navajo language is preferred to new compositions by Anglo missionaries which remind Navajo believers and pastors of "medicine man chant." I am interested in exploring the implications of the religious situation for issues of identity and culture change. Specifically, I will analyze the tent revival context (central to the practice of Christianity among the Navajo) as a performance context in which a specific kind of Navajo and a Christian identity is negotiated by participants.

Sarah Marion email: SAMARION advisor: Friedman/Wilk/Stoeltje year: 05

Research Interests: Economic and visual anthropology, media and mass media, consumption, gender, celebrity and fame, and cultural production in North America My dissertation project will (hopefully) be on the production, circulation, and value of photographic images of celebrities and take place in Los Angeles.

Angela Martin email: ANGMARTI advisor: Clark year: 02

Research Interests: economic anthropology, gender, household dynamics, agriculture, long-term implications of resettlement; Zambia, central and eastern Africa Building on the longitudinal Gwembe Tonga Research Project (GTRP) in Southern Province, Zambia, my dissertation will examine how household dynamics are changing in a frontier region. Tonga migrants are experiencing new methods of land distribution, which in turn is motivating a shift in land use patterns within households. I will be looking at the formation of intra-household cooperative behavior among women in the Kafue Plateau area.

Timothy McCollum email: TMCCOLLU advisor: DeMallie/Parks year: 01

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Ben Michaels email: BMICHAEL advisor: Stoeltje year: 05

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Lauren Miller email: LEM2 advisor: Royce year: 04

Research Interests: My interests lie in the fields of performance and identity. I am currently studying capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, and Candomble a religion with which capoeria has longstanding ties. Of particular interest to me is the manner in which American capoeiristas make pilgrimages to Brazil to study with Brazilian instructors and thus authenticate themselves as practitioners of capoeira.

Kevin Meskill email: KMESKIL advisor: Shahrani year: 93

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Wilhelm Meya email: WMEYA advisor: DeMallie year: 00

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Bryn Neuenschwander email: BNEUENSC advisor: Wilk year: 02

Research Interests: American culture, fan communities, Internet-based research, group identification, narrative, modern fantastic literature and its relationship to folklore

Aynur Onur email: AONUR advisor: Shahrani year: 08

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Felive T. Palmer email: FTPALMER advisor: Girshick year: 06

Research Interests: performance, globalization, indiginous peoples, language, identity, space How does informal and formal education affect the identity formation in mixed race people in post-apartheid South Africa, specifically in KwaZulu-Natal province? To what extent are these people in a somewhat liminal state able to shift their identities or belonging from their own ingroup to the larger Zulu nationalism that seems to be rising in the nations? In the same vein, to what extent do these people reject such ethnic pride and favor a more Westernized, European identiy and rather "play white"? Additionally, what role does language take in identifying one's ingroup and establishing community with like members? Are multiracial people in South Africa better equipped to live within a multicultural society because of their mix, or are they in denial because of the ongoing divisions created by apartheid? How does this small group compare with other "hybridized" people here in the United States, Latin America and around the world? Is multiracialism / multiculturalism representative of the future of the cosmopolitan citizen?

Dawn Parks email: DLPARKS advisor: Royce year: 92

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Rodrigo Pedrosa email: RPEDROSA advisor: Brondizio year: 05

Research Interests: Political ecology, people and parks, poverty, culture and local development My research interests fits in environmental anthropology with focus on political ecology. In this regard, i am mostly concerned with cultural and economic dimensions of environmental and livelihood changes. I am interested in how neoliberal conservation and multiculturalism come together to create opportunities, constrains and contradictions for the government and the rural poor on the ground. I question as to whether it is the poor who pays the price of conservation through establishment of protected areas. I also focus on how the endowment of ethnic identities (ex. quilombos in Brazil) may have become a form of top-down development cultural aid from the government while a “weapon of the poor”. My research combines different methods and approaches to address issues of livelihood, poverty, environmental change, and political power among communities formed by runaway slave-descendants in Brazil. Background: BS in Biology, MS in Environmental Science and Forestry, Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Elizabeth (Libby) Pfeiffer email: ELPFIFF advisor: Phillip year: 08

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Abby Pickens email: ALPICKEN advisor: Phillips year: 04

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Rebecca Plummer email: RLPLUMME advisor: DeMallie year: 04

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David Posthumus email: DPOSTHUM advisor: DeMallie year: 07

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Sarah Quick email: SAQUICK advisor: Royce year: 98

Research Interests: Métis studies, native peoples of North America, identity and representation, heritage production, media consumption, gender studies, music, dance and ethnographic film My dissertion focuses on Métis heritage, through identity issues and heritage performances. My field research was primarily in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada although I attended heritage performance events/sites in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, and Montana. In the future, I would like to do more comparative analysis between US Métis and Canadian Métis heritage performances and bureaucratic support.

Susie Reynolds email: CWESBROO advisor: Royce year: 95

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Rebecca Riall email: RLRIALL advisor: Stoeltje year: 03

Research Interests: legal anthropology, American Indian sovereignty, ethnic identity and boundaries, tribal recognition, applied anthroplogy, critical race theory, feminist jurisprudence Joint-degree student in Anthropology and Law.

Abigail Rich email: AARICH advisor: Royce year: 08

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Gillian Richard-Greaves email: GIRICHAR advisor: Royce year: 05

Research Interests: performance, identity

Bryan Rupert email: BRUPERT advisor: Greene / Suslak year: 08

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Clark Sage email: CSAGE advisor: DeMallie year: 07

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Joel Schudlich email: JSCHUDLI advisor: DeMallie/Parks year: 00

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Wendell Schwab email: WSCHWAB advisor: Shahrani year: 05

Research Interests: Central Asia, Islams

Polly Spiegel email: PSPIEGEL advisor: Parnell year: 99

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Brooke Swafford email: PSWAFFOR advisor: Phillips year: 05

Research Interests: Aga Buryats, shamanism and neo-shamanism, Russian and Central Asian Studies, gender, ethnographic film, Russian independent media, nomadic pastoralism, folklore

Hallie Stone email: HSTONE advisor: Royce year: 92

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Carol Sullivan email: CSUBINO advisor: Royce year: 02

Research Interests: anthropology of dance, performance, artists as activists, transnational identities, migration, African diaspora, Latinos, Latin America and the Caribbean, Veracruz and Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

Joseph Stahlman email: JSTAHLMA advisor: Thomas year: 05

Research Interests: indigenous rights, film, Latin America, development

Virginia Visconti email: VVISCONT advisor: Wilk/Clark year: 97

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Noémie Waldhubel email: NWALDHUB advisor: DeMallie year: 05

Research Interests: indigenous education/meaningful curriculum (identity/language/culture) My main research interests lie within American Indian education. I am specifically interested in culturally appropriate education as a key factor toward the empowerment of the individual learner. Furthermore, my research focuses on parent’s and teacher’s perspective on literacy and schooling and their support in the child’s education.

Katherine Wiley email: KATWILEY advisor: Clark year: 07

Research Interests: Research interests: economic anthropology, dress, West Africa (Mauritania), gender My research examines how female Haratin (descendents of former slaves), a population which has been marginalized for centuries by successive empires, are negotiating their position amongst existing power structures in the Mauritanian polity. On one level, my research considers how French colonial representations of race and gender influenced (and continue to influence) female Haratins’ social positions and access to power. On another level, my work considers how Haratin women in the twenty-first century navigate through the social hierarchy that these empires established in part by capitalizing on the increasing economic opportunities that their participation in the production of veils provides and by using the designs that they produce and wear to differentiate themselves in their society.

Teresa Winstead email: TWINSTEA advisor: Levinson/Thomas year: 02

Research Interests: legal anthropology, multi-sited ethnographic research, Navajo schools and schooling, Federal Indian law, ethnography of policy, native peoples of North America, and action, applied, and participatory research methods I'm interested in the way in which federal policies of "self-determination" (and at the same time accountability and punitive action and loss of control of "failing schools") for tribally-controlled schools on the Navajo reservation operate in the school community environment. My research will likely involve asking questions like: In what way does (or doesn't) the inherent power of the law shape community and personal narratives about local control, autonomy, and sovereignty in a school community?

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