Core Faculty | Adjunct Faculty | Associate Instructors

CORE FACULTY

Stephanie DeBoer (sdeboer@indiana.edu)is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture as well as the International Studies Program at Indiana University.  Her teaching and research interests include global media studies, Japanese and Chinese language film and media, inter-Asia cultural studies, memory and media, and critical approaches to digital media in the context of globalization. A recent recipient of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC/JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship, she is currently writing a manuscript on film, television and media co-productions in the Asia-Pacific. She also has experience in the instruction and production of multimedia scholarship.

Ilana Gershon (igershson@indiana.edu)
Office: 800 E. Third Street, Room 227
Phone: 856-3728

She is Associate Professor of Performance and Ethnography, Department of Communication and Culture and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University. She received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago in 2001. Gershon has a wide range of interests, with an ethnographic focus in the Pacific. Her previous research has compared Samoan migrant experiences in New Zealand and the United States, focusing in particular on the contrasts between how governments and migrants understand what it means to have a culture. She has two current research projects. In her long-term research project, she is looking at Maori members of the New Zealand parliament, exploring how indigenous self-representation in the national legislature has contributed to the current Maori Renaissance. In her short-term project, she is studying how people end relationships using new forms of communication. By studying breaking up, she hopes to gain an understanding of when and how people experience new media as "new."

Margaret Graves (marggrav@indiana.edu)
Office: Fine Arts 140
Phone: 855-6714

She is Assistant Professor in the Department of History of Art in the School of Fine Arts. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Edinburg in 2010. Her research interests are Medieval Islamic visual culture, nineteenth-century Islamic arts, the image of architecture in paintings, sculpture and applied arts, orientalism, historiography, and the master-narrative(s) of Islamic art.

Olga Kalentzidou (okalentz@indiana.edu)
Office: Woodburn 335
Phone: 856-1816

She is Associate Director and faculty of the International Studies Program. Olga has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Indiana University. She is a native of Greece and has conducted research in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. She has taught extensively in the Department of Anthropology and West European Studies at Indiana University. Her research interests include ethnicity, nationalism, food studies, memory, material culture and Modern Greek language. As a faculty in International Studies, she teaches the Capstone Seminar and Nations, States and Boundaries.

Nicole Kousaleos (nkousale@indiana.edu) is Lecturer in the International Studies Program. Nicole has a Ph.D. in Folklore with minors in Gender Studies and African Studies from Indiana University in 2000. Nicole has taught previously for the Folklore Department at I.U. Areas of expertise include: ethnographic methods, medical anthropology, feminist theory, globalization, advertising, and body image, post-colonial theory, performance studies, community studies, and narrative analysis.  Nicole’s current research interests are gender and human rights, particularly the intersection of globalization with the local negotiation of gendered culture.  Nicole is an ethnographer who has worked in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa, in the United States with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and with youth violence intervention in North Carolina. Nicole has received multiple awards for outstanding teaching.  

Michael Muehlenbein (mpm1@indiana.edu)
Office: SB 216
Phone: 855-2040

He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and faculty associate in the Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change. He earned his PhD and MPhil in biological anthropology at Yale University, and an MsPH in Tropical Medicine and Biostatistics at Tulane School of Public Health.  His primary research interests include biological adaptations to infectious diseases and infectious disease ecology, particularly emerging infectious diseases caused by human-wildlife contact. Michael has also studied the physiology and ecology of malaria infections in Honduran men, HIV infection in men, upper respiratory tract infections in college students, and gastrointestinal infections in wild chimpanzees of Uganda and orangutans of Borneo. His teaching interests include global health, human variation and evolution, evolutionary medicine and behavioral endocrinology. Read about Dr. Muehlenbein's latest research at: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/14455.html

William Rasch (wrasch@indiana.edu) is Professor of Germanic Studies and Director of the International Studies Program. He served six years as the Chair of the Department of Germanic Studies and two years as Director of the Center for Theoretical Inquiry in the Humanities before taking on his current International Studies duties. Born in Connecticut and raised in Florida, Professor Rasch lived in Germany, Georgia, Vermont, New York, Iceland, and Seattle before settling in the Midwest. Having traveled extensively in Central America, Europe, and parts of Africa from an early age (at first with his adventurous parents), he still gets excited when boarding a plane, despite the draconian surveillance, decline in service, and drastic reduction of legroom. His research interests include the German philosophical and intellectual tradition, especially the areas of social and political theory, and German film and literature in their historical and political contexts. He remembers his long-ago undergraduate days fondly and encourages contemporary students to treat their years at IU as a time of self-discovery and exploration of the world at large.

Ron Sela (rsela@indiana.edu) is Assosiate Professor of Central Eurasian History. He holds a Ph.D. in Central Eurasian Studies from Indiana University. His research interests focus on the history of Muslim peoples in Centrak Asia, and on the political and cultural self-representation in the Islamic world. He teaches courses on history, historiography and travel literature in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies.

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ADJUNCT FACULTY

Christopher Doran (chdoran@indiana.edu) is Adjunct faculty in International Studies Program. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology/International Political Economy in 2010, and has taught at universities in Australia and the United States. His interests include environmental studies, social movements, and development issues. He is the author of Making the World Safe for Capitalism (June 2012).

Stefano Fiorini (sfiorini@indiana.edu) is Ajunct faculty in International Studies Program, Research Associate at the Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change (ACT) and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. His main research focus is on collaborative and participatory approaches to the management of natural resources. He particularly looks at the impact policies and initiatives of cultural, environmental perservation and sustainable development have in shaping peoples' relationship with local places and the natural environment.

Amy Horowitz (amyhorow@indiana.edu) is Ajunct faculty in International Studies Program and Visiting Scholar-In-Residence at the Center for the Study of Global Change. She received her Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, 1994. Her main interests are Mediterranean Israeli Music, (a form of contemporary popular Israeli music created by Israeli Jews from Islamic countries), the study of cultures in disputed territories, the folklore traditions of contemporary Jerusalem, and protest music as responsible citizenship. Dr. Horowitz teaches courses on music, globalization, and disputed territories through the International Studies Program. Her work in cros-cultural and multiracial coalitions complements her academic background that combines training in Jewish studies and Ethnomusicology with Folklore and Israel studies.

Stepanka Korytova (stepkory@indiana.edu) is Adjunct faculty in International Studies Program and Labor Studies. In 2009 she was a faculty member on a voyage around the world, a program sponsored by the University of Virginia. Her teaching and research interests include global migration, the history of European migration to the United States, gender and ethnicity issues, and modern East European history. A recent recipient of a Czech private foundation grant (the Josef Hlavka grant), she has finished her second book (currently in press), entitled Kde domov muj? (Where Is My Homeland? Czech and Slovak Americans and Their Ties to the Homeland, 1880-1920).  She also has experience in the instruction of the Czech and Russian languages and cultures.

Alfredo Minetti (aminetti@indiana.edu)
Office: Woodburn 300
Phone: 856-1816

He is Adjunct faculty in International Studies Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington. With especial interest in the performing arts, his areas of research include: group creativity, social aesthetics, collective emotion, and the overall role of the arts in the political present. In 2008, he established 'Minetti Productions' a performing arts company intended to promote the blending of research on relevant cultural topics and the performing arts. In 2010 he created the very successful Zero Hour Tango Fest and the creative group known as 'This is Tango Now.' Alfredo has performed and delivered workshops and lectures on a wide array of topics all around the country and abroad. He is currently finishing a book on Tango, making the case as to why this cultural phenomenon is relevant for people not directly connected culturally with Argentine and Uruguay. As an anthropologist, producer, and arts administrator he is deeply interested in why people like what they like, in what people take out of their artistic experiences, in the cross-cultural role of the arts, and in how to create artistic experiences that compel audiences to open up, getting in touch with a set of complex emotions that are normally dormant or repressed. His passion for every aspect of the arts and for its critical role in society and culture is only rivaled by his passion for Mediterranean gastronomy and Spaghetti Westerns.

Peter Nemes (pnemes@indiana.edu)
Office: Woodburn 300
Phone: 856-1816

He is Visiting Lecturer at the International Studies Program and a Visiting Scholar at the Landscape Studies Program and CEUS. He is originally from Hungary where he earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. His research interests include landscape studies, especially the influence of visual art on garden design and history in an intercultural setting (British and Japanese) and cultural studies. He has taught courses on literary theory, world literature, garden history and cultural geography in various settings: in Hungary, at IU and online.

Per Nordahl (pnordahl@indiana.edu) arrived at IU from Umeå, Sweden in February 2008, where he has been serving as a Research Fellow in International Studies, as well as Assistant Director of the European Union Center of Excellence. His research includes Migration and Integration Studies, as well as Scandinavian History. Per received his Ph.D. in History from Umeå University (Sweden), and has served as a Fulbright Fellow, American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow, and an IU Institute for Advanced Study Fellow. He has published a book, Weaving the Ethnic Fabric: Social Networks Among Swedish-American Radicals in Chicago 1890–1940.  He served as director of the research project “Boundaries of Swedishness” (1999–2002) and the research project “The Transatlantic Diffusion of Ideas and Attitudes through Swedish-American Returnees” (1995), both funded by The Bank of Sweden.  He served as Director of the Swedish Emigrant Institute (2002–2006), where he initiated and managed a number of EU projects.  His current research centers on policies for integration in Scandinavia and the ways in which they are implemented.

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ASSOCIATE INSTRUCTORS

Feray Baskin (fbaskin@indiana.edu) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Her research focuses on anthropological linguistics.

Adrianne Bryant (adribryan@indiana.edu) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Her scholarly interests are in human-environment relationships and food production, where she focuses on understanding urban gardening's impacts, particularly its role in shaping American urban dwellers ideas about food and nature.

Flory Gingging (fginggin@indiana.edu) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology.Her research focuses on tourism, identity politics, and nationalism in Sabah, Malaysia.

Chi-Hoon Kim (ck7@indiana.edu) is Associate Instructor and a PhD Student in the Anthropology of Food program. Her research focuses on how food is used to assert, reinforce, and redefine national identities. She is particularly interested in the transnational circulation of Korean cuisine and how it reveals issues of heritage and authenticity. Before arriving to IU, she worked for the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, a think tank for the United Nations, in New York City. 

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