current and past teaching
I usually teach the following classes and graduate seminars: environmental anthropology, introduction to cultural anthropology, political anthropology, anthropology of the Americas, anthropology of North America, indigenous movements in Latin America, critical theory, and applied anthropology. In 2005-2006, I was also teaching a research seminar at the University of Paris X-Nanterre on indigenous peoples and the state in Latin America.
2005-2007, assistant/associate professor, anthropology, ulyon-2
introduction to cultural anthropology :: diversité des cultures, unité de l'homme (lecture class 100 level)
case studies and methodology in environmental anthropology :: étude de cas en anthropologie de la nature (seminar 200 level)
anthropology of nature :: anthropologie de la nature (lecture class and reading section 200 level)
political anthropology: Anthropologie du politique (lecture class and reading section, 200 and 300 level)
indigenous peoples in latin america :: anthropologie des sociétés d'amérique latine (lecture class 300 level)
anthropology of north america :: anthropologie des sociétés d'amérique du nord (lecture class 300 level)
anthropology of the americas/indigenous movements in latin america :: sociétés d'amériques (graduate research seminar)
critical theory and writing :: systèmes de représentation (graduate research seminar)
2006, guest lecturer, anthropology, université paris-x nanterre
multiculturalism, citizenship, and indigenous movements in Latin America (graduate research seminar, MAE, Feb-June 2006)
2003-2004, graduate instructor, anthropology, uoregon
visual anthropology (summer 2004) :: environmental anthropology (winter 2003) :: ritual and religion (summer 2003) :: participating learning experience (3 terms, 2003-2004)
1999-2003, graduate teaching fellow, anthropology, uoregon
introduction to cultural anthropology (fall 1999, winter 2000, spring 2001) :: introduction to archaeology (spring 2000, fall 2001) :: women and culture (fall 2000, winter 2003)
courses
introduction to cultural anthropology
This course is designed to introduce students to the study of human cultures and societies. Topics include religion, music, gender, kinship, sexuality, economics, politics, and globalization.
environmental anthropology
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the connections between humans and the environment from an anthropological perspective. This course offers insight into a number of different cultures around the world looking at the ways in which people are shaped by and shape their environments. More specifically, we will look at how people think and talk about the landscape they live in and how these beliefs and attitudes mediate the people's relationship to the environment. This course outlines how anthropologists have approached the study of environments over time. The various theoretical frameworks of environmental anthropology are emphasized throughout the course and particularly during the first third of the class. During the last two thirds of the class, the course explores issues of power and politics and how they shape human-environmental relationships throughout the world.
visual anthropology
In our present time, mass audiences, including students are increasingly exposed to visual media on TV, in magazines, and in the classroom. The representation of different cultures, "the exotic other" and "non-Western people" becomes increasingly common in common visual entertainment to inform and educate viewers. This course focuses on a critical examination of visual media such as photographs and ethnographic and anthropological films, beginning with early visual documentation and film documentaries and extending to contemporary films and photographic representation for mass audiences and the classroom. A series of ethnographic films and videos will be shown and discussed in class. Readings on anthropological filmmaking will be assigned to correspond to the issues that arise from the issues posed by specific films. Topics include filmmaking strategies, pros and cons of visual versus written ethnographic accounts, ethics and issues of power involved in ethnographic filmmaking, representation of different cultures, and the nature of audience reaction.
indigenous peoples in mexico and central america
This course is designed to give students a general overview of indigenous cultures in Mexico and Central America and to provide them with more detailed knowledge of a few of these cultures through in-depth examination. Students will learn about ethnographic fieldwork, as well as the interpretation and writing of ethnographic data. It is the purpose of this course to achieve an understanding of the life styles and beliefs of indigenous peoples in Mexico and Central America and the ways in which these societies adapt to changing circumstances in a global environment. In order to understand current power relations between indigenous peoples and nation-states, and indigenous responses to contemporary political and economic situations, we examine the historical and political context of the region. The case studies for this class focus on the Nahua of the Huasteca region of Mexico, the Mam-speaking Maya on the Mexico/Guatemala border, and the Kuna of the San Blas Islands in eastern Panama. The lecture and readings from the course packet also provide students with ethnographic data on other indigenous peoples in Mexico and Central America for cross-cultural comparison. General themes approached in lecture and readings are gender, ethnic identity, globalization, and indigenous movements.
ritual and religion
Religion takes many forms, yet it is a human universal. How do people come to believe certain things that seem strange to us? Are religious beliefs illusions or delusions or are they inspired by empirical reality? What are the purposes of religion for human individuals and society? What is ritual and how does it allow people to activate and experience spiritual realms, order or change human reality? Anthropology takes a non-judging and cross-cultural view of religion. Religion is seen as a mode communication that articulates people's worldview and concepts of the supernatural. It is also an ideology that supports social order, although it can be used to counteract and resist a given political system. As philosophy, religion provides explanations that help people cope with uncertainties and difficulties of everyday life. In this class, we address basic concepts and theories on ritual and religion conjunction with issues on religious syncretism, new religions, as well as religion and gender, environment, power, and politics. We will discover human and non-human realities that underlie the spiritual, supernatural, and magical realms posited by world's peoples.
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