Faculty and Staff
- Office Hours
- The Faculty 2007-2008
- Professors Emeriti
- Visiting Research Scholars
- Affiliated Anthropologists
Areas of faculty specialization include economic anthropology and economic development, symbolic and semiotic studies, art and aesthetics, global and transnational studies, urban anthropology, families and households, historical anthropology and ethnohistory, archaeology, gender studies, cognitive and psychological anthropology, computer-mediated communication and media studies, medical anthropology, religion and ritual, comparative methods, evolution of complex societies, and theory and method in sociocultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. Anthropologists at Brandeis have carried out field research in Africa, the Near East, Central America, South America, Oceania, Japan, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. There is a strong interest among all faculty members in the relationship between evidence and interpretation in the social sciences.
Anthropology faculty members are strongly committed to interdepartmental cooperation at Brandeis and serve on the steering committees of the following programs: East Asian Studies; Health: Science, Society, and Policy; International and Global Studies; Internet Studies, Journalism; Latin American Studies; Non-Western and Comparative Studies; Program in Religious Studies; and Women’s Studies.
In addition to the regular teaching faculty the Brandeis anthropology community includes emeriti (faculty members who have retired from active teaching), research associates (professional anthropologists affiliated with the department), postdoctoral fellows (who combine limited teaching with research and writing), and affiliated anthropologists (scholars working in other programs, institutes, and schools at Brandeis).
The Faculty 2007-2008
For Biographical Portraits please click on the faculty member's name.
Mark Auslander (mausland@brandeis.edu)
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of the interdisciplinary Master's program in Cultural Production
(Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1997)
Ritual, politics, agrarian change, historical consciousness, African American ritual and narrative performance; Southern and Central Africa, USA.
Elizabeth Emma Ferry (ferry@brandeis.edu)
Associate Professor of Anthropology
(Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, 2000)
Economic anthropology. Political anthropology; Mexico.
Charles Golden (cgolden@brandeis.edu)
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Undergraduate Advisor
(Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 2002)
Archaeology of complex societies. Modern contexts of archaeological research. Mesoamerica. The Maya.
Justeen Hyde (jhyde@challiance.org)
Lecturer, Fall 2008
(Ph.D. University of California, Irvine, 2001)
Cultural constructions of risk, medicalization of social problems, adolescence, child welfare institutions, community-based participatory research and evaluation, politics of public health.
Smita Tewari Jassal (stj89@yahoo.com)
Madeleine Haas Russell Visiting Professor, 2008-2009
(Ph.D. Dehli University, 1989)
Gender studies, cultural studies, folk traditions, oral narratives, partitioned societies, South Asia
David E. Jacobson (jacobson@brandeis.edu)
Professor of Anthropology and Director of Graduate Studies
(Ph.D. University of Rochester, 1967)
Social anthropology. Urban anthropology. Families and households. Computer-mediated communication; United States, Africa.
Sarah Lamb (lamb@brandeis.edu)
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair
(Ph.D. University of Chicago 1993)
Sociocultural Theory, gender, medical anthropology, aging, self and person, migration and transnationalism; South Asia, United States.
Laurie LaPorte (laurie.laporte@gmail.com)
Lecturer in Anthropology, Fall 2008
(Ph.D. Boston University, 2007)
Globalization, identity and ethnicity, practice theory, migration, field methods, children and youth, gender studies, love, gossip, Cape Verde, African diaspora, Atlantic Islands.
Sophia Malamud (smalamud@brandeis.edu)
Assistant Professor of Language and Lingusitics
(Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 2006)
Linguistics. Formal semantics. Discourse functions of syntax. Game-theoretic approaches to language. Mathematical properties of linguistic formalisms.
Janet McIntosh (janetmc@brandeis.edu)
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
(Ph.D. University of Michigan 2002)
Psychological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, religion; East Africa.
Richard Parmentier (rparmentier@brandeis.edu)
Professor of Anthropology and Chair of International and Global Studies
(Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1981)
Semiotic anthropology, historical anthropology, communications and media, myth and ritual; Oceania, contemporary United States, Middle Ages.
Ellen Schattschneider (eschatt@brandeis.edu)
Associate Professor of Anthropology
(Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1996)
Anthropology of religion, psychoanalytic theory, anthropology of the body; East Asia, Japan.
Javier Urcid (urcid@brandeis.edu)
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Latin American and Latino Studies
(Ph.D. Yale University, 1992)
Archaeology, complex societies, writing systems, bioarchaeology; Mesoamerica.
Professors Emeriti
Helen Codere
Professor Emerita (Ph.D. Columbia University, 1950)
Method and theory, economic anthropology, anthropology of art; Africa, North America.
Robert Hunt (hunt@brandeis.edu)
Professor Emeritus (Ph.D. Northwestern University, 1965)
Social anthropology, economic anthropology, comparative methods, irrigation agriculture; Mesoamerica, United States.
David Kaplan
Professor Emeritus (Ph.D. University of Michigan, 1960)
Economic anthropology, method and theory, peasant culture; Mesoamerica.
Benson Saler (saler@brandeis.edu)
Professor Emeritus (Ph.D.University of Pennsylvania, 1960)
Comparative religion and folk philosophies, psychological anthropology, pastoral peoples; Americana, Mesoamerica, South America.
Robert Zeitlin (zeitlin@brandeis.edu)
Professor Emeritus (Ph.D. Yale University, 1979)
Sociocultural evolution, prehistoric exchange, pre state and early state societies, archaeological method and theory; Mesoamerica.
Visiting Research Scholars
Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria (janjaria@ucsc.edu)
Visiting Research Scholar (Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Cultural anthropology, urban studies, the state, informal economy, transnational processes; South Asia.
George N. Appell
Senior Visiting Research Scholar (Australian National University, 1966)
Social anthropology; Southeast Asia.
James Herron (jherron@fas.harvard.edu)
Visiting Research Scholar (Ph.D. University of Michigan 2003)
Linguistic anthropology. Pragmatics and social interaction. Political economy. Bureaucracy and the state. Latin America. Andes. Colombia.
Justeen Hyde (jhyde@challiance.org)
Visiting Research Scholar (Ph.D. University of California, Irvine, 2001)
Cultural constructions of risk, medicalization of social problems, adolescence, child welfare institutions, community-based participatory research and evaluation, politics of public health.
Caitrin Lynch (caitrin.lynch@olin.edu)
Visiting Research Scholar (Ph.D. University of Chicago, 2000)
Cultural anthropology, gender, labor, nationalism, and globalization; South Asia (specifically, postcolonial Sri Lanka) and the United States.
Tanya Smith (tsmith@eva.mpg.de)
Visiting Research Scholar (Ph.D. Stony Brook University, 2004)
Biological anthropology. Paleoanthropology, dental development, and tooth structure.
Charles Ziegler
Senior Visiting Research Scholar (Ph.D. Brandeis University, 1983)
Industrial and applied anthropology.
Affiliated Anthropologists
Ricardo Godoy (rgodoy@brandeis.edu)
Professor, Programs in Sustainable International Development, Heller School for Social Policy and Management
(Ph.D. Columbia, 1983)
Economic anthropology, agriculture, health; Latin America.
Cornelia Ann Kammerer (kammerer@brandeis.edu)
Adjunct Lecturer, Heller School for Social Policy and Management
(Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1986)
Cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, gender and sexuality, AIDS; Southeast Asia, United States.
Leigh Swigart (swigart@brandeis.edu)
Director of Programs in International Justice and Society, The International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life
(Ph.D. University of Washington, 1992)
Linguistic anthropology, African urban speech varieties, new immigration in the USA, and refugee studies.
Kelley Ready (kready@brandeis.edu)
Associate Director of Academics, Programs in Sustainable International Development, Heller School for Social Policy and Management
(Ph.D. CUNY Graduate Center, 1999)
Gender, social movements, kinship, reproductive and sexual health, Latin America.