Conference Participants
Katerina Ailova (Brandeis University) is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in Anthropology at Brandeis University. Her research focuses on advertising as a site of ideological production that contributes to rapid cultural change while Eastern Europe transitions from socialism to globalized capitalism.
Sari Alper (Wellesley ’04) is a senior at Wellesley College, with majors in Anthropology and Spanish. She studied archaeology and history at the Universidad de Córdoba in Spain during the 2002-2003 academic year and plans to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology.)
Mark Auslander (discussant, Brandeis University ) is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in African Arts and Aesthetics at Brandeis. Dr. Auslander (Ph.D. 1997, University of Chicago) has done fieldwork on ritual, politics, landscape and memory in Southern and Central Africa and in African American communities in Georgia.
Catherine Brinkley (Wellesley ‘04) is a senior at Wellesley College, graduating with majors in biology and Russian. She spent last summer at Lake Baikal in Siberia studying the wildlife, and looks forward to a career in veterinary medicine.
Haley Collazo (Brandeis University) is in her second year of graduate study at Brandeis University. Her primary interests are medical anthropology and psychological anthropology, specifically focusing on bodily boundaries and conduits between internal and external worlds. Her geographic focus is the Caribbean and Latin America.
Jennifer Cone (Wellesley College) Jennifer Cone is a senior at Wellesley College majoring in Anthropology and French. She hopes attend graduate school next year to pursue her doctorate in social-cultural anthropology, with a focus on gender identity and sexuality in post-socialist Eastern Europe.
Maureen Donohue (Tufts '06) Maureen Donohue is a sophomore at Tufts University from New Jersey. She is majoring in Music and American Studies, with a concentration in urban planning and arts management.
Cecilia Dos Santos (Tufts '05) Cecilia Dos Santos is a junior at Tufts University majoring in Anthropology and International Relations with a focus on nationalism, culture, and identity. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and migrated with her family to West Hartford, Connecticut at the age of four. Her academic and personal interest for Latin American and Latino issues is inspired by her experiences coming from a bicultural immigrant family. She hopes to continue studying and understanding the culture of immigrant families through an independent research project in Buenos Aires during the summer months.
Alex Green (Brandeis ‘04) is a senior studying Anthropology/Archaeology, Latin American Studies, and Classics. Alex was president of the Brandeis ACLU for two and a half years. He lives outside of San Francisco, has an intense interest in world events and is particularly fascinated by Africa and Central/South America.
David Guss (discussant, Tufts University) received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles and has taught anthropology at Tufts since 1991. His fieldwork focuses on issues of performance, place, and narrative. His most recent book is The Festive State: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism as Cultural Performance (University of California Press 2000). His current exhibition on the history of Somerville's 14 movie theatres can be seen at the Somerville Museum. For more information on this Public Anthropology project see www.LostTheatres.org
Anastasia Karakasidou (discussant, Wellesley College) Dr. Karakasidou holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University (1992). She specializes in historical and medical anthropology with an area focus on Greece.
Anastasia Konstantakatou (Tufts ’06) Born and raised in Greece, she developed a strong interest in Anthropology while conducting a study of the Catholic Community of a suburb near Athens for her Cultural Anthropology class. Currently a sophomore at Tufts University and a Political Science major, she continues to pursue her interest in Anthropology, most recently with the independent study she has undertaken on Greek Immigration in Latin America.
Lexie McGovern (Tufts ’05) Lexie McGovern is a junior at Tufts University where she is majoring in International Relations and Latin American studies. Born in Lubbock, Texas into a multicultural family, her academic and personal interests are inspired by her diverse background. Lexie is involved in a number of organizations which reflect her passion and interest. Among these organizations are: Most (Multicultural Organization of Students at Tufts), the Tufts Symphony Orchestra, and the LCS (Leonard Carmichael Society). She continues to explore different cultures and grassroot movements in her current studies during the spring semester in Oaxaca, Mexico.)
Janet McIntosh (discussant, Brandeis University) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University. Dr. McIntosh received her Ph.D in 2002 from the University of Michigan. Her fieldwork takes place on the coast of Kenya, and her publications and conference presentations have addressed the politics of Islam and African traditionalism, ritual and ritual language, language ideologies, and cognitive anthropology.
Jessica Meissner (Brandeis ’05) is pursuing a BA/MA in Anthropology with a focus on linguistic and cultural anthropology. Her areas of special interest include China; language, immigration, and nationalism in the U.S.; and, most recently, the Burning Man festival.
Carol Ortenberg (Brandeis ‘06), currently a sophomore who plans on double majoring in Anthropology and Theater Arts, serves as a coordinator in the Waltham Group (a community service organization) and performs with Brandeis' student sketch comedy troupe, Boris' Kitchen.
Daivi Rodima (Brandeis University) Daivi Rodima is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology of Brandeis University. Her research interests include economic and legal anthropology, cooperative labor and work groups, issues of gender and personhood, post-socialist transformations. She has carried out her dissertation fieldwork in Tanzania, East Africa, studying cooperative labor, personhood, and trust in rural Kuria communities (2000-2002, Wenner-Gren Foundation Grant).
Ellen Rovner (Brandeis University) is a fifth year, part-time Ph.D. student in cultural anthropology. Ellen's interests include food, ethnicity, gender, and the body. She looks forward to fieldwork exploring the relationships between eating, its rituals, and the construction of the ethnic, gendered self.
Kerri Sheingold (Brandeis ‘04) a senior at Brandeis University, is about to complete a double major in anthropology and music with a minor in religious studies. She recently studied abroad in the Yucatan, Mexico and over the past four years has served as a trained peer counselor at Brandeis.
A student in the Interdisciplinary Doctorate Program, Cathy Stanton (Tufts University) is currently completing her dissertation on the role of public history projects in redevelopment efforts in the former textile city of Lowell, Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from Vermont College, and has worked for many years as a writer and teacher; while at Tufts she has designed and taught courses on the Civil War in American memory and cultural tourism in Boston.