2007 Annual Student Conference Participants

Discussants

• Hana Akselrod (Brandeis)
  Hana was born in Russia, grew up in Israel, came to the US at the age of 12, and has been trying to work out her identity ever since.  Currently she is a senior at Brandeis University, working on a minor in Anthropology and a major in Biochemistry, with the hope of going on to medical school and the field of public health.  She is a teaching assistant for the Biology department, an active member of the Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps, president of the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, and a former leader of the Student Global AIDS Campaign. 
• Rachana Agarwal (Brandeis)
  Rachana Agarwal is a third year doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at Brandeis University. Her dissertation research investigates the construction and negotiation of identity amongst youth in formal and informal educational settings in the context of the Republic of Palau, Micronesia. Her broader interests include the anthropology of science, postcolonial theory and development studies.
• Anne Blackstock-Bernstein (Brandeis)
  Anne Blackstock-Bernstein is currently a sophomore at Brandeis University, double majoring in psychology and sociology.  Her interests include gender relations in young adults, specifically power dynamics and competition.  She is also very interested in education policy, and plans to pursue a career in the educational field.  She hopes to incorporate her study of social competition into her studies and into her career.
• James Canales (Tufts)
  James Canales is from San Antonio, Texas.  He is a sophomore in the Museum of Fine Arts Art School/Tufts University BFA program.  This paper/presentation and the five original oil on canvas works therein integrates the work that he is doing at these two institutions, bringing together contemporary debates, theories and methods in Anthropology, Latino Studies and studio art and composition. 
• Amanda Carlson (Wellesley)
  Amanda Carlson is a senior majoring in Anthropology. Over the past two yeasr she worked as a legal intern assisting detained immigrant children in the Midwest. As a result, her current interests revolve around the national immigration debate and achieving positive social change. She is an idealist who hopes that she does not become jaded from too much research.
• Caitlin Felsman (Tufts)
  I am currently a sophomore at Tufts University double-majoring in anthropology and music.  Having grown up in Southern Africa, I have recently become very intrigued by the American image of my home.  I see anthropology as a discipline that can offer constructive social commentary by presenting a more complete picture of the emerging interactions between different cultures in an increasingly globalized world.  This paper has allowed me to explore this area of personal interest within a structured theoretical framework.
• Anna Goldstein (Wellesley)
  Anna Goldstein is a first year student at Wellesley College interested in pursuing study in Spanish and the Social Sciences. She is also a certified Barista.
• Anna Jaysane-Darr (Brandeis)
  Anna has a BA from Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University in political art. Her MA is from University of London in anthropology of media. She is currently doing doctoral work on media in Africa.
• Ieva Jusionyte (Brandeis)
  Ieva obtained her BA in international relations and political science at Vilnius University. She studied abroad in Bologna, Italy and worked as a journalist in Central and Eastern Europe. Currently she is writing her MA paper on the negotiations of public space for legitimating conflicting memories of the Genocide between Armenian and Turkish communities in Boston.
• Jodi Lasseter (Clark)
  Jodi Lasseter, a Social Change Fellow, is currently a second year graduate student in the International Development and Social Change Master's program at Clark University.  She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996 with degrees in Women's Studies and Anthropology.  Her primary interest is women and the environment, with a central focus on girls' empowerment.  In addition to working at a community mediation center for four years, she has volunteered as a teacher trainer in Ecuador, Tanzania and worked on organic farms in Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland. She also served two years in Americorps.
• Casey Miller (Brandeis)
  Following high school in Colorado, Casey attended the Li Po Chun United World College (UWC) of Hong Kong. After finishing UWC, he enrolled in Magdalen College, Oxford University, and received a BA (Hon.) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In 2006 Casey completed a master’s degree in East Asian Studies at Harvard University. He is currently in his first year as a Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department of Brandeis University.
• Sarah Newton (Tufts)
  I am a senior with a double major in International Relations/ Russian and East European Studies.  Last summer I traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan with the support of the Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize to begin research for my senior honors thesis, "U.S. Foreign Policy toward Kazakhstan."  I started the Central Asian Initiative this year to bring dialog about Central Asia to Tufts and we sponsored several events including a panel with the Kyrgyz Ambassador to the United States.  My experiences in Kazakhstan this past summer informed the research that I will be presenting at the GBAC conference.
• Olajide Olagunju (Brandeis)
  Ph.D. student, Department of Anthropology. Research interests include: Sociocultural anthropology, Comparative Legal Anthropology; Yoruba traditional conflict management. Presentations include: "The Mellon-MIT Inter-University Program on NGOs and Forced Migration," Conflict Studies Conference, Boston 2006. "Global Peace through Local Capacity," Peace and Justice Association Conference, New York, 2006.
• Tanya Palit (Clark)
  Tanya Palit is a second year M.A. student at Clark University studying International Development and Social Change. She is interested in issues of gender, sexuality and social justice and has worked primarily in India and Bangladesh. She is a former Fulbright junior scholar to Bangladesh, where she worked with BRAC, a rural development NGO and Nari Jibon, a women’s skill center in Dhaka. She has a B.A. in International Relations from Michigan State University.
• Rose Beatriz Stimson (Brandeis)
  Rose received her BA in Anthropology, Sociology and Political Science from Roger Williams University, and studied abroad in Florence, Italy. Since 2005 she has worked as a Research Assistant for the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at U-Mass Boston focusing on issues of gender and multicultural leadership.
• Andrea Swartz (Wellesley)
  Andrea Swartz is a recent graduate of Wellesley College where she majored in Anthropology and Peace and Justice Studies. She is currently a graduate student in the writing program at the Salt Institute of Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine.
• Allison Taylor (Brandeis)
  I am a second-year doctoral student in sociocultural anthropology at Brandeis.  I am interested in refugee studies, particularly research around trauma and cultural constructions of healing, as well as narrative and identity after displacement.  My focus stems in part from a career as a clinical social worker, with experience in trauma counseling.  In addition to my graduate studies, I also work as a research assistant for a project with the Women’s Studies Research Center and serve on the Graduate Student Senate at Brandeis.
• Diego Villalobos (Tufts)
  Diego grew up in Costa Rica and immigrated to the U.S. in 2003. Resuming his university education in the department of anthropology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, he helped research the Origins of Monumentality in Ancient Costa Rica. He transferred to Tufts this past fall and is currently seeking a degree in anthropology with an applied focus in public policy. Through the Urban Borderlands class, Diego initiated a research project on the civic involvement of Latinos in Somerville, MA. As a Citizenship and Public Service Scholar at the Jonathan M. Tisch College, Diego is interested in the experience of immigrants and refugees, specifically in their transition to being active citizens in new societies.
• Cody B. Wheeland (Olin)
  Cody Wheeland is a senior at Olin College who is majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has a two-story tall Tesla coil, and he plans to go to graduate school or work in industry in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Sara Withers (Brandeis)
  Sara Withers is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Brandeis University, where she also received her joint MA in Anthropology and Women’s Studies in 2002.  Her dissertation research was recently carried out in Oaxaca, Mexico, and addresses issues of work, class, and gendered roles in dual-career, middle-class families in the capital city.  In addition to this project, she is also interested in similar questions surrounding men’s and women’s roles within families in the United States, as well as studies focusing on U.S.-Mexico relations, globalization and immigration experiences, and the anthropology of gender and sports..

Discussants

• Sebastian Chaskel (Tufts)
  Sebastián Chaskel is a senior at Tufts University majoring in Anthropology and International Relations.  Through the Urban Borderlands class at Tufts University Sebastián researched the transnational religious traditions of the community from Yucuaiquín, El Salvador residing in Somerville, MA.  He has conducted oral history interviews in Somerville and Yucuaiquín and curated the exhibition "El Baile de los Negritos: From Yucuaiquín to Somerville" which was displayed at the Somerville Museum last spring and is currently displayed at the Slater Concourse Gallery at Tufts University. Sebastián is a Citizenship and Public Service Scholar at the Jonathan M. Tisch College and through this program founded the Community Language Bank in Somerville, a program that helps break down the language barrier in Somerville.  Sebastián's interests range from immigration and resettlement to conflict resolution and post-conflict situations.
• Julie Chu (Wellesley)
  Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Ph.D. New York University. Transnational migration, economy and value, gender and kinship, religion and ritual, and practices of media and representation. Current research includes material culture, visual anthropology and ethnographic film production, science and technology studies, and bureaucracy and state governmentality. Publications include: Forthcoming, Cosmologies of Credit: Fuzhounese Migration and the Politics of Destination. Duke University Press. Forthcoming, “Equation Fixations: On the Sum and the Whole of Dollars in Foreign Exchange.” Chapter in Encounters With Money, edited by Truitt. Berg Publications.
• Stephan Edwards (Brandeis)
  Ph.D. student, Department of Anthropology. Sociocultural. Political anthropology; anthropological approaches to the study of human rights and human rights policy; politics of memory, and cultural responses to political oppression. Presentations include: "He sits on the rock of joy: Epic Voice, the Kalevala and the Genesis of Finnish Nationalism" at the Western Social Science Association Annual Conference, 2006.
• Ellen Foley (Clark)
  Assistant Professor of International Development and Social Change, Ph.D. Michigan State University. Anthropology of development, gender, Islam, knowledge systems, medical anthropology, West Africa, Senegal, gender and household health, reproductive care and fertility and healthcare reform.  Publications include: "Overlaps and Disconnects in Reproductive Health Care: Global Policies, National Programs, and the Micropolitics of Fertility and Contraceptive Use in Northern Senegal" forthcoming in Medical Anthropology. "HIV/AIDS and African Immigrant Women in Philadelphia: Structural and Cultural Barriers to Care" AIDS Care, 17 (8): 1030-1043, 2005.
• Caitrin Lynch (Olin)
  Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ph.D. University of Chicago. Cultural dimensions of offshore manufacturing, consumer research and design implications, social behavior in global contexts, gender, labor, nationalism and globalization. South Asia, postcolonial Sri Lanka, United States. Publications include: Forthcoming 2007. Juki Girls, Good Girls: Gender and Cultural Politics in Sri Lanka's Global Garment Industry. New York: Cornell University Press.
• Bruce Owens (Wheaton)
  Associate Professor of Anthropology, Ph.D. Columbia University. Research interests include: politics of ritual, sacrifice, religion and the state; hermeneutic contestation; social and cultural theory; monumentality, identity, and material culture; Nepal, Himalaya, South Asia. Teaching specialties include: Anthropology of Art, South Asia, Theory in Anthropology, Religion, Psychological Anthropology, Human Evolution, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of the Himalaya. Publications include: "Monumentality, Identity, and the State: Local Practice, World Heritage, and Heterotopia at Swayambhu, Nepal," Anthropological Quarterly, 75(2), 2002. "Envisioning Identity: Deity, Person, and Practice in the Kathmandu Valley," American Ethnologist, 27(3), 2000.
• Sarah Pinto (Tufts)
  Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Ph.D. Princeton University. Medical Anthropology; gender; reproduction; health-care; body; caste; India. Publications include: "Globalizing Untouchability: Grief and the Politics of Depressing Speech", Social Text, forthcoming, Spring 2006. "Development Without Institutions: Ersatz Medicine and the Politics of Everyday Life in Rural India", Cultural Anthropology, 19(3), 2004.
• Ellen Schattschneider (Brandeis)
  Associate Professor of Anthropology, Director of Graduate Studies, Ph.D. University of Chicago. Anthropology of religion, psychoanalytic theory, anthropology of the body; East Asia, Japan. Publications include: Immortal Wishes: Labor and Transcendence on a Japanese Sacred Mountain. Duke University Press, 2003.

Speakers and Awarders

• Mark Auslander (Brandeis)
  Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Director, M.A. Program in Cultural Production, GBAC Coordintaor, Ph.D. University of Chicago. Ritual, politics, agrarian change, historical consciousness, African American ritual and narrative performance; Southern and Central Africa, United States. Publications include: "First Word: Assemblies: Paradoxes of Excavation and Reconstruction in Contemporary African Art." African Arts, 2005. "Saying Something Now: Documentary Work and the Voices of the Dead.." Michigan Quarterly Review, Fall 2005.
• James Glaser (Tufts)
  Associate Professor of Political Science, Dean of Undergraduate Education in Arts, Science, and Engineering. Ph.D. University of California Berkeley. Research interests include: Electoral politics, public opinion, politics of race and ethnicity. Publications include: The Hand of the Past in Contemporary Southern Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. Race, Campaign Politics, and the Realignment in the South. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
• David Guss (Tufts)
  Professor of Anthropology, Ph.D. University of California at Los Angeles. Symbolic and aesthetic anthropology; theory; cultural performance; myth and ritual; popular culture; Latin America. (Venezuela, Bolivia, the Amazon). Publications include: The Festive State: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism as Cultural Performance. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000; To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989.
• Jok Madut Jok (Loyola Marymount)
  Associate Professor of History, Ph.D. (Anthropology) University of California at Los Angeles. Woodrow Wilson Fellow, International Science and Technology Institute subcontract recipient. Geographic areas of specialization include Sudan, Egypt, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Publications include: Sudan: Race, Religion and Violence. Oxford: Oneworld Press, 2007. War and Slavery in Sudan. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Militarization, Gender, and Reproductive Health in Southern Sudan. United Kingdom: Mellen Press, 1998.
• Rosalind Shaw (Tufts)
  Associate Professor of Anthropology, Department Chair, Ph.D. University of London. Transitional justice; the anthropology of mass violence and social recovery; child and youth combatants; culture and reconciliation; social memory; the Atlantic slave trade; ritual and religion; West Africa; Sierra Leone. Publications include: Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis, co-edited with Charles Stewart. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.