Student Research Interests
Following is a list of current students and their research areas of interest. Click on a student's name for contact information.
Ph.D. Students
Coursework Stage
Sociocultural and linguistic anthropology. Writing systems, religions, transnational identities. Central Asia, Western China.
Globalization, identity, urban communities, migration. China.
Archaeology. Interdisciplinary approaches to archaeological interpretation, appropriation of symbolic identity, artistic and linguistic representation, ethnohistory. Ideology in political, social and economic transactions. Mesoamerica, the Classical world, Dynastic and pre-Dynastic Egypt.
Sociocultural. Individual and collective ritual practice, rites of passage, local religions, ancestor veneration, experience, symbolism, material culture. Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Medical anthropology, the body and embodiment, gender, food practices; exchange practices and Christianity in American Samoa, Samoa, and the diaspora.
Sociocultural and political and religious dynamics of women’s lives as seen through the lens of dance within the Middle East and North African regions.
Katie Lukach
Archaeology. Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica.
Central America, immigration, poverty, violence and suffering, medical anthropology.
Donald Slater
Archaeology. The Maya, Mesoamerica. Caves, portals, cosmology, iconography, and power in Central Yucatan, Mexico.
Valerie Smedile
Archaeology. Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica. Complex societies. Archaeology of death and burial, gender, and material culture. Monte Albán, Mexico. Geographic Information Systems.
Ph.D. Students
Proposal Stage
Sociocultural. Reproduction, parenting and motherhood; the anthropology of media; medicalization; the South Sudanese diapsora. Postcolonial studies, transnational/diaspora studies, and critical theory.
Political anthropology. The state, borders and border violence, human and drug trafficking, epidemiology of dengue and yellow fever, the media and practices of representation. Argentina.
Archaeology. Social and economic interaction and its influence on the complexity of Maya identity in the hinterlands of Classic Period polities through the arrival of the Spanish. Trade networks, landscape formation, style and community formation. Peten, Guatemala.
Betsy Marzahn-Ramos
Archaeology. Mesoamerica, Maya, role of secondary and tertiary settlements in regional political organization of Classic period kingdoms, social organization, style and political affiliation, space and place, semiotics, archaeology of non-elites, household archaeology, ceramics. Peten, Guatemala.
Sexuality and gender; globalization and modernity; power, practice, agency, and resistance; civil society, social movements, and NGOs; Chinese grassroots gay men's HIV/AIDS groups. China.
PhD Students
Dissertation Stage
Sociocultural. Youth culture, education and nationalism in contemporary Palau, Micronesia. Postcolonial Studies. Anthropology of Science.
Sociocultural. Socialization of Linguistic and Ethnic Identity among Czech Roma.
Sociocultural. Religious revival in Bangladesh. Islamic identities, personal piety and public versus private forms of religion. Women's engagement with religion, women's lived experiences of orthodox Islamic beliefs and practices. Effects of religion on women's roles, relations, and sexuality. Ethnographic region of study: South Asia/Bangladesh.
Sociocultural. Material culture, museums, landscape, and identity in
Scotland.
Sociocultural. Anthropology of Music; Medical Anthropology; Linguistic Anthropology; Myth & Ritual; Social Organization; Semiotic Anthropology; Lowland South America.
Sociocultural. Anthropology of adolescence, history of childhood in the United States, theories of adolescent development, research with children and the issue of voice. The juvenile justice system, Children in Need of Services (CHINS), the politics and culture of youth services on behalf of immigrant "at risk youth" in northern MA. Anthropology of science, critical medical anthropology, anthropology of development, and anthropology of gender. Anthropology for the non-anthropology major. Dissertation working title: “‘In Need of Services’: Youth, Webs of Service and the Politics of Help in a New England Immigrant Community.”
Archaeology. Mesoamerica (Formative Period), Olmec-Style Art, Rock Art, Sociocultural Evolution. Research focuses on the role rock art played in the development of complex societies taking part in the so-called Olmec Phenomena of the Middle-Late Formative Period in Mesoamerica. I am currently conducting field research towards my dissertation and have completed field trips to several Formative Period sites including: Chalcatzingo, Oaxtepec, and Tetela del Monte (Morelos, Mexico), Xochipala (Guerrero, Mexico), and Chalchuapa (El Salvador).
Sociocultural. Immigrant communities and identity issues (American-born Chinese youth in particular); migration, ethnicity and gender; globalization and transnationalism; neocolonialism and power; United States and South East Asia.
Sociocultural. Food, memory, gender, ethnicity and the body. Working title: "Embodied Ethnicity: Food, Sexuality, and Jewish Women."
Economic anthropology. Post-socialist tourism and transitions in money, labor and property in contemporary Cuba.
Sociocultural. Medical, psychological, and linguistic anthropology. Trauma, narrative, immigration/transnationalism; public policy applications of anthropology, especially related to mental health and social services for refugee and immigrant communities. The Somali Diaspora in Kenya and the United States (Minneapolis).
Sociocultural. Dissertation topic: cultural context of household resource management. General research interests: families and households, class and gender ideologies, meaning and social interaction. Fieldwork location: Maine.
Sociocultural. Egyptian cabaret performers.
M.A. Students
Comparative religion and society. Individuality, identity and choice. Transformation and life history.
Cultural memory of Mediterranean society through its material culture, legends, ritual, folklore and religion.
Belief, spirituality and social action, inequality, contemplative and existential anthropology, myth and ritual, anthropology of sustainability and emergence.
Symbolism, past, Afro-Americans, Franco-Maghrebians.
Tatiana Loya González
Archaeology. Northern Maya Lowlands, Late and Terminal Classic. Relationship between political alliances, economic networks and the use of style to define political boundaries. Bioarchaeology.
Archaeology, Baking Pot site in Belize.
Cross-cultural anthropology, Japan. Anthropology of consciousness, psychoanalysis.
Priyanka Nandy
Socioeconomic and political. Multi-ethnic/racial/cultural societies: immigration, demography, transnationalism, global labour movements, inequalities. Ethnically differentiated labour; influence of economic activity on sociocultural borders; social capital and interrelative ethnic/racial hierarchies; state policies on immigrant labour and welfare; homogenised/institutionalised ethics systems. Microcredit, microphilanthropy and localised developmentCoastal United States and West Europe; urban centres of developing countries.
Political, economic and cultural effects of globalization, rural and developing areas. Mexico and Central America.
Archaeology. Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica, the Maya, the Olmec. Iconography and ideology. Digital archaeology.
Cultural anthropology with an emphasis onperformance and ritual, aesthetics, art and social action. Semiotics,symbolism and linguistics. Shakespeare, Wolof and Hausa theatre.Francophone West Africa.
Linguistic anthropology, computer-mediated communication, socialization of children and adolescents.
Ritual practice and social norms in transformative society, media and globalization.
Online communities, social networking, and self-representation in cyberspace. The impact and enhancement on university life through the use of online community systems. Personal representation online and the social and cultural ramifications.
Urban anthropology, communication, violence and education.
Joint M.A. Students
Sexuality and gender, institutional discrimination, power and sexual violence.
Rituals, medical anthropology, structuralism, modernity, globalization, symbolism, gender, anorexia and bulimia, the rise of eating disorders in non-Western countries, the global food system, Japan, North America.
Sociocultural. Construction of collective and individual identities; gender and sexuality and their relationship to the body; kinship, motherhood and parenting in the U.S. within transnational and marginalized communities; medical anthropology; reproductive technologies.
Transnationalism, gender and development, migrant labor and sex-work, human rights and rural-urban migration.
Sociocultural. Gender, sexuality, feminist theory, engaged anthropology, feminist and LGBT movements, pornography, transnationalism, India.
Women's experiences with food, exercise, media, entertainment and beauty.
Archaeology and women's and gender studies.