Elizabeth Emma Ferry
Degrees
The Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D.The Johns Hopkins University, M.A.
Columbia University, B.A.
Expertise
Economic anthropology, mining and resources, anthropology of finance, materiality.Profile
Please visit my new faculty profile page.
My interests lie in mining, value, finance, and materiality, with special focus on Mexico, Colombia, and the U.S..
I am currently writing a book on gold as a physical substance in mining and finance.
At Brandeis, I teach courses in economic anthropology, power and violence, Latin American ethnography, media in Latin America, contemporary theory, the anthropology of food, and the work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot.
personal website: elizabeth-ferry.com
Courses Taught
| ANTH | 1a | Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies |
| ANTH | 81a | Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork: Methods and Practice of Anthropological Research |
| ANTH | 95a | Anthropology Research Lab |
| ANTH | 156a | Power and Violence: The Anthropology of Political Systems |
| ANTH | 163b | Economies and Culture |
| ANTH | 203b | Contemporary Anthropological Theory |
| ANTH | 239a | "Burning Questions:" The Work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot |
| ANTH | 257b | Cosmologies of Capital: Political Economy in Anthropology |
Awards and Honors
First Place, Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing (for La Batea, with Stephen Ferry) (2019)
Journal of Anthropological Research Distinguished Lecture, University of New Mexico, November 9, 2017 (2017)
Mandel Faculty Research Grant (2015)
Davis Teaching and Learning Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning, Brandeis University (2014 - 2015)
Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer '69 and Joseph Neubauer Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring, Brandeis University (2010)
Mandel Humanities Center/NEH award to team teach course on "Writing Across Culture: How Novelists and Anthropologists Depict the Human" in the spring of 2012 (with John Plotz) (2010)
Newhouse Center for the Humanities Fellowship, Wellesley College. (2008)
Bernstein Award for Faculty Research (2005)
Norman Award for Faculty Research (2005)
Smithsonian Institution Fellowship, Washington, D.C. (2005 - 2006)
Visiting Research Fellow, Center for US-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego (1999 - 2000)
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program, honorable mention (1994)
Scholarship
Ferry, Elizabeth. ""The Inorganic Slot."." Theorizing the Contemporary, Fieldsights, September 22. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/the-inorganic-slot (2020): <https://culanth.org/fieldsights/the-inorganic-slot>.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "2020 “Deep in the Earth a Shining Substance:” Sequestration and Display in Gold Mining and Central Banks.." Journal of Cultural Economy 2020. DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2020.1818603 (2020): 1-19.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Gold and Medellin - A Regional View." Social Urbanism: Reframing Spatial Design—Discourses from Latin America. Ed. Maria Bellalta. Applied Research and Design Publishing, an imprint of ORO Editions, 2020. 233-235.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Iterations.." Cultural Anthropology/Theorizing the Contemporary/Fieldsights. (2020): <https://culanth.org/fieldsights/iterations?token=kfKMYyNEuYJhxoaDjIfzgsKyajyt3QP6>.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Speculative Substance: “Physical Gold” in Finance.." Economy and Society 49. 1 (2020): 92-115.
Andrew Walsh, Annabel Vallard and Elizabeth Ferry. "Introduction: the Anthropology of Precious Minerals." The Anthropology of Precious Minerals. Ed. Ferry, Elizabeth Vallard, Annabel, Andrew Walsh. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019
Elizabeth Ferry, Annabel Vallard and Andrew Walsh, ed. The Anthropology of Precious Minerals. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.
Ferry, Elizabeth and Stephen Ferry. "Gold and Bateas: visuality, tactility, representation, politics." Latin American and Latinx Visual Cultural Studies 1. 4 (2019): 90-97.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Intellectuals and their Problems." Rev. of Intellectuals and (Counter-) Politics: Essays in Historical Realism, by Gavin Smith. Focaal Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology vol. 84 2019
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Making Preciousness: Distinction and Refraction. Introduction to Part II." The Anthropology of Precious Minerals. Ed. Elizabeth Ferry, Annabel Vallard and Andrew Walsh. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Royal Roads and Entangled Webs: Mining Metals and Making Value in El Cubo, Guanajuato." Journal of Anthropological Research 75. 1 (2019): 6-20.
Ferry, Elizabeth. Marmato, Colombia, August 2016. 2019. Third Wednesday Winter 2019 XII, 1: 77-78..
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Political Landscapes: Forests, Conservation, and Community in Mexico.." by Christopher Boyer. The Americas vol. 75 of 02 2018: 442-444.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "The Diary of Helena Morley." Public Books 02/01/2018.
Ferry, Elizabeth. Minerales, Coleccionismo y Valor a Través de la Frontera México-Estados Unidos. Trans. Lucia Cárdenas Aceves and Maria Carmona Alonso. Zamora, Mich/Mexico City: Colegio de Michoacán Press/Universidad Iberamericana, 2018.
Ferry, Elizabeth. Seven Huangshans. 2018. Anthropology and Humanism. Creative Nonfiction section. 43(2): 251-252..
Stephen Ferry and Elizabeth Ferry. "Mining and the Defense of Afro-Colombian Territory: The Community of Yolombó, Colombia." ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America.
Ferry, Elizabeth/Stephen Ferry. La Batea. Bogota/Brooklyn: Editorial Icono/Red Hook Editions, 2017.
Ferry, Elizabeth, Elia Mónica Morales Zárate and C.O.C. Gasca. "Ponciano Aguilar Frías: Science in the Provinces.." Mineralogical Record 47. 5 (2016): 573-580.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Claiming Futures." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22. s1 (2016): 181-188.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "Gold Prices as Material-Social Actors: the Case of the London Fix." The Extractive Industries and Society 3. 1 (2016): 82-85.
Ferry, Elizabeth. "On Not Being a Sign: Gold’s Semiotic Claims." Signs and Society 4. 1 (2016): 57-79.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Review." Rev. of Mining Capitalism: Corporations and their Critics., by Kirsch, Stuart. Journal of Anthropological Research vol. 71 of 3 2015: 152-153.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Mining, Group Actors and Collective Action in Guanajuato, Mexico.." Resources, Labour and Empire. Ed. David Leadbeater. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Press, 2014
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Invited Comment on "On Keeping and Selling: The Political Economy of Heritage Making in Contemporary Spain" (Jaume Franquesa)." Current Anthropology 54. 3 (2013): 363-365.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Revolutionary Parks: Conservation, Social Justice, and Mexico´s National Parks, 1910-1940.." by Emily Wakild. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 17(3): 522-524. vol. 17(3) 2013: 522-524.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "The Birth of the Mineral ‘Aguilarite’ and What Came Next: A Twice-Told Tale.." Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. 18. 3 (2013): 376-394.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. Minerals, Collecting, and Value across the U.S.-Mexican Border. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2013.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Canadian Mining and the Costs to Workers: Notes on the El Cubo/Local 142 Strike, 2010-2011." http://www.miningwatch.ca (2012)
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Economic Anthropology and its Audiences.." Anthropology of this Century http://aotcpress.com/ 5. (2012): <http://aotcpress.com/>.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "If the Miners had been Mexican:” The Chilean Mine Rescue as Mexican “Politics Machine”." Anthropology Today. (2011): vol. 27 (4) 15-18. Atelier Hermes Artist Book, Seoul, Korea. 2012 ed. 2012.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Andrés Manuel del Rio (1764-1849) The father of Mexican mineralogy." Mineralogical Record 42. 5 (2011): 487-492.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "El Patrimonio Minero." La construcción de la idea de nuestro patrimonio histórico y cultural. O de cómo hemos llegado a valorar y celebrar ciertas cosas nuestras.. Ed. Pablo Escalante Gonzalbo. Mexico City: UNAM, 2011
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Waste and Potency: Making Men with Minerals in Guanajuato and Tucson." Comparative Studies in Society and History 53. 4 (2011): 914-944.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "“If the Miners had been Mexican:” The Chilean Mine Rescue as Mexican “Politics Machine”." Anthropology Today 27. 4 (2011): 15-18.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. No Sólo Nuestro: Patrimonio, Valor y Colectivismo en Una Cooperativa Minera Guanajuatense. (translation of my book Not Ours Alone, Columbia 2005). Trans. Marcelo Damiani and Martín Árias. Mexico City/Zamora: Universidad Iberoamericana/Colegio de Michoacán., 2011.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Asuntos de Consumo: Sobre elLugar del Consumo en la Antropología de Minería.." Relaciones XXX. 1 (2010): 57-95.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Like Ziegfeld Girls Coming Down a Staircase: Exhibting Minerals at the Smithsonian." Journal of Material Culture 15. 1 (2010): 30-63.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "The World of Lucha Libre." Rev. of The World of Lucha Libre, by Heather Levi. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute vol. forthcomin
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma and Mandana Limbert, ed. Timely Assets: the Politics of Resources and their Temporalities. Santa Fe, NM: School of Advanced Research Press., 2008.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Moumental Ambivalence: The Politics of Heritage." Rev. of Monumental Ambivalence: The Politics of Heritage, by Lisa Breglia. American Ethnologist 2008
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "2006 Memory as Wealth, History as Commerce: Uses of Patrimony in a Central Mexican City.." Ethos: the Journal of Psychological Anthropology 34. 2 (2006): 297-324..
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Fields of Power, Forests of Discontent: Culture, Conservation and the State in Contemporary Mexico.." Rev. of Fields of Power, Forests of Discontent: Culture, Conservation and the State in Contemporary Mexico., by Nora Haenn. Journal of Anthropological Research. vol. 62 (3) 401-403.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Juan Soldado: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint." Rev. of Juan Soldado: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint, by Paul Vanderwood. Anthropological Quarterly vol. 79(3) 561-565.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Geologies of Power: Value Transformations and Mexican Mineral Specimens." American Ethnologist 32. 3 (2005).
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. Not Ours Alone: Patrimony, Value and Collectivity in Contemporary Mexico.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Negociando la Transición: Producción Flexible, Conciencia y Calidad en Guanajuato, Mexico, 1996-2001." Guanajuato: Aportaciones Recientes para su Estudio. Ed. Moctezuma, Patricia Uzeta, Jorge & Ruíz, Juan Carlos . San Luis Potosi: Colegio de San Luis and Centro D., 2004
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma Walsh, Casey Laveaga, Gabriela S. Sesia, Paola & Hill, Sarah. Social Relations of Mexican Commodities: Power, Production and Place. La Jolla: UCSD Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies., 2003.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Envisioning Power in Mexico: Legitimacy, Crisis and the Practice of Patrimony.." Journal of Historical Sociology 16. 1 (2003): 22-53.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Fetishism and Hauism in Central Mexico: Understanding Commodity Production in a Cooperative Setting." Research in Economic Anthropology 22. (2003): 261.
Ferry, Elizabeth Emma. "Inalienable Commodities: the Production and Circulation of Silver and Patrimony in a Mexican Mining Cooperative.." Cultural Anthropology 17. 3 (2002): 331-358.