ANTHROPOLOGY FACULTY
Union's anthropologists have conducted research and have first-hand knowledge of a range of societies and have been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller, Ford and Fulbright Foundations, and other foundations and agencies.
Karen Brison
(Department Chair), Professor (B.A., McGill and Ph.D., University of California, San Diego), specializes in
anthropology of childhood, religion and the study of language and culture. She lived and did research in Papua New Guinea for two years and published a book
on oratory and village politics. She started working in Fiji in 1997 and is currently studying
gender and cultural identity among Fijian kindergarten children and in a growing
Fijian Pentecostal community.
Email: brisonk@union.edu
Linda E. Cool,
Professor (B.A., Bryn Mawr and Ph.D. Duke), has conducted long-term research on
the island of Corsica and in Paris, France on the development of regional/ethnic
political movements, the changing roles of older people, and the relationship of
land tenure, inheritance, and family structure from the eighteenth century to
the present. In addition, she has focused on Portuguese immigration to
California, especially the integration of immigrants from the Azores into both
the Portuguese “colony” in California and the larger American society. Most
recently, she has turned her attention to research on changing attitudes toward
retirement among faculty members and is working on an applied anthropology
project to create a consortium of higher education institutions in order to meet
the health insurance needs of their retirees.
Email:
cooll@union.edu
George Gmelch,
(ON LEAVE 2008-2009) Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Anthropology (B.A., Stanford and Ph.D., University of
California at Santa Barbara), is a cultural anthropologist. He did his early
research in Ireland among a nomadic group known as Travellers. Since
then he has done research on return migration in Ireland, Newfoundland and Barbados,
studied the ecology of salmon fisherman in Alaska, government policy and Gypsies in England,
professional baseball players in the United States, and tourism in Barbados and
the Napa Valley. He is the author and editor of ten books dealing with these
subjects.
Email:
gmelchg@union.edu
Sharon Bohn Gmelch,
(ON LEAVE 2008-2009) Professor and Chair (B.A., Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara), is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in ethnic identity
and inter-group relations, ethnohistory and biography, visual anthropology, and tourism. She has conducted research with Irish Travellers,
Tlingit Indians in Alaska, Barbadian villagers,
and tourist guides in several countries. She is author or editor of six books
and co-producer of an ethnographic film on the Tlingit. She is
currently studying wine tourism in the Napa Valley and finishing her
cross-cultural research on tour guides.
Email: gmelchs@union.edu
Stephen Leavitt,
Associate Professor and Dean of Students (B.A., Swarthmore
and Ph.D., University of California, San Diego), is a psychological anthropologist who did his field research among the Bumbita Arapesh people of Papua New Guinea. He studied family relations and religious change and has written on Bumbita Arapesh sexuality, adolescence, and responses to bereavement. His most
recent research with Karen Brison has been in Fiji, where he is studying the personal dimensions of ethnic and national identity.
Email: leavitts@union.edu
Alicia Ory DeNicola, Visiting
Assistant Professor (under construction), (B.A., Lewis and Clark College and
Ph.D., Syracuse University) is an economic anthropologist who studies the impact
of globalization on small textile producers in north India. More recently, Prof.
DeNicola has studied logging and fishing communities in the Pacific Northwest of
the US. Prof. DeNicola works on globalization, NGOs, economic development,
and environmentalism.
Email: denicola@union.edu
Ari
Gandsman, Visiting Assistant
Professor (B.A., University of Michigan, M.A. and Ph.D., McGill University) is a
cultural anthropologist specializing in medical and political anthropology. His
interests include anthropological approaches to human rights, state violence,
memory, biomedical technologies, and post-conflict societies. His fieldwork was
conducted in Argentina, on human rights organizations. Email: gandsmaa@union.edu
Jeffrey Witsoe, Visiting
Assistant Professor (under construction), (B.A., University of California, Santa
Cruz and Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is a political anthropologist who
studies caste empowerment and national politics in Bihar Province, in southern
India. He has done research on the impact of globalization and state
policies on rural economic development and on caste and ethnic conflict created
by electoral politics in India.
Email: witsoej@union.edu
ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN OTHER
DEPARTMENTS AND PROGRAMS
Jennifer Milioto
Matsue, Assistant Professor, (B.A. Wellesley College and Ph.D. University of
Chicago), is an
ethnomusicologist specializing in modern Japanese music and culture. She has
conducted research on theTokyo Hardcore Rock Scene, Nagauta (a type of traditional
chamber music featuring the three-string lute, shamisen), Electronica and Trance
Raves, and most recently, the increasingly popular world of Wadaiko (Japanese
ensemble drumming). She is interested in how performers find meaning through
participating in such music worlds, with a particular interest in women’s roles
in music-making. She is currently working on a book on the Tokyo Hardcore Rock
Scene, as well as completing several articles on related topics.
Email: matsuej@union.edu
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Affiliated Research Professors
Charles Bishop (B.A., University of Toronto and M.A. Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo) is a cultural anthropologist and ethnohistorian who has done research on Ojibwa India ns and the evolution of early hominids. He has written a book on the Ojibwa Indians and is currently doing ethnohistorical research on the fur trade and Canadian Indians. Email:cbishop1@nycap.rr.com
James M. Schaefer (B.A., University of Montana, and Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo) is a cultural anthropologist with a background in cross-cultural and biomedical research techniques. His field studies include work with contemporary American ethnic groups on alcohol, drugs and gambling behavior. He heads his own consulting and research contracting firm and works with legal, corporate and governmental clients. As an adjunct professor of anthropology, he teaches courses on applied anthropology and Native Americans.
Email: skalkaho@aol.com
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