CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT:
Professor Fred R. Myers

DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES:
Associate Professor Susan Carol Rogers

Anthropologists are concerned with every aspect of human life, past and present. This view makes anthropology a complex discipline, its theories and methods transcending the usual boundaries of natural science, social science, and the humanities.

Cultural anthropologists in the department share a belief that study and research must be firmly grounded in rigorous training in general social and cultural theory, both in contemporary writings and in the classics of anthropology and sociology. The faculty also believe that basic ethnography remains the cornerstone on which all cultural anthropology rests and are concerned with the representation of anthropological knowledge in writing and film. There is a commitment to an understanding of complex societies that is informed by a comparative perspective and knowledge of small-scale societies. Recent field research by faculty and students has been conducted in Africa, Australia, Oceania, East Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the United States. Faculty interests converge around gender relations; personhood; religion and belief systems; expressive culture and performance; the anthropology of history; colonialism; nationalism; the cultural context of social and political institutions in complex societies; transnational processes; science and health; and urban life. Much faculty research focuses on the mediation of identities through popular and public cultural forms—such as art, television, indigenous media, urban space, regional cultures, and ideologies of language use—in a variety of changing social contexts.

Linguistic anthropology focuses on how language is used to create and maintain the social relations and symbolic systems that constitute everyday life. Students are encouraged to carry out ethnographic studies of language use in communities and institutions both within and outside New York City.

Archaeologists in the department are committed to the belief that the material remains of ancient societies provide significant insights into the dynamics of sociocultural evolution. The department has developed an archaeology program that focuses on key transformations in cultural evolution; the origins of art and symbolism; archaeology and gender; the emergence of food production; class inequality and urbanism; and the development and collapse of chieftaincies and early states. A diversity of theoretical perspectives, including cultural ecology, political economy, and symbolic archaeology, are represented and encouraged. The geographic scope of faculty research includes the Near East, Egypt, South Asia, Europe, and North America.

The biological anthropologists in the department are involved in research on primate socioecology, comparative primate morphology, molecular primatology, paleoanthropology, primate paleontology, and skeletal morphology. In addition to these specialist areas, faculty research is unified by a conceptual and intellectual foundation in genetics, evolutionary theory, ecology, and behavior. These are core themes in a common enterprise that can be referred to as evolutionary primatology—the study of human beings and other primates within an evolutionary context. Faculty research is based on a solid foundation of traditional approaches and concepts in physical anthropology, an appreciation of the multidisciplinarity of the subdiscipline, and technical and theoretical proficiency in newly emerging specialty areas. The research and training program in our department is distinguished by its unique commitment to integrating laboratory-based and field-based research. We have state-of-the-art laboratories in population genetics and molecular systematics and in paleoanthropology, with superb facilities for both research and teaching in these areas. The faculty’s research takes them and their students to primatological and paleoanthropological field sites in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Bolivia, Greece, Gabon, Cameroon, Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China.

The department is committed to comparative research that seeks theories allowing for the enormous diversity in human life. The program offers a holistic approach to the study of humans and exposes students to the traditional subdisciplines while ensuring that they also receive intensive training in particular problems within one subfield. Students are encouraged to draw upon related fields of biological sciences, earth sciences, ancient and contemporary languages, film, history, and the humanities when these help refine their understanding of particular problems.

Faculty

Thomas A. Abercrombie, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1986 (sociocultural anthropology), Chicago; B.G.S. 1973 (philosophy and Asian art history), Michigan.
Cultural history/historical anthropology; colonized societies; postcolonial situations; ritual and cultural performance; gender and sexuality; the Andes and Spain.

Susan Antón, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1994, M.A. 1991, B.A. 1987, California (Berkeley).
Biological anthropology; human evolutionary morphology; skeletal and developmental anatomy; human paleontology; evolution and dispersal of genus Homo; Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

Shara Bailey, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 2002, M.A. 1995 (physical anthropology), Arizona State; B.A. 1992 (psychology/anthropology), Temple.
Paleoanthropology; dental morphology/morphometrics; Middle-Late Pleistocene and Plio-Pleistocene hominins; modern human origins.

Thomas O. Beidelman, Professor. M.A. 1963 (social anthropology), D.Phil. 1961, Oxford; M.A. 1956 (anthropology), B.A. 1953 (social psychology), Illinois.
Social anthropology; religion; colonial history; Africa and New York City.

Pamela J. Crabtree, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1982 (anthropology), M.A. 1975 (anthropology), Pennsylvania; B.A. 1972 (art history and economics), Barnard College.
Zooarchaeology; faunal analysis; Natufian subsistence and settlement; later prehistoric and medieval Europe; North America.

Arlene Dávila, Professor, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Analysis (American Studies). Ph.D. 1996 (cultural anthropology), CUNY; M.A. (sociocultural anthropology), New York; B.A. (anthropology and political science), Tufts.
Race and ethnicity; nationalism and cultural politics; consumption; urban studies; Latinos in the United States.

Anthony Di Fiore, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1997 (anthropology), California (Davis); B.S. 1990 (biology), Cornell.
Biological anthropology; primate behavior and ecology; population genetics; South America.

Todd R. Disotell, Professor. Ph.D. 1992 (anthropology), M.A. 1987 (anthropology), Harvard; B.A. 1985 (anthropology), Cornell.
Primate evolution; molecular evolution; analytical techniques of phylogenetic systematics; history of biological anthropology.

Tejaswini Ganti, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 2000, New York; M.A. 1994 (anthropology), Pennsylvania; B.A. 1991 (political science), Northwestern.
Bollywood film; South Asia; popular culture; postcolonial theory; visual culture/visual anthropology; nationalism; theories of globalization.

Haidy Geismar, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Program in Museum Studies. Ph.D. 2003, M.A. 1999, University College London; B.A. 1997, Cambridge.
Museum anthropology; cultural and intellectual property; the Pacific; value, money, and markets in cross-cultural perspective.

Michael Gilsenan, David B. Kriser Professor of the Humanities; Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Anthropology. D.Phil. 1967 (social anthropology), Dip.Anth. 1964, B.A. 1963 (Arabic), Oxford.
Anthropology and sociology of Islam; history and anthropology; narrative theory; anthropology of power and violence.

Faye Ginsburg, David B. Kriser Professor of Anthropology; Director, Program in Culture and Media; Director, Center for Media, Culture, and History; Codirector, Center for Religion and Media. Ph.D. 1986 (anthropology), CUNY; B.A. 1976 (archaeology and art history), Barnard College.
Culture and media; gender and reproduction; indigenous media; disability; cultural activism; United States.

Bruce Grant, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1993, M.A. 1989, Rice; B.A. 1985, McGill.
The former Soviet Union, Siberia, Caucasus; Azerbaijan; (post-)Soviet nationality policies; state culture; nationalism; religion; shamanism; Islam; historiography; hermeneutics; cinema; modernism; histories of anthropology.

Terry Harrison, Professor; Director, Center for the Study of Human Origins; Associate Chair, Department of Anthropology. Ph.D. 1982 (physical anthropology), B.Sc. 1978 (anthropology), University College London.
Biological anthropology; early hominids; hominoid evolution; fossil primates; East Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Jeff D. Himpele, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 1996 (anthropology), Princeton; B.A. 1989 (anthropology), Chicago.
Cultural anthropology; ethnographic film and anthropology of media; social movements and popular politics; indigenous cultures and capitalism; film in Latin America, Bolivia, and the Andes.

Clifford J. Jolly, Professor. Ph.D. 1965, (anthropology), London; B.A. 1961 (anthropology), University College London.
Biological anthropology; primatology; population biology; Africa.

Aisha Khan, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1995, CUNY; M.A. 1982, B.A. 1977, San Francisco State.
Race and ethnicity; social stratification; theory and method in diaspora studies; religion; the Caribbean and Latin America.

Don Kulick, Professor. Ph.D. 1990, Stockholm; B.A. 1983, Lund.
Linguistic anthropology; queer theory; language/gender/sexuality; language shift; language socialization; Brazil, Scandinavia, Papua New Guinea.

Emily Martin, Professor, Anthropology (Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge). Ph.D. 1971, Cornell; B.A. 1966 (anthropology), Michigan.
Anthropology of science and medicine; gender; money and other measures of value; ethnography of work; China and the United States.

Sally Engle Merry, Professor, Anthropology, Law and Society. Ph.D. 1978, Brandeis; M.A. 1967, Yale; B.A. 1966, Wellesley College.
Anthropology of law; human rights; transnationalism; gender and race; colonialism; the United States.

Fred R. Myers, Professor; Silver Professor; Chair, Department of Anthropology. Ph.D. 1976 (anthropology), M.A. 1972 (anthropology), Bryn Mawr College; B.A. 1970 (religion), Amherst College.
Hunters and gatherers; art and material culture; Fourth World peoples; Australia and Oceania.

Rayna Rapp, Professor. Ph.D. 1973 (anthropology), M.S. 1969 (anthropology), B.S. 1968 (anthropology), Michigan.
Gender; reproduction; health and culture; science and technology; United States and Europe.

Susan Carol Rogers, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1979 (anthropology), M.A. 1973 (anthropology), Northwestern; M.S. 1983 (agricultural economics), Illinois (Urbana-Champaign); B.A. 1972 (anthropology), Brown.
Sociocultural anthropology; French society and culture; rural development; tourism; Europeanist ethnography and history.

Bambi B. Schieffelin, Professor. Ph.D. 1979 (anthropology), M.A. 1977 (developmental psychology), B.S. 1967 (anthropology and comparative literature), Columbia.
Linguistic anthropology; language ideology; Papua New Guinea and the Caribbean.

Lok C. D. Siu, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Analysis (Asian/Pacific/American Studies). Ph.D. 2000 (anthropology), M.A. 1995 (anthropology), Stanford; B.A. 1992 (anthropology), California (Berkeley).
Transnationalism; nationalism; identity and community formation; Chinese diaspora; Latin America.

Randall K. White, Professor. Ph.D. 1980 (anthropology), Toronto; B.A. 1976, Alberta.
Paleolithic Europe; prehistoric art; archaeological approaches to reconstructing technologies of ancient hunter-gatherers.

Rita P. Wright, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1984 (anthropology and archaeology), M.A. 1978 (anthropology and archaeology), Harvard; B.A. 1975 (anthropology), Wellesley College.
Urbanism; state formation; gender issues; ceramic analysis; the ancient Near East and South Asia.

Angela R. Zito, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Program in Religious Studies; Director, Program in Religious Studies; Codirector, Center for Religion and Media. Ph.D. 1989 (Far Eastern languages and civilizations), Chicago; B.A. 1974 (East Asian studies and journalism), Pennsylvania State.
Cultural history/historical anthropology; critical theories of religion; gender and embodiment; performance and subjectivity; China.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Douglas V. Campana, Ph.D. 1980, M.A. 1973, B.A. 1972, Columbia.
Near Eastern prehistory; bone technology; faunal analysis; computer applications in archaeology.

Anne-Marie Cantwell, Ph.D. 1977, M.A. 1970, New York; B.A. 1965, Columbia.
Archaeology; Northeastern United States.

Geoff Emberling, Ph.D. 1995, M.A. 1991, Michigan (Ann Arbor); B.A. 1987, Harvard.
Archaeology; Mesopotamia; early states; ethnicity.

Anne Pike-Tay, Ph.D. 1989, M.A. 1984, New York; B.A. 1978, Mount Saint Vincent.
European paleolithic; zooarchaeology; hunter-gatherer ethnology; material culture.

Joseph Schuldenrein, Ph.D. 1983, M.A. 1976, Chicago; B.A. 1971, SUNY (Stony Brook).
Geoarchaeology; North America; South and Southwest Asia.

Elizabeth Weatherford, M.A. 1971, New School; B.A. 1966 (history), Duke.
History of Native American involvement in film, video, and audio production.

AFFILIATED FACULTY IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Timothy G. Bromage, College of Dentistry; Allen Feldman, Culture and Communication (Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development); Deborah Anne Kapchan, Performance Studies.

VISITING FACULTY

Renato Rosaldo, Visiting Professor. Ph.D. 1971, B.A. 1963, Harvard.
Social theory and ethnography; cultural citizenship; cultural studies; history; U.S. Latinos; Latin America; island Southeast Asia.

FACULTY EMERITUS

Owen M. Lynch.