Anthropology FacultyUnion'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.
Email: brisonk@union.edu
Paul Christensen, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology (B.A. University of Washington and Ph.D. University of Hawai'i at Manoa) specializes in the anthropology of Japan. His research interests include the use of psychoactive substances, addiction recovery, masculinity, and food. He conducted fieldwork in Tokyo with two sobriety groups looking at how Japanese men renegotiate their sense of masculinity without alcohol. Paul is currently working on a book on alcoholism and recovery in Japan. Email: christep@union.edu
Linda E. Cool, Professor and Department Chair (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 
Elizabeth Garland, Assistant Professor of Anthropology (B.A., Amherst College and Ph. D., University of Chicago) specializes in the anthropology of East and Southern Africa. Her research interests include colonialism and postcoloniality, globalization, environmentalism, and tourism. In a recent project on national parks and conservation workers in Tanzania, she examined the ways that Euro-American images of Africa as wild and natural constrain and shape the lives of contemporary African people. Professor Garland is currently working on a new project on US-Rwandan relations in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Email: garlande@union.edu 
George Gmelch, Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Anthropology (B.A., Stanford and Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara) (on leave fall 2011 & spring 2012), 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, Professor (B.A., Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara) (on leave fall 2011 & spring 2012), 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 Alvaro Jarrin, Visiting Assistant Professor (B.A. Williams College, Ph.D. Duke University), specializes in the development of new biotechnologies and their relationship to the anthropological study of medicine, the body and inequality in Latin America. He has carried out research in Brazil on the expansion of plastic surgery amongst low-income patients, focusing on how the national investment in beauty establishes personal appearance as a precondition for citizenship and inclusion in the nation. Professor Jarrin is currently working on a project on the growing political role of Brazilian genomics, particularly its reaffirmation of a nationalist narrative that celebrates the hybridity of Brazilians' racial heritage, which has been used to oppose race-based policies such as affirmative action in universities. email: jarrina@union.edu
Jeffrey Witsoe, Assistant Professor (B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz, and Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is a political anthropologist who studies caste empowerment and democratic politics in Bihar, a populous state in north 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 Affiliated Research ProfessorsCharles 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 |
