Hartwick college

Why Anthropology?
My interest in anthropology stems from the questions it asks about the human condition: In what ways are people the same, in what ways different, and what is the basis for comparison?  Why is difference so often linked to inequality, and what might we do to address these inequalities? For my most recent efforts to understand these questions anthropologically, What is Anthropology? provides an introduction; Anthropology and Moral Optimism concentrates on anthropology's purpose.

These questions intensified over the course of my history major at Williams College, and especially during a study-abroad program in Ecuador, where I grew increasingly interested in anthropology as a way of understanding the world.

Projects

• I run two anthropology websites. I edit Anthropology Report which features recent updates from anthropology blogs, journals, and news from anthropologists. I author Living Anthropologically, a blog promoting anthropology's moral optimism to address contemporary issues in the public sphere.
• Memorias de la Industria: Historia oral de la "Fábrica Imbabura" collects oral history interviews of the rise and demise of an immense textile factory in Atuntaqui, Ecuador. See "From Workplace to Heritage" in the October 2011 issue of Anthropology News for more on this project.
• How the Otavalo Mountain Shirt Changed Capitalism is a co-authored book project with Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, bringing together fieldwork in Ecuador and Colombia. The manuscript examines what it means to be an artisan in a globalized world.

Education and Research
My graduate studies were at Johns Hopkins University, with Ph.D. fieldwork in Túquerres, Colombia. My research has been in the northern Andean highlands of South America, covering topics of consumption and development programs, artisan and peasant economies, and globalization. Since 2005, I have collaborated with Dr. Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld (UNC-Chapel Hill) on fieldwork in Ecuador titled "Culture, Commons, and Economic Growth." This fieldwork compares family firms of indigenous and mestizo sweater-producers in the neighboring towns of Otavalo and Atuntaqui.

• "From Workplace to Heritage: Renovating and Reinventing an Ecuadorian Textile Factory" with Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld (2011).
• Todo Moderno: Significados de la modernización en la Sierra colombiana (2008). Click here for a nearly full-text preview.
• Junior co-author with Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, "Economic Clusters or Cultural Commons? The Limits of Competition-Driven Development in the Ecuadorian Andes" (2009).
• "Ecuadorian Apparel, Apparently Global" with Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld (2006).
• "Disappearing Act: Race and the Neo-Liberal State" (2005)
• "Inverting Development Discourse in Colombia: Transforming Andean Hearths" (2002).

Courses

• Introduction to Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology
• Peoples and Cultures of Latin America
• Environmental Anthropology
• Contemporary Anthropological Theory

Contact Information:
Please e-mail me at antrosioj@hartwick.edu