Why Anthropology?
My interest in anthropology stems from the set of questions it asks about the human condition.
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.
Education and Areas of Interest
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, peasant production, and globalization. I am currently collaborating with Dr. Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld (University of North Carolina) on a fieldwork project in Ecuador titled "Culture, Commons, and Economic Growth," which compares family firms of indigenous and mestizo sweater-producers. This project has also led to oral history interviews with former workers in Atuntaqui, Ecuador at what may have been, in the 1930s, the largest textile factory in South America. Research for summer 2009 is titled "Rethinking Industrialization: Oral History of South America's Largest Textile Factory."
Courses
Please click on courses in blue for sample syllabi. These are for information only; contact me for current syllabi.
In my "Introduction to Anthropology" course I attempt to provide a four-fields grounding for majors as well as a concise overview for non-majors. The 200-level "Cultural Anthropology" is primarily intended for minors and majors, as it details the specific development of the culture concept. An introductory course for Latin America is "Peoples and Cultures of Latin America," which is also a good starting point for those interested in a Latin American and Caribbean Studies interdisciplinary minor. The 300-level "Environmental Anthropology" considers how a radical reconceptualization of ecology and environment challenges the philosophical underpinnings of anthropological thought. Stay tuned for a capstone course on "Contemporary Anthropological Theory" and perhaps a seminar on "Hunting."
Publications:
I am most fortunate to see a translation of my doctoral dissertation published in Spanish as Todo Moderno: Significados de la modernización en la Sierra colombiana (click here for a nearly full-text preview). I am a co-author for Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld's article "Economic Clusters or Cultural Commons? The Limits of Competition-Driven Development in the Ecuadorian Andes" (2009) which follows up on a co-authored research report, "Ecuadorian Apparel, Apparently Global" (2006). Two single-authored articles that emerged from my dissertation fieldwork are "Disappearing Act: Race and the Neo-Liberal State" (2005) and "Inverting Development Discourse in Colombia: Transforming Andean Hearths" (2002).
Contact Information:
Please e-mail me at antrosioj@hartwick.edu.
