Washington Univ. Dept of Anthropology

Student and Faculty Research in Sociocultural Anthropology


Graduate Student Research

Faculty Research Foci

States, Societies and Beliefs Current Work:
Most of us in the department emphasize the global and local political dimensions of our research topics. In some cases we focus on the ways in which states seek to define and control social life, through ideologies of citizenship, development programs, or legal institutions. In other cases we emphasize the ways in which social movements, indigenous social institutions, or religious ideas can create counter-programs and ideologies. In all cases we are interested in the way belief systems-religions, nationalisms, racial ideologies-are implicated in state-society relations. Among our current research interests are transnational religious movements, the politics of new technology, state policies toward development, education, and family, and language ideologies. We often work with colleagues in political science, philosophy, law, history, and area studies programs, and with the multidisciplinary program social thought & analysis John Bowen is studying the creation of Islamic knowledge in France, and the development of French state policies toward Muslims. Read about it in the March, 2004 issue of the American Anthropologist (pdf).  Robert Canfield has recently published "Symbol and Sentiment in Motivated Action" and "Karzai, Hamid" . For references to these and other recent publications click here. Bret Gustafson has recently published "The Paradoxes of Liberal Indigenism: Indigenous Movements, State Processes, and Intercultural Reform in Bolivia" in The Politics of Ethnicity: Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States. Shanti Parikh organized a panel ("Imagining the Nation: Youthful and Gendered Expressions of Citizenship") for the African Studies Assn, on how youths circumscribe and negotiate their nation-state's criterion of citizenship and national identity.
 
Bodies, Gender, and Sexuality Current Work:
The cultural construction of gender, sexuality, and the body is a key cluster of our research interests. Gender and sexuality provide insights into the intersection of power and difference in contemporary societies, and in particular regarding national and ethnic identity, subjectivity, kinship and marriage, demographic changes, HIV/AIDS, race, citizenship, and gay, lesbian, and queer identities. We are particularly concerned with how gendered individuals attempt to construct themselves through, and are constructed by, the institutions, social relations, and forms of power and inequality that shape their societies and daily interactions. We have close ties to related programs in medical anthropology, women and gender studies, social thought & analysis, political science, and area studies programs. Shanti Parikh's article, "Sugar Daddies and Sexual Citizenship," appeared in a volume on 3rd Wave Feminism in Black Renaissance.  Her "From Auntie to Disco: The Bifurcation of Risk and Pleasure in Sources of Sexuality Education in Uganda" will appear in 2004. Rebecca Lester's forthcoming book is Jesus in Our Wombs: Embodying Modernity in a Mexican Convent. Margaret Brown co-organized the 2002 AAA panel “Gendered ideals, negotiated realities: mothers, daughters, and wives pushing the boundaries,” and presented her paper on marital disruption and children’s rights. 
   
Family, Kinship, and Social Change Current Work:
Many of us study family and kinship relations as sites of social change and conflict. We explore internal dynamics and historical changes in family systems, as well as ways in which differences in age, gender, and social rank shape power. We also examine ways in which religion, ethnicity, nationality, and locality are implicated both in the creation and maintenance of family forms, and in the shaping of demographic processes such as migration and birth rates. These questions draw us into contemporary anthropological discussions concerning the relationship between state law and the family, and the impacts of tourism, economic development, education programs, and colonial regimes on family forms and processes. Many of us work closely with colleagues in other disciplines, including social work, women and gender studies, economics, political science, history and area studies. Geoff Childs has published recent articles on "Polyandry and Population Growth in a Historical Tibetan Society" (pdf) and "Old Age Security, Religious Celibacy, and Aggregate Fertility in a Tibetan Population" (pdf).  Glenn Stone has recently published on the politics of households in contemporary Nigeria (pdf). Margaret Brown's article on distrust among kin is forthcoming in the book Distrust. Her recent article on the social significance of slave ancestry, is forthcoming in Comparative Studies in Society and History. She has also completed a book on negotiations over rights and responsibilities among kin, and determinants of women's bargaining power.  Shanti Parikh's article "'Don't tell your sister or anyone that you love me" considers the effects of adult regulation on adolescent sexual subjectivities in Uganda.
   
Political Ecology and Demography Current Work:
Demography (including biological, cultural, and legal components), politics (at levels ranging from the local to the global), and use of the environment have vital linkages that anthropology is singularly well-suited to study, and these linkages are a focus of research in this department. Falling under the general rubrics of political ecology and political demography, our research combines current theory with empirically-oriented fieldwork in developing countries. Rresearch focuses on ecological and political aspects of biotechnology in developing countries; relationships among population, conflict, and agricultural intensification; the interplay between household economics, political structures, and individual agency in shaping demographic outcomes; and the use of population data by states and other organizations to justify demographic engineering. We work with colleagues in environmental studies, biology, and social work. Glenn Stone is directing a multi-year study of the politics and ecology of genetically modified crops in India.  His recent writing concerns biotechnology and deskilling (pdf),  the political ecology of information, farmer suicides (link), and global GMO debates (pdf).  He organized the 2003 AAA symposium, "Genetically Modified Crops: Cultural and Institutional Contexts."  Geoff Childs' recent articles include "Ethnic Representations and Demographic Engineering in China" (pdf) and "Demographic Dimensions of an Intervillage Land Dispute in Nubri, Nepal" (pdf).  Margaret Brown is studying the social dynamics of vanilla production and trade in Madagascar. Her 2002 Soc. Economic Anthro. poster was "Black Gold: The meanings of vanilla in Madagascar."
 
Communication, Media, and Cognition Current Work:
Many of us share a research focus on the roles played by language in mediating socio-cultural and cognitive processes. Language plays a crucial role in constituting political authority, making ethnic boundaries, generating and regulating performance and representation, and shaping notions of the self across cultural contexts. New communication media further shape ideas and subjectivities. We are engaged in studying such broad topics as the connections between language, subjectivity and memory, the role of old and new media in processes of self- and group identification, and the role of education in mediating state power and ethnic and religious identifications. We work with colleagues in the memory studies program, media studies, linguistics, and psychology. Pascal Boyer is doing evolutionary and experimental research on children's and adults' cognitive systems, in particular on [a] intuitions about number and foraging, [b] representation of potential dangers such as contagion, predation, assault and outgroup members. Link to P Boyer's lab here and to recent articles here. Patrick Eisenlohr has recently published an article about the relationship between linguistic purism, register differentiation, and ethnic identity in Mauritius. He is currently writing on the interplay between electronic mass mediation and minority language use. Shanti Parikh recently delivered a paper in Johannesburg on how youth combine diverse messages in the media and HIV campaigns to forge evolving meanings of love, gender, and power in an age of global flows of sexual images and electronic technology.   Glenn Stone and graduate student Gareth Barkin have collaborated on two recent articles on new uses of hypertext and the internet in anthropological research.

   
Culture and Health Current Work:
Cross-cultural studies of health and illness link the research activities of a number of faculty members in the department. We consider medical anthropology in the broad sense of investigating the human response to disease, illness and sickness over time and space, and across lines of power and authority. In this regard, health and its perturbations are examined at multiple levels: the embodied selves that experience illness within immediate local contexts; the social networks and cultural frameworks that shape the formation of sickness episodes; the institutional and societal factors affecting the help-seeking health-restoration processes; and the larger global political-economic context in which the distribution of health is a function of resource allocation and the exercise of power. Topical areas of concern include sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and mental health in cross-cultural perspective. Bradley Stoner is researching the anthropology of sexually transmitted infections.  He is engaged in a 3-year project on "The Ethnography of Syphilis Elimination" with the St. Louis Dept. of Health. Rebecca Lester is engaged in a multi-year study of suicide attempts among Latina girls. She is also conducting research on eating disorders in a clinic in Mexico City.  Shanti Parikh has received a 3-year NIH grant to study married women's risk for HIV, infidelity, and the emergence of companionate in marriage in Uganda; her collaborators are working in 4 other countries.  She delivered a keynote address, "Females and HIV Risk in Africa: Reasons and Hope," at University of Virginia's multidisciplinary program on Women in Global Health.