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In class I encourage student participation, constructive debate, and original thinking. In anthropology we might ask what the historic circumstances are that shaped a particular cultural tradition. Looking beyond the basic necessities of sustaining life, how do people conceive of politics, gender, or the spirit world? What has language contributed to our species? The behavioral sciences, always bending to suit the circumstances of their time and place, can be very effective for trying to understand the business of being human.
I have a split professional life between teaching anthropology and film history. I see the two not as mutually exclusive, but as informing one another about culture, ideology, and aesthetics. There is, in short, the anthropology of film and filmed anthropology. I also travel internationally and read to stay engaged with the human family and to reduce my expectations of a monolithic view of the world. Those experiences become a key part of my classroom as they illuminate the diverse field of anthropology.
I love to teach. There is no greater reward than helping students realize their intellectual potential.
B.A., Theater Arts; University of California, Los Angeles
M.A., Anthropology; University of California, Davis
Sole author and anthologies
Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes (University Press of Mississippi, 2007)
The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television, contributor (Cleis Press, 2005)
Strategies in Teaching Anthropology, fourth edition contributor (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004)
Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy (University Press of Wisconsin, 2004)
Strategies in Teaching Anthropology, first edition contributor (Prentice-Hall, 2000)
Marie Dressler: A Biography (McFarland, 1999 / paperback edition 2006)
Articles
Bright Lights Film Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area Reporter, Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Caribbean Travel & Life.
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