STEPHANIE RUPP
Department of Anthropology
421 Davis Hall
Lehman College, City University of New York
250 Bedford Park Blvd. West
Bronx, NY 10468
stephanie.rupp@lehman.cuny.edu
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ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Current
2015-present Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology. Lehman College, City University of New York
2013-present Research Associate, Department of Anthropology. American Museum of Natural History
Previous
2008-2015 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology. Lehman College, City University of New York
2006-09 Faculty Fellow, Intrastate Conflict Program. Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
2006-09 Research Fellow, International Security Program. Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
2003-04 Assistant Dean, University Scholars Programm. National University of Singapore
2000-08 Assistant Professor, University Scholars Programme and Department of Sociology. National University of Singapore
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EDUCATION
2001 Ph.D. (with distinction), Anthropology. Yale University. New Haven, CT
1998 M.Phil., Anthropology. Yale University. New Haven, CT
1995 M.Ed., Social Studies Education. Harvard University. Cambridge, MA
1993 A.B., (high honors), Anthropology and Environmental Studies. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
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AWARDS and HONORS
2016 Lehman College Hero Award
2015 Feliks Gross Award, City University of New York Academy
2013 Scholar Incentive Award, Lehman College, City University of New York (declined)
2012 Excellence in Teaching Award, School of Natural and Social Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York
2010-11 Faculty Fellowship Publishing Program, City University of New York
2009-10 Shuster Fellowship, Lehman College, City University of New York
2005-06 Incentive Award for Teaching Excellence, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2004-05 Excellence in Teaching Award, National University of Singapore
2004-05 Incentive Award for Teaching Excellence, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2004-05 Outstanding Educator Award nomination, National University of Singapore
2002-03 Incentive Award for Teaching Excellence, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2001-02 Excellence in Teaching Award, National University of Singapore
1993 Phoenix Honors Society, Dartmouth College
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GRANTS and SPONSORED RESEARCH
2015-16 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Historical Contexts of the Emergence of Pandemic HIV/AIDS in the
Congo River Basin.” PSC-CUNY(46). $4770.00
2015-18 Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Collaborative Research Grant. Rupp, S. (Co-Principal), Giles-Vernick, T. (Principal), Gasquet, C. (Co-Principal), LeGoff,
J. (Co-Principal). “A Multi-disciplinary Study of Human Beings, Great Apes, and Disease Emergence in Equatorial Africa: Social Science Perspectives on
Cross-Species Contacts.” $629,156.00 (2014 - Present)
2014-16 National Endowment for the Humanities, Collaborative Research Grant. Rupp, S. (Co-Principal), Schneider, W. (Principal), Gondola, C. D. (Co-Principal),
Giles-Vernick, T. (Co-Principal), Lauro, A. (Co-Principal); Jorge Varanda (Co-Principal). “An International Collaboration on the Political, Social, and
Cultural History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS.” $290,000.00
2014-15 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Underlying Power: Energy Infrastructure and Inequality in New York
City.” PSC-CUNY(45). $3,990.00
2014 “Historical and Cultural Contexts of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in Southeastern Cameroon.” Shuster Award. $4,340.00 (not funded).
2013-14 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Power: Energy and Nature, Agency and Politics in New York City.” PSC
CUNY(44). $3,990.00
2012-13 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress “Exploring Children’s Conceptions of Energy: Energy as Culture and
Science.” PSC-CUNY(43). $3,990.00
2012 “Powerlines: Energy and Power; Nature and Society.” Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. $65,000.00 (not funded).
2011-12 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Pygmy: Conceptual History, Contemporary Politics of an Idea.” PSC
CUNY(42). $3,990.00
2010-11 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Blackout! Understanding Energy through Its Absence.” PSC-CUNY(41).
$3,990.00
2010 “Ethnographies of Energy, Information, and Power in Times Square,” Faculty Development Grant, Lehman College (not funded).
2009-10 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Africa and China: Ethnographies of Engagement.” PSC-CUNY(40).
$3,990.00
2009-10 “I, You, We, They: Forests of Identity in Southeastern Cameroon.” Shuster Fellowship, Lehman College. $4,000.00
2009 “Conceptions of Energy in New York City.” U.S. Department of Energy. $800,435.13 (not funded).
2009 “What Powers Your World? Cultural Conceptions of Energy in Contemporary New York City.” National Science Foundation. $473,647.31 (not funded).
2000-01 Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University. $12,000
1999-2000 Philanthropic Educational Organization, Doctoral Research Scholarship. $15,000
1997-2001 Samuel K. Bushnell Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University. $60,000
1998-99 International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council. $8,000
1998-99 Harold K. Hochschild Fellowship, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University. $5,000
1997 Pre-dissertation Research Fellowship, Agrarian Studies Program, Yale University. $5,000
1997 Pre-dissertation Research Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. $5,000
1996 Graduate Student Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University. $15,000
1995-96 Fulbright Scholarship. $22,000
1995-96 Reynolds Scholarship, Dartmouth College (declined)
1992 Claire Garber Goodman Fund Research Scholarship, Dartmouth College. $5,000
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PUBLICATIONS
Book
2011 Forests of Belonging: Identities, Ethnicities, and Stereotypes in the Congo River Basin. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Edited Volumes
2013 Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies. S. Strauss, S. Rupp and T. Love, eds. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
2013 Africa-China: New Engagements, New Research. J. Monson and S. Rupp, eds. Special issue of African Studies Review. 56(1), April 2013.
1998 Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions. H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New
Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Bulletin Series, No. 102 (two volumes, in French and English).
Peer Reviewed Articles and Chapters
2016 “Circuits and Currents: Dynamics of Disruption in New York City Blackouts” in Economic Anthropology 2016, 3: 106-118.
2014 Invited comment on “Petrobarter: Oil, Inequality, and the Political Imagination in and after the Cold War” by Douglas Rogers. Current Anthropology 55(2): 146-47.
2014 “Multiangular Identities among Congo River Basin Forest Peoples” in B. Hewlett, ed. Hunter-Gatherers of the Congo Basin Hunter-Gatherers: Culture, History, and
Biology of African Pygmies. New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction Publishers, pp. 277-98.
2013 “People, Great Apes, Disease, and Global Health in Northern Forests of Equatorial Africa” with Tamara Giles-Vernick in Global Health in Africa: Historical
Perspectives on Culture, Epidemiology, and Control. T. Giles-Vernick and J. Webb, eds. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, pp. 117-37.
2013 “Africa and China: New Engagements, New Research.” J. Monson and S. Rupp, eds. African Studies Review 56(1): 21-44, April 2013.
2013 “Ghana, China, and the Politics of Energy.” African Studies Review 56(1): 103-30, April 2013.
2013 “Considering Energy: E = mc2 = (magic · culture)2” in Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies. S. Strauss, S. Rupp, and T. Love, eds. Walnut Creek, CA:
Left Coast Press, pp. 79-95.
2013 “Powerlines: Cultures of Energy in the Twenty-First Century,” introduction to Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies. S. Strauss, S. Rupp, and T. Love,
eds. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, pp. 10-38.
2012 “Death Does Not Come from the Forest, but from the Village’: People, Great Apes, and Disease in the Equatorial African Rain Forest” with Tamara Giles-Vernick in
Frédéric Keck and Noellie Vialles, eds. Des Hommes Malades des Animaux. Special Issue of Cahiers d’Anthropologie Sociale, 8: 119-136.
2008 “Africa and China: Engaging Postcolonial Interdependencies” in China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence. Robert Rotberg, ed. Washington, D.C.: Brookings
Institution Press, pp. 65-86.
2006 “Visions of Apes, Reflections on Change: Telling Tales of Great Apes in Equatorial Africa” with Tamara Giles-Vernick in African Studies Review 49(1): 51-73.
2003 “Interethnic Relations in Southeastern Cameroon: Challenging the ‘Hunter-Gatherer—Farmer Dichotomy” in African Studies Monographs, Supplementary Issue
No. 28, pp. 37-56.
1998 “Introduction” with R. Hardin and H. Eves in Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions.
H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Bulletin Series 102: 8-28.
1998 “Interactions of Knowledge Forms in Conservation: Natural Science, Social Science, and Indigenous Knowledge” in Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River
Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions. H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, Bulletin Series 102: 91-94.
1998 “National Perspectives and Prospects for Trinational Management” in Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories,
Knowledge Forms, and Institutions. H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Bulletin Series
102: 235-38.
Book Reviews
2013 “China and the European Union in Africa: Partners or Competitors?” in African Studies Review 56(1): 190-92, April 2013.
2003 “In the Time of Trees and Sorrows: Nature, Power, and Memory in Rajasthan” in American Ethnologist 30(2): 315-16.
2001 “Myth and Reality in the Rain Forest: How Conservation Strategies Are Failing in West Africa” in the Journal of Tropical Geography 22(3): 313-15.
2000 “Hunter-Gatherers of the Modern World” in International Journal of African Historical Studies 33(2): 504-06.
2000 “Challenging Elusiveness: Central African Hunter-Gatherers in a Multidisciplinary Perspective” in International Journal of African Historical Studies 33(2): 450-51.
Reports
2003 The Octopus Experience: A Student Handbook. Singapore: University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore.
2001 Islam and the West, Conflict and Dialogue: September 11th and Beyond. Singapore: University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore. November
2001.
1998 “Natural Resource Management of the Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon” in TRI News: Journal of the Tropical Resources Institute 16: 32. New Haven: Yale
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
1996 “Study of Agricultural Practices and Forest Resource Utilization by Bangando Women” in The Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon: Summary of Activities,
1988-1995, pp. 166-176. Bronx, NY: The Wildlife Conservation Society.
1995 “Study of Agricultural Practices and Forest Resource Utilization by Bangando Women” in The Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon: Annual Report of Activities,
January-December 1995, pp. 30-37. Bronx, NY: The Wildlife Conservation Society.
1995 “Needs and Priorities of BaBila women, Ituri Forest, Zaire.” Report presented to the Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY.
Dissertation
2001 “I, You, We, They: Forests of Identity in Southeastern Cameroon.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University. Awarded mark of “Distinction,”
recognition extended to fewer than 10% of Yale dissertations.
Work in Progress
------ "Beyond the Cut Hunter: An Historical Epidemiology of HIV Origins in Central Africa." Article in preparation with Philippe Ambata and Tamara Giles-Vernick.
------ "Social and Viral Circulations: People, Non-human Primates, and the Emergence of HIV1-M." Article in preparation with Tamara Giles-Vernick.
------ "The Role of Value Systems on Ivory Trade in Demand and Supply Countries." Occasional paper in preparation for the South African Institute of International
Affairs. To be submitted 30 June 2016.
------ “Elephants and Ivory: Traditions, Transformations, and Trade in the Congo River Basin and Southeast Asia.” Book chapter submitted to an edited volume entitled
New Directions in Africa-China Studies, edited by Chris Alden and Dan Large. Submitted 15 May 2016.
------ “Mercurial Technologies: Red Mercury, Power, and Marginalization.” Article in preparation to submit to American Ethnologist.
------ Pygmy: Conceptual History and Cultural Politics. Book manuscript in preparation.
------ “Historical, Social, and Political Contexts of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Congo River basin, 1908-1957.” Ethnographic research in the Congo River basin,
complemented with archival research, ongoing.
------ “Elephants and Ivory: Ecological Crisis, Cultural Change.” Ethnographic research in the Congo River basin and Southeast Asia, ongoing.
------ “Children’s Conceptions of Energy.” Ethnographic research in New York City, ongoing.
------ “Power of Power: Energy, Agency, and Politics.” Ethnographic research in New York City, ongoing.
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PRESENTATIONS
Invited Presentations
2016 "Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Societies, Sustainable Selves." Paper prepared for the Earth Day conference “Explaining the Anthropocene (to Each Other):
Conversations Across the Disciplines." Monmouth University. Monmouth, New Jersey. 22 April 2016.
2016 "Entanglements: Elephants and Ivory; People and Politics; Poverty and Affluence; Cameroon and Thailand." Poster prepared for the conference “People, Parks,
and Forests: Conflicts over Protected Areas for Nature/Wildlife Conservation.” Nwoya District, Uganda, 6-9 April 2016.
2016 “Social and Viral Circulations: People, Non-Human Primates, and the Emergence of HIV-1M.” Invited paper presented to the Columbia University Seminar on
Ecology and Culture. 16 February 2016.
2016 “Subjugation: People, Simians, and Viruses in the Historical Emergence of HIV/AIDS.” Paper prepared for the panel: “Viral Subjectivity: Zoonosis, Posthumanism,
and the Febrile Imagination” at the annual conference of the American Ethnological Society. Washington, D.C., 31 March - 2 April, 2016.
2016 Entanglements: Elephants and Ivory: People and Politics; Poverty and Affluence; Cameroon and Thailand. Poster prepared for the conference “People, Parks,
and Forests: Conflicts over Protected Areas for Nature/Wildlife Conservation.” Nwoya District, Uganda, 6-9 April 2016.
2016 “Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Societies, Sustainable Selves.” Paper prepared for the conference ““Explaining the Anthropocene (to Each Other): Conversations
Across the Disciplines.” 22 April 2016, Monmouth University, Monmouth, New Jersey.
2015 “Fluid Interactions: People, Non-human Primates, and the Emergence of HIV-1M.” Invited paper prepared for the panel “The Zoonotic Condition: Disease Spillover
and Species Being in the Anthropocene” at the 114th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Denver, CO. 20 November 2015.
2015 Discussant, “Refugees at Risk.” Conference at Lehman College, City University of New York; Program on Human Rights. Bronx, NY. 4 November 2015.
2015 “Energy and Sociality.” Invited paper presented at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute for Sustainability at Arizona State University. Tempe, Arizona. 30 October
2015.
2015 “Historical and Social Contexts of HIV-1M Emergence: Evidence from Southeastern Cameroon.” Invited paper prepared for the panel “The Political, Social, and
Cultural History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in Africa” at the 64th annual meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.” Philadelphia,
PA. 27 October 2015.
2015 “Against the ‘Cut Hunter’: An Historical Evaluation of HIV Beginnings in Equatorial Africa,” with Tamara Giles-Vernick. Invited paper presented at the conference
“Understanding Human-Animal Disease: Emergence, Ecologies, Ethnography,” sponsored by Durham University. Durham, U.K., 20-22 September 2016.
2015 “Places, people, and tools: designations of legal and illegal in southeastern Cameroon.” Invited paper presented at the Eleventh International Conference on
Hunting and Gathering Societies. Vienna, Austria. 7-11 September 2015.
2015 “Teaching the Next Generation Cross-Regionally: Challenges and Capacity Gaps.” Invited comments for the Working Group Meeting of the China-Africa
Knowledge Project, Social Science Research Council. New York City, 4-5 June 2015.
2015 “Historical and Social Contexts of HIV Emergence.” Invited presentation for research group meeting. Coimbra University, Department of Life Sciences. Coimbra,
Portugal. 15-17 April 2015.
2015 “Blackouts: Illuminating Structures of Power in New York City.” Invited presentation for the New York Academy of Sciences. 23 February 2015.
2014 “People and Primates: Investigating Interspecies Intimacies in the History of HIV/AIDS Emergence.” Invited paper for the panel “Political, Social, and Cultural
History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS” at the 57th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Indianapolis, IN. 20-23 November 2014.
2014 “Luxury vs. Extinction: Ivory, Elephants, and the Global Circulation of Value.” Invited lecture for the History Society, City College of New York, City University of
New York. 1 May 2014.
2014 “Consuming to Extinction: The Africa-Asia Ivory Trade.” Invited lecture for African Studies, Asian Studies, Anthropology, and Environmental Studies Departments
at Smith College. 10 April 2014.
2014 “People and Great Apes: Relationships in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Research Plans.” Presentation at the workshop “The Political, Social, an
Cultural History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in Africa.” Indianapolis, IN: University of Indiana. 20-21 March 2014.
2013 “Ivory Intricacies: Pluralism and Diversity in African-Asian Ivory Networks.” Invited paper prepared for the conference, “Making Sense of the China-Africa
Relationship: Theoretical Approaches and the Politics of Knowledge.” New Haven, CT: Yale University and Social Science Research Council. 18-19 November
2013.
2013 “Currents and Circuits: Dynamics of Power in New York City Blackouts.” Invited paper prepared for the Colloquium Series, Department of Anthropology, Graduate
Center, City University of New York. 11 October 2013.
2012 “Sublime Identities: Pygmies, Hunter-gatherers, and Indigenous People.” Invited paper prepared for the panel “Remediating Cartographies of Erasure:
Anthropology, Indigenous Epistemologies, and the Global Imaginary.” Presidential Session at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. San Francisco, CA: 14-18 November 2012.
2012 “People and Primates: Hunting and Interspecies Intimacies in the Congo River Basin.” Invited paper prepared for the conference “History of HIV Emergence in
Africa: Unanswered Questions” at the Institut d’Etudes Avancées de Nantes. Nantes, France. 3-4 May 2012.
2011 “Africa, China, Energy: Trading Powers.” Invited paper presented at the Yale China-Africa Diaspora Workshop. Yale University, New Haven, CT. 21-22 October
2011.
2010 “Powerplay: Ghana, China, and the Politics of Energy.” Invited paper presentation at the conference “China and Africa: A New Scramble?” Council on Asian
Studies and Council on African Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT. 23-24 April 2010.
2009 “China, Africa, and Human Rights.” Invited paper presentation and moderation of roundtable discussion at the “Youth Forum on China-Africa.” Yale University,
New Haven, CT. 25-26 April 2009.
2008 “Cosmopolitan Images, Local Realities.” Invited paper presented at the conference “Comparative Ecological Nationalisms.” Department of Anthropology, Yale
University, New Haven, CT. 25-26 April 2008.
2008 “Africa and China: Politics of (Everyday) Engagement.” Invited lecture presented at the Council on African Studies, Yale University. New Haven, CT. 24 April
2008.
2008 “Africa-China: (Neo)colonialism or Mutual Benefit?" Invited lecture presented at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. 10 April 2008.
2008 “China’s Investment: Discouraging or Encouraging Development in Africa.” Introduction and moderation of panel at the 14th Annual International Development
Conference, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 5 April 2008.
2008 “Chinese Dumplings and African Puff-puffs: Social interactions among Chinese and Africans.” Invited seminar and roundtable discussion, African Studies
Association, Wellesley College. 10 March 2008.
2008 “Chinese Influence in Africa.” Invited seminar and roundtable discussion at the Department of Political Science, Northeastern University. 3 April 2008.
2007 “Africa-China: The Politics of Everyday Engagement.” Invited seminar presented at the International Security Program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University. Cambridge, MA. 15 November 2007.
2007 “Africa and China: Images, Perceptions, and Stereotypes.” Invited seminar presented at the Program on Intrastate Conflict, Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University. Cambridge, MA. 9 November 2007.
2007 “Cosmopolitan Conservation, Indigenous Indignation.” Invited paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Ethnological Society and the Canadian
Anthropology Society. Toronto, Canada. 10 May 2007.
2007 “Africa-China: ‘Pragmatic Cooperation for Mutual Benefit’ or Neocolonialism, Dependency, and Insecurity?” Invited seminar presented at the International
Security Program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA. 26 April 2007.
2006 “Fault Lines: The Politics of Categorization.” Invited seminar presented at the Program on Intrastate Conflict, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University. Cambridge, MA. 17 November 2006.
2005 “Indigeneity: Global Images, Local Dilemmas.” Invited paper prepared for the international symposium Cultural Diversities and Nation-states in a Globalizing Age,
National University of Singapore. 1-5 September 2005.
2005 “The Ethnographic Onion.” Workshop designed and presented at the request of the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. Singapore.
June 2005.
2003 “Anthropology in Action: Fostering Social Inquiry and Intercultural Understanding in International Service Learning.” Paper prepared for the Conference on
International Service Learning, Singapore International Foundation. Singapore, 31 July-2 August 2003.
2003 “International Service Learning: Applying Anthropology.” Workshop designed and presented at the request of the Youth Expedition Programme, Singapore
International Foundation. Session addressed the application of anthropological field methods to international service learning projects throughout Southeast
Asia. Singapore. July 2003.
Conference Presentations
2014 “Elephants : Existence : : Ivory : Extinction: Animals, Objects, and Conflicting Regimes of Value.” Paper prepared for the panel “Animals: Existences and
Extinctions” at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 3-7 December 2014.
2014 “Pathogenic Exchanges, People and Great Apes in the Northern Equatorial Forest, Congo River Basin.” Paper co-authored with Tamara Giles-Vernick for the
panel “Animals: Existences and Extinctions” at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 3-7 December 2014.
2014 “Underlying Power: Energy Infrastructure and Inequality in New York City.” Plenary paper prepared for the annual meeting of the Society of Economic
Anthropology. Austin, TX. 21-24 April 2014.
2013 “In the Wake of the Storm: Energy, Power, Agency, and Hurricane Sandy.” Paper prepared for the panel “Power of Power: Energy, Agency and Politics” at the 112th
Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Chicago, IL. 19-24 November 2013.
2013 “Ivory Ironies: Flows of Ivory from Africa to Asia.” Paper prepared for the panel “(Re)Negotiating Values: The Circulation of Objects between Africa and Asia” at
the 56th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Baltimore, MD 21-24 November 2013.
2013 “Elephants and Ivory: Traditions, Transformations, and Trade in the Western Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the conference Central African Forests and
Institutions. Paris, France. 20-21 September 2013.
2013 “Histories of Hunting: Technological Strategies of Non-‘Hunter-Gatherers’ in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the Tenth International Conference on
Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS), 25-28 June 2013. Liverpool, U.K.
2011 “From the Energizer Bunny to Pokémon: Children’s Conceptions of Energy.” Paper presented on the panel “Come Hell or High Water: Landmarks and Legacies in
the Cultures of Energy” at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Montreal, Canada. 16-20 November 2011.
2010 “Considering Energy.” Paper presented on the panel “Circuits, Currents, and Cascades: Energy in Transit/ion around the Globe“ at the 109th Annual Meeting of
the American Anthropological Association. New Orleans, LA. 17-21 November 2010.
2010 “Forests of Belonging: Identities, Ethnicities, and Stereotypes in the Congo River Basin.” Paper presented at the International Conference on Congo Basin Hunter
Gatherers. Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Montpellier, France. 22-24 September 2010.
2009 “Blackout! Understanding energy in its absence: New York City, 1965, 1977, and 2003.” Paper presented on the panel “Ethnographies of Energy” at the 108th
Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Philadelphia, PA. 2-6 December 2009.
2009 “Oil Out, Electricity In: African Public Perceptions of China’s Investments in the Energy Sector.” Paper presented on the panel “Africa and China: Through the
Looking Glass?” at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. New Orleans, LA. 19-22 November 2009.
2008 “Africa and China: Engaging Postcolonial Interdependencies?” Paper presented on the panel “Conceptualizing, Negotiating, and Executing Power: Case Studies
from Africa” at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. San Francisco, CA. 19-23 November 2008.
2008 “Africa and China: Engaging Postcolonial Interdependencies?” Paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association for the panel
“Transnational Links and Lessons.” Chicago, IL. 23-26 November 2008.
2007 “Africa and China: Images and Perceptions.” Paper prepared for the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 29
November - 2 December 2007.
2007 “African Responses to China in Africa.” Paper prepared for the 50th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. New York, NY. 18-21 October 2007.
2005 “Cross-cutting Kinship: Lateral Relationships and the Formation of Identities in the Congo River Basin.” Paper presented at the 104th Annual Meeting of the
American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 30 November - 4 December 2005.
2004 “Mercury, Power, and Marginalization in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the panel “Ambiguities of Violence: Managing Uncertainty in West Central
Africa” at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. San Francisco, CA. 17-21 November 2004.
2003 “Collaboration and Cohesion, Competition and Conflict: Communities in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the panel “Ethnic Conflict and Ethnic Peace
in Africa” at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Chicago, IL. 19-23 November 2003.
2003 “Images of Apes, Images of Others: Metaphors of Power and Identity in Equatorial Africa.” Poster prepared for the conference Animal Symbolism: the “Keystone”
Animal in Oral Tradition and Interactions between Humans and Nature. Paris, France. 12-14 November 2003.
2002 “Mercurial Technologies: Red Mercury, Power, and Marginalization in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the panel “Historical Narratives: New Paradigms
and Use of New Technologies” at the 45th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Washington, D. C., 5-8 December 2002.
2002 “Place, Perception, and Politics: Past and Present in the Lobéké Forest of Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Reading History in the
Landscape: Observation, Intuition, and Memory in Telling Local Stories of Continuity and Change,” at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. New Orleans, LA. 20-24 November 2002.
2002 “Tangles: Interethnic Relations in Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Recent Advances in Central African Hunter-Gatherer Studies: A
Comparative Perspective” at the Ninth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies. Edinburgh, Scotland. 9-13 September 2002.
2002 “Socialities, Selves, and Others in the Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Sociality and Personhood” at the Ninth International
Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies. Edinburgh, Scotland. 9-13 September 2002.
2001 “Changing Places, Shifting Identities: Social Landscapes in Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Ecology, Culture, and the Transformation of
Values: Place-based Analyses and Globalization” at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 28 November
2001.
2000 “Ape Tales: Western Equatorial Africans’ Historical and Contemporary Visions of Gorillas and Chimpanzees” with Tamara Giles-Vernick. Paper presented at the
43rd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Nashville, TN. November 2000.
1998 “The Bangando, People of the Crocodile: Tracing Threads of Identity through Oral History and Linguistic Analysis.” Paper presented to the Agrarian Studies
Program, Yale University.
1997 “Identity, Power, and Natural Resources: Mapping the Lobéké Forest of Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper presented to the Agrarian Studies Program, Graduate
Student Colloquium, Yale University.
1997 “Human Development and Natural Resource Management: Conflicting Concepts?” Paper presented at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. Washington, D.C. November 1997.
1997 “Debuts des Programmes des Recherches à Lobéké, Cameroun.” Paper presented at the Seminaire sur Recherches Scientifiques et le Développement Rural.
Bayanga, Central African Republic. 31 July-2 August 1997.
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RESEARCH
Research Interests
Research Positions
2006-09 Faculty Associate, Program on Intrastate Conflict, Harvard Kennedy School,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
2006-09 Research Fellow, International Security Program, Harvard Kennedy School,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
2000-01 Visiting Scholar, Centre for Advanced Studies
National University of Singapore
1994-95 Research Assistant, World Peace Foundation
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
1994 Research Intern, Wildlife Conservation Society
Epulu, Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaïre)
1993-94 Laboratory Research Assistant, Environmental Studies Program
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
Research Experience
Congo River Basin: 1994-present (Democratic Republic of Congo; Cameroon)
Working on behalf of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the White Oak Conservation Center, non-profit organizations that manage the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Ituri Forest, northeastern Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), I conducted socioeconomic research and educational planning for six months in 1994. As part of a team of Congolese and American social scientists and conservationists, I worked to design conservation strategies that take account of local communities’ cultural and economic values of the forest ecosystem. My project focused on women’s use of natural resources, seeking ways to integrate local communities in general, and women in particular, in the management of the protected area of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.
In 1995, in the wake of violent repercussions from the Rwandan genocide, I changed field sites to southeastern Cameroon where the Wildlife Conservation Society was in the process of establishing the Lobéké National Park using integrated conservation and development strategies. As an independently funded researcher working alongside these conservation initiatives, I conducted extensive ethnographic research on the forest communities in the Lobéké region to analyze cultural values of forest resources, how people’s relationships to the surrounding forest shapes their sense of social identity, and how the politics of belonging to particular communities—in particular, to communities designated as either “pygmy” and therefore “indigenous” or “villager” and therefore “non-indigenous”—affects their integration into conservation and development policies. As part of this long-term ethnographic research, I also undertook extensive archival research in various locations in Cameroon, including collections of documents in forest regions and in the capital city, Yaoundé.
My field site is located 1000 km from the capital city, Yaoundé, based in the small village of Dioula. I traveled throughout the forest region of southeastern Cameroon, including northern Congo and western Central African Republic, to examine complementary perspectives. I conduct my research in the local language of my host community, Bangando, a Ubangian language that has not been formally studied by linguists. My original field research spanned 26 months: 1995-96 (ten months), 1997 (three months), 1998-99 (ten months), 2000 (three months).
Most recently, my research in this area has examined species boundaries between primates (in particular great apes) and humans, and has investigated histories of hunting technologies. The Lobéké region of southeastern Cameroon has become the focus of analytical attention by virologists and geneticists, who have identified this particular forest as the geographical site of the transmission of SIV in chimpanzees to HIV in humans. As a result, my knowledge, language skills, and social networks are extremely useful in conducting ethnographic and historical research into the contexts of the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the first half of the twentieth century; I am part of a research team funded by a multi-year collaborative research grant provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. As part of this project, I will return to southeastern Cameroon for field work during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Since 2012 I have been studying cultural values and networks of exchange of ivory as it moves from forests of central Africa to markets in Asia, including China and Thailand (see below). When I return to the Congo River basin during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016 I will conduct ethnographic research on contemporary practices of elephant hunting as well as networks and markets for elephant products such as ivory and meat.
Asia-Africa: 1999-present (Singapore, Thailand)
Since 2000 I have conducted research on relations between Asian and African nations, in particular focusing on African images of contemporary Chinese engagement with the continent. This research began as part of my teaching of African studies at a major Asian university, the National University of Singapore, where I was the only Africanist scholar on a campus of 36,000 students. Students expressed great interest in learning about Africa, while senior colleagues needed convincing that Africa was relevant to Singapore in particular and Asia in general. Since 2000 Asian investments in Africa have increased spectacularly, generating intense public scrutiny and debate in particular regarding China’s ambitions on the continent. My research on Africa-Asian engagements includes analysis of mutual interdependencies between economic and political structures, with a particular focus on the energy sector. Because exploitation of African natural resources by Asian actors has resulted in surging demand for raw ivory, resulting in a sharp increase in elephant hunting throughout the Congo River basin, I have also been conducting research on cultural values of ivory in both Asian contexts (Thailand, Singapore) and in equatorial Africa.
New York City: 2008-present
I have developed a new project that examines cultural values of energy in New York City, continuing my conceptual interest in tensions between cultural and natural systems, consumption and conservation, and value and power. This project posits that New Yorkers in particular, and Americans in general, lack the scientific and technical background to understand energy systems, even as their lives are thoroughly steeped in and dependent upon inexpensive, ever-preset energy. Understanding cultural models of energy—energy as an omnipresent force that mediates information and mobilizes individual agency; energy as effervescent, social connectivity; energy as individual ability to do work; energy as embodied stamina—enables us to analyze root assumptions that Americans hold about energy as a human as well as a natural resource. This project entails multiple sub-sections, which are currently underway. For example, I have collected oral histories of New Yorkers’ experiences with blackouts—notably in 2012, 2003, 1977, and 1965—when electricity was suddenly and dramatically absent, in order to analyze the social meanings that New Yorkers attach to energy. I have also conducted reviews of both historical and contemporary newspapers, journals, and other popular media (such as advertising campaigns) to gauge public metaphors for energy. I am currently working with New York City school children to see how they express views of energy—in drawings, writing, and oral discussions—both before and after they have encountered energy experiments (batteries, alligator clips, and light bulbs) formally in the fourth grade science curriculum. These ethnographic materials present compelling materials for re-examining social theories about relations among science, magic, and religion; about power as political authority, as individual agency, and as physical force; and power as energy resources and an interface between natural and social systems.
France: 1997-2000
As part of my ethnographic and historical research on forest communities in the Congo River basin, I undertook intensive work in the archives, museums, and libraries in France. I made several trips to the French colonial archives in Aix-en-Provence and to collections at museums and libraries in Paris. This archival research focused on the French colonial era in Cameroon, as well as images and representations of “pygmies” in museums and popular culture.
Germany: 1997
I conducted historical research on the German colonial period in Cameroon, studying the archival collections at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin over a period of one month.
Tanzania: 1992
I conducted ethnographic research for my senior honors thesis on the impact of German missionary education in the Kilimanjaro region of northern Tanzania. I conducted interviews with women and elderly members of the Chagga, Warush, and Maasai communities (interviews conducted in KiSwahili), and consulted mission archives, libraries, and contemporary missionaries, over a period of six months.
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TEACHING
Teaching Interests
Home: Immigration, Deportation, Gentrification, and Homelessness
Politics of Food and Hunger
Courses
ANT211: Introduction to Anthropology. Lehman College, City University of New York
Through this course, students become anthropologists. We explore fundamental issues of how people represent others, and how people might better understand themselves and their own cultural settings through insightful observation and critical analysis. By introducing students to the theoretical and methodological foundations of anthropological inquiry, students will gain new intellectual insights on other peoples and places, even as they come to appreciate their own cultural contexts from new and surprising perspectives. Fundamentally, the course helps students learn to observe and listen carefully, record and analyze data thoroughly, and reflect and write on cultural phenomena. Through this course students develop an appreciation for the wonderful opportunity that anthropology affords as a way of thinking and learning. Anthropology is the study (logia) of people (anthropos); as students become anthropologists, they will experience the tremendous challenge and insight of being people who are engaged in studying people.
ANT230: Africa: Societies and Cultures. Lehman College, City University of New York
Through this course students read, write, and debate African geography, history, literature, politics, and contemporary arts. The course provides students with fresh perspectives on African cultures and communities, places and politics; although many students at Lehman College have personal connections to Africa through their own heritage, they embrace this opportunity to learn about the continent and its contributions throughout history to the elaboration and expression of human values, to intellectual development, to global trade, and to contesting political frameworks of domination and exploitation. As a result of this course students learn African geography in both breadth and depth, read African epic poems as well as colonial and contemporary novels, and appreciate the scope of African arts.
ANT322: Kinship and Family, Structure and Intimacy. Lehman College, City University of New York
The course will expands, by popular demand, the section of my Introduction to Anthropology (ANT211) course that addresses issues of sex and gender, kinship and family. The course is designed to offer undergraduate students an in-depth introduction to theories, methods, and ethnographies of kinship and family. In particular, the course presents ethnographies of kinship in urban American settings side by side with comparative studies of analogous kinship structures (and their negotiations) in different cultural settings. For example, the course addresses issues of kinship in contexts of urban American incarceration, examining how people retain a sense of “family” despite physical separation, with ethnographies of kinship in contexts of prisons in Argentina. Another example of such productive lines of comparison is material on the politics of kinship in New York City homeless shelters compared with kinship and its mobilization in contexts of refugee camps and post-conflict homelessness in West Africa.
ANT330: Globalization, Technology, and Social Change. Lehman College, City University of New York
In this course, we trace the connections among themes of globalization, technology, and social change. While significant social science literature exists on topics such as globalization and change, and another body of literature examines technology and society, there is sparse anthropological attention to the role of technology in driving globalization and social change. In this course, we explore exactly this intersection of forces that shape the contemporary world that we all experience. In this course students develop skills of persuasion in both oral and written argumentation. This course is also designed to give students hands-on experience designing independent social science research, providing a bridge to 400-level courses, especially the independent study course, ANT489. In this class we use databases to search for relevant journal articles and other secondary sources. Each student also designs and executes an individual research project on a topic related to technology, globalization, and social change, and will undertake original field research to provide the basis for a final paper. By supporting them develop research skills, I hope to help students build a strong foundation for future social science research.
ANTH71000: Contemporary Kinship: Configurations and Contingencies of Relatedness. Graduate Center, City University of New York
This course offers an expansive view of anthropological theory, conceptual history, ethnography, and methods in kinship. Designed for graduate-level students whose individual research interests engage kinship, the course provides grounding in theories of social structures and boundaries, experience with kinship research methods, and wide-ranging exposure to ethnographies of kinship and family. The course combines the presentation of classic kinship methods and concepts, along with contemporary, comparative ethnographies that demonstrate that kinship categories cannot be reduced to definitions or genealogical structures. The course provides opportunities for students to tailor the curriculum to meet their own research interests and needs; each week students choose and prepare for discussion a subset of readings on kinship topics, allowing them to select the materials that engage their own interests most directly. The final project for the course is an original, ethnographic research paper that utilizes kinship methods and engages theory, while encouraging students to engage with their larger masters- and doctoral-level research projects.
LEH100: Ready; Aim; Fire: Success! (Freshman Seminar). Lehman College, City University of New York
This course offers a foundation for students’ academic experiences and provides a foundation for liberal arts education at Lehman College. The course is designed to offer tools to facilitate students’ transitions to Lehman and to provide strategies for envisioning, planning, and managing their academic experiences in college as well as their professional goals beyond. By helping first-year students navigate educational choices in college, the course builds on students’ individual passions, links these interests to future professional opportunities, and anchors these long-term career possibilities to concrete majors and programs of study at Lehman College. By the end of the first semester of their first year of college, students have linked passion, profession, and major, have thought critically about the link between personal discipline and academic rigor, have prepared a polished CV, and have submitted this CV along with three cover letters to potential internships and part-time employment that supports their intended major.
USHB05: Unraveling Riddles of Culture. University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
This course introduces interdisciplinary students to anthropological ways of looking at, asking about, thinking about, and discussing the social world. Through the course, students come to understand (and hopefully to embrace) new creative, critical perspectives on their own cultural patterns and ways of living by exploring central themes in the discipline. Creative and critical thinking and writing are essential to anthropological research; students are invited to engage with anthropological texts and films through reading, critical analysis and comparisons, and ethnographic research and writing of their own. I have designed a set of ethnographic projects that students undertake, to help them experience anthropological research and analysis from first-hand experience. Several students have gone on to graduate studies in anthropology as a result of this course.
USCC05: Africa: Cultures, Communities, and Civilizations. University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
This course offers an introduction to African culture, politics, and geography, presenting diverse perspectives on the historical happenings and contemporary developments of the continent. Students are challenged to confront their preconceptions of Africa and to reevaluate the stereotypes of Africa and Africans that are promoted in many non-African media. An important component of this course is close examination of articulations and comparisons between Africa and Asia, particularly Southeast Asia. I have also integrated field trips to “Africa in Singapore,” guest speakers and panels, and workshops into the course syllabus.
SOC119: Cultures in the Contemporary World. Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
This course explores culture as a dynamic process that shapes the social world we all inhabit, and seeks to understand the ways in which we also contribute to cultural patterns, relations, and events. By examining and comparing cultural and social systems in Southeast Asia and throughout the world, the course strives to make the foreign more familiar, even as we examine processes that may seem familiar from new (and more distant) perspectives. The course challenges common assumptions about the social world around us, shedding new light on taken-for-granted “truths” through ethnographic materials and new analytical perspectives. I co-taught this course with a colleague from the Department of Sociology.
SOC210: Anthropology of the Human Condition. Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
This course provides students with an introduction to the discipline of anthropology as the study of human society and culture. Students come to appreciate intellectual developments in anthropology from the late-19th century into the early 21st century. This course is a core offering in the Department of Sociology; I substantially updated and energized the course syllabus that I had inherited.
Student Supervision
2008-present ANT489, Independent Research Seminar, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York (28 students)
2013-2014 Ph.D. Committee, Lauren Suchman. Graduate Center, City University of New York.
2003-06 Honours Thesis Supervision, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore (5 students)
2000-06 Independent Study Module Supervision, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore (17 students)
1999-06 Academic Advising, University Scholars Programme and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore (85 students)
Teaching Assistantships
1999 Department of Anthropology, Yale University. “The Anthropology of Religion: Myth, Ritual, and Power.”
1994-95 Medford High School, Medford MA. American History (Advanced Placement class); World History; World History (English as a Second Language)
1993-94 Environmental Studies Program, Dartmouth College. “Introduction to Environmental Science.”
1991-93 Department of German, Dartmouth College.
1991 Rassias Foundation, Dartmouth College. English as a Second Language.
1989 Bonga, Tanzania Village School. English as a Second Language.
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ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE
2016-present Personnel and Budget Committee, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York
2014-present Lehman College Senate Representative
2014-present Curriculum Committee, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York
2010-14 Curriculum Committee, School of the Natural and Social Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York
2009-14 Assessment Ambassador, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York
2010-11 Transitions Committee, Foundations of Excellence, Lehman College, City University of New York
2008-present Graduate school advisor, Anthropology Club advisor, Grievance Committee member, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College
2003-06 Student Exchange Coordinator, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
2002-03 Assistant Dean, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2001-03 Curriculum Committee, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2001-02 Coordinator, Human Behaviour Area, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
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PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES and AFFILIATIONS
Conference and Network Organizing
2016 Histories of HIVs: Social Contexts of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS. International conference co-sponsored by Lehman College and the American
Museum of Natural History, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 20-22 May 2016.
2015 “Elephant Engagements: Cultural Values, Ecological Roles, and Political Action.” Panel organized for the 114th annual meeting of the American
Anthropological Association. Denver, CO. 17-22 November 2015.
2014 “Animals: Existences and Extinctions.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C., 3-7
December 2014.
2013-present Social Science Research Council, China-Africa Working Group member.
2013 “Power of Power: Energy, Agency and Politics.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Chicago, IL. 19-24
November 2013.
2013 “Circulating Objects and their Meanings in Africa-Asia Mobility.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the African Studies Association. Baltimore,
MD. 21-24 November 2013.
2011 “Come Hell or High Water: Landmarks and Legacies in the Cultures of Energy.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the American
Anthropological Association. Montreal, Canada. 16-20 November 2011.
2010 “Circuits, Currents, and Cascades: Energy in Transit/ion around the Globe.“ Panel organized for at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. New Orleans, LA. 17-21 November 2010.
2009 “Ethnographies of Energy.” Panel prepared for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Philadelphia, PA. 2-6 December 2009.
2009 “Africa and China: Through the Looking Glass?” Panel prepared for the annual meeting of the African Studies Association. New Orleans, LA. 19-22
November 2009.
2001 “Islam and the West: Conflict and Dialogue,” Conference co-organizer and convener. University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore.
1998 “Sangha River Network, Research Meetings,” co-organizer and convener. Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France.
1997 “Resource Use Relations in the Trinational Sangha River Region, Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions.” Conference co
organizer and convener. Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Service as Reviewer
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, African Studies Review, International Security, Africa Today, Anthropology Quarterly, American Political Science Review, National Science Foundation, American Ethnologist, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Journal of Hunter-Gatherer Research
Professional Affiliations
1996-present American Anthropological Association member
1996-present African Studies Association member
1995-present Fulbright Association member
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APPLIED and CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
2003-06 Board of Directors, Singapore International Foundation, Centre for International Service Learning.
2002-03 Consultant, Singapore International Foundation, Youth Expedition Programme.
1994 Educational consultant, White Oak Conservation Center, Okapi Wildlife Reserve, Epulu, Zaïre.
1989 Volunteer, Dareda Hospital, Dareda, Tanzania.
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2008-present Public School 87, New York City: Public speaker on topics relating to Anthropology, African geography and culture, and readings from my own field
work; Classroom parent representative.
2009-present West Side Soccer League: Coach of multiple, often concurrent youth soccer teams; Named Coach of the Year, 2014; Nominated as Coach of the Year,
2013.
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LANGUAGES
Department of Anthropology
421 Davis Hall
Lehman College, City University of New York
250 Bedford Park Blvd. West
Bronx, NY 10468
stephanie.rupp@lehman.cuny.edu
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ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Current
2015-present Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology. Lehman College, City University of New York
2013-present Research Associate, Department of Anthropology. American Museum of Natural History
Previous
2008-2015 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology. Lehman College, City University of New York
2006-09 Faculty Fellow, Intrastate Conflict Program. Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
2006-09 Research Fellow, International Security Program. Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
2003-04 Assistant Dean, University Scholars Programm. National University of Singapore
2000-08 Assistant Professor, University Scholars Programme and Department of Sociology. National University of Singapore
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EDUCATION
2001 Ph.D. (with distinction), Anthropology. Yale University. New Haven, CT
1998 M.Phil., Anthropology. Yale University. New Haven, CT
1995 M.Ed., Social Studies Education. Harvard University. Cambridge, MA
1993 A.B., (high honors), Anthropology and Environmental Studies. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
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AWARDS and HONORS
2016 Lehman College Hero Award
2015 Feliks Gross Award, City University of New York Academy
2013 Scholar Incentive Award, Lehman College, City University of New York (declined)
2012 Excellence in Teaching Award, School of Natural and Social Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York
2010-11 Faculty Fellowship Publishing Program, City University of New York
2009-10 Shuster Fellowship, Lehman College, City University of New York
2005-06 Incentive Award for Teaching Excellence, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2004-05 Excellence in Teaching Award, National University of Singapore
2004-05 Incentive Award for Teaching Excellence, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2004-05 Outstanding Educator Award nomination, National University of Singapore
2002-03 Incentive Award for Teaching Excellence, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2001-02 Excellence in Teaching Award, National University of Singapore
1993 Phoenix Honors Society, Dartmouth College
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GRANTS and SPONSORED RESEARCH
2015-16 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Historical Contexts of the Emergence of Pandemic HIV/AIDS in the
Congo River Basin.” PSC-CUNY(46). $4770.00
2015-18 Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Collaborative Research Grant. Rupp, S. (Co-Principal), Giles-Vernick, T. (Principal), Gasquet, C. (Co-Principal), LeGoff,
J. (Co-Principal). “A Multi-disciplinary Study of Human Beings, Great Apes, and Disease Emergence in Equatorial Africa: Social Science Perspectives on
Cross-Species Contacts.” $629,156.00 (2014 - Present)
2014-16 National Endowment for the Humanities, Collaborative Research Grant. Rupp, S. (Co-Principal), Schneider, W. (Principal), Gondola, C. D. (Co-Principal),
Giles-Vernick, T. (Co-Principal), Lauro, A. (Co-Principal); Jorge Varanda (Co-Principal). “An International Collaboration on the Political, Social, and
Cultural History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS.” $290,000.00
2014-15 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Underlying Power: Energy Infrastructure and Inequality in New York
City.” PSC-CUNY(45). $3,990.00
2014 “Historical and Cultural Contexts of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in Southeastern Cameroon.” Shuster Award. $4,340.00 (not funded).
2013-14 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Power: Energy and Nature, Agency and Politics in New York City.” PSC
CUNY(44). $3,990.00
2012-13 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress “Exploring Children’s Conceptions of Energy: Energy as Culture and
Science.” PSC-CUNY(43). $3,990.00
2012 “Powerlines: Energy and Power; Nature and Society.” Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. $65,000.00 (not funded).
2011-12 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Pygmy: Conceptual History, Contemporary Politics of an Idea.” PSC
CUNY(42). $3,990.00
2010-11 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Blackout! Understanding Energy through Its Absence.” PSC-CUNY(41).
$3,990.00
2010 “Ethnographies of Energy, Information, and Power in Times Square,” Faculty Development Grant, Lehman College (not funded).
2009-10 Research Grant, City University of New York and Professional Staff Congress. “Africa and China: Ethnographies of Engagement.” PSC-CUNY(40).
$3,990.00
2009-10 “I, You, We, They: Forests of Identity in Southeastern Cameroon.” Shuster Fellowship, Lehman College. $4,000.00
2009 “Conceptions of Energy in New York City.” U.S. Department of Energy. $800,435.13 (not funded).
2009 “What Powers Your World? Cultural Conceptions of Energy in Contemporary New York City.” National Science Foundation. $473,647.31 (not funded).
2000-01 Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University. $12,000
1999-2000 Philanthropic Educational Organization, Doctoral Research Scholarship. $15,000
1997-2001 Samuel K. Bushnell Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University. $60,000
1998-99 International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council. $8,000
1998-99 Harold K. Hochschild Fellowship, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University. $5,000
1997 Pre-dissertation Research Fellowship, Agrarian Studies Program, Yale University. $5,000
1997 Pre-dissertation Research Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. $5,000
1996 Graduate Student Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University. $15,000
1995-96 Fulbright Scholarship. $22,000
1995-96 Reynolds Scholarship, Dartmouth College (declined)
1992 Claire Garber Goodman Fund Research Scholarship, Dartmouth College. $5,000
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PUBLICATIONS
Book
2011 Forests of Belonging: Identities, Ethnicities, and Stereotypes in the Congo River Basin. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Edited Volumes
2013 Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies. S. Strauss, S. Rupp and T. Love, eds. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
2013 Africa-China: New Engagements, New Research. J. Monson and S. Rupp, eds. Special issue of African Studies Review. 56(1), April 2013.
1998 Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions. H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New
Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Bulletin Series, No. 102 (two volumes, in French and English).
Peer Reviewed Articles and Chapters
2016 “Circuits and Currents: Dynamics of Disruption in New York City Blackouts” in Economic Anthropology 2016, 3: 106-118.
2014 Invited comment on “Petrobarter: Oil, Inequality, and the Political Imagination in and after the Cold War” by Douglas Rogers. Current Anthropology 55(2): 146-47.
2014 “Multiangular Identities among Congo River Basin Forest Peoples” in B. Hewlett, ed. Hunter-Gatherers of the Congo Basin Hunter-Gatherers: Culture, History, and
Biology of African Pygmies. New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction Publishers, pp. 277-98.
2013 “People, Great Apes, Disease, and Global Health in Northern Forests of Equatorial Africa” with Tamara Giles-Vernick in Global Health in Africa: Historical
Perspectives on Culture, Epidemiology, and Control. T. Giles-Vernick and J. Webb, eds. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, pp. 117-37.
2013 “Africa and China: New Engagements, New Research.” J. Monson and S. Rupp, eds. African Studies Review 56(1): 21-44, April 2013.
2013 “Ghana, China, and the Politics of Energy.” African Studies Review 56(1): 103-30, April 2013.
2013 “Considering Energy: E = mc2 = (magic · culture)2” in Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies. S. Strauss, S. Rupp, and T. Love, eds. Walnut Creek, CA:
Left Coast Press, pp. 79-95.
2013 “Powerlines: Cultures of Energy in the Twenty-First Century,” introduction to Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies. S. Strauss, S. Rupp, and T. Love,
eds. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, pp. 10-38.
2012 “Death Does Not Come from the Forest, but from the Village’: People, Great Apes, and Disease in the Equatorial African Rain Forest” with Tamara Giles-Vernick in
Frédéric Keck and Noellie Vialles, eds. Des Hommes Malades des Animaux. Special Issue of Cahiers d’Anthropologie Sociale, 8: 119-136.
2008 “Africa and China: Engaging Postcolonial Interdependencies” in China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence. Robert Rotberg, ed. Washington, D.C.: Brookings
Institution Press, pp. 65-86.
2006 “Visions of Apes, Reflections on Change: Telling Tales of Great Apes in Equatorial Africa” with Tamara Giles-Vernick in African Studies Review 49(1): 51-73.
2003 “Interethnic Relations in Southeastern Cameroon: Challenging the ‘Hunter-Gatherer—Farmer Dichotomy” in African Studies Monographs, Supplementary Issue
No. 28, pp. 37-56.
1998 “Introduction” with R. Hardin and H. Eves in Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions.
H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Bulletin Series 102: 8-28.
1998 “Interactions of Knowledge Forms in Conservation: Natural Science, Social Science, and Indigenous Knowledge” in Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River
Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions. H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, Bulletin Series 102: 91-94.
1998 “National Perspectives and Prospects for Trinational Management” in Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories,
Knowledge Forms, and Institutions. H. Eves, R. Hardin, S. Rupp, eds. New Haven: Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Bulletin Series
102: 235-38.
Book Reviews
2013 “China and the European Union in Africa: Partners or Competitors?” in African Studies Review 56(1): 190-92, April 2013.
2003 “In the Time of Trees and Sorrows: Nature, Power, and Memory in Rajasthan” in American Ethnologist 30(2): 315-16.
2001 “Myth and Reality in the Rain Forest: How Conservation Strategies Are Failing in West Africa” in the Journal of Tropical Geography 22(3): 313-15.
2000 “Hunter-Gatherers of the Modern World” in International Journal of African Historical Studies 33(2): 504-06.
2000 “Challenging Elusiveness: Central African Hunter-Gatherers in a Multidisciplinary Perspective” in International Journal of African Historical Studies 33(2): 450-51.
Reports
2003 The Octopus Experience: A Student Handbook. Singapore: University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore.
2001 Islam and the West, Conflict and Dialogue: September 11th and Beyond. Singapore: University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore. November
2001.
1998 “Natural Resource Management of the Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon” in TRI News: Journal of the Tropical Resources Institute 16: 32. New Haven: Yale
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
1996 “Study of Agricultural Practices and Forest Resource Utilization by Bangando Women” in The Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon: Summary of Activities,
1988-1995, pp. 166-176. Bronx, NY: The Wildlife Conservation Society.
1995 “Study of Agricultural Practices and Forest Resource Utilization by Bangando Women” in The Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon: Annual Report of Activities,
January-December 1995, pp. 30-37. Bronx, NY: The Wildlife Conservation Society.
1995 “Needs and Priorities of BaBila women, Ituri Forest, Zaire.” Report presented to the Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY.
Dissertation
2001 “I, You, We, They: Forests of Identity in Southeastern Cameroon.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University. Awarded mark of “Distinction,”
recognition extended to fewer than 10% of Yale dissertations.
Work in Progress
------ "Beyond the Cut Hunter: An Historical Epidemiology of HIV Origins in Central Africa." Article in preparation with Philippe Ambata and Tamara Giles-Vernick.
------ "Social and Viral Circulations: People, Non-human Primates, and the Emergence of HIV1-M." Article in preparation with Tamara Giles-Vernick.
------ "The Role of Value Systems on Ivory Trade in Demand and Supply Countries." Occasional paper in preparation for the South African Institute of International
Affairs. To be submitted 30 June 2016.
------ “Elephants and Ivory: Traditions, Transformations, and Trade in the Congo River Basin and Southeast Asia.” Book chapter submitted to an edited volume entitled
New Directions in Africa-China Studies, edited by Chris Alden and Dan Large. Submitted 15 May 2016.
------ “Mercurial Technologies: Red Mercury, Power, and Marginalization.” Article in preparation to submit to American Ethnologist.
------ Pygmy: Conceptual History and Cultural Politics. Book manuscript in preparation.
------ “Historical, Social, and Political Contexts of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Congo River basin, 1908-1957.” Ethnographic research in the Congo River basin,
complemented with archival research, ongoing.
------ “Elephants and Ivory: Ecological Crisis, Cultural Change.” Ethnographic research in the Congo River basin and Southeast Asia, ongoing.
------ “Children’s Conceptions of Energy.” Ethnographic research in New York City, ongoing.
------ “Power of Power: Energy, Agency, and Politics.” Ethnographic research in New York City, ongoing.
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PRESENTATIONS
Invited Presentations
2016 "Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Societies, Sustainable Selves." Paper prepared for the Earth Day conference “Explaining the Anthropocene (to Each Other):
Conversations Across the Disciplines." Monmouth University. Monmouth, New Jersey. 22 April 2016.
2016 "Entanglements: Elephants and Ivory; People and Politics; Poverty and Affluence; Cameroon and Thailand." Poster prepared for the conference “People, Parks,
and Forests: Conflicts over Protected Areas for Nature/Wildlife Conservation.” Nwoya District, Uganda, 6-9 April 2016.
2016 “Social and Viral Circulations: People, Non-Human Primates, and the Emergence of HIV-1M.” Invited paper presented to the Columbia University Seminar on
Ecology and Culture. 16 February 2016.
2016 “Subjugation: People, Simians, and Viruses in the Historical Emergence of HIV/AIDS.” Paper prepared for the panel: “Viral Subjectivity: Zoonosis, Posthumanism,
and the Febrile Imagination” at the annual conference of the American Ethnological Society. Washington, D.C., 31 March - 2 April, 2016.
2016 Entanglements: Elephants and Ivory: People and Politics; Poverty and Affluence; Cameroon and Thailand. Poster prepared for the conference “People, Parks,
and Forests: Conflicts over Protected Areas for Nature/Wildlife Conservation.” Nwoya District, Uganda, 6-9 April 2016.
2016 “Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Societies, Sustainable Selves.” Paper prepared for the conference ““Explaining the Anthropocene (to Each Other): Conversations
Across the Disciplines.” 22 April 2016, Monmouth University, Monmouth, New Jersey.
2015 “Fluid Interactions: People, Non-human Primates, and the Emergence of HIV-1M.” Invited paper prepared for the panel “The Zoonotic Condition: Disease Spillover
and Species Being in the Anthropocene” at the 114th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Denver, CO. 20 November 2015.
2015 Discussant, “Refugees at Risk.” Conference at Lehman College, City University of New York; Program on Human Rights. Bronx, NY. 4 November 2015.
2015 “Energy and Sociality.” Invited paper presented at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute for Sustainability at Arizona State University. Tempe, Arizona. 30 October
2015.
2015 “Historical and Social Contexts of HIV-1M Emergence: Evidence from Southeastern Cameroon.” Invited paper prepared for the panel “The Political, Social, and
Cultural History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in Africa” at the 64th annual meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.” Philadelphia,
PA. 27 October 2015.
2015 “Against the ‘Cut Hunter’: An Historical Evaluation of HIV Beginnings in Equatorial Africa,” with Tamara Giles-Vernick. Invited paper presented at the conference
“Understanding Human-Animal Disease: Emergence, Ecologies, Ethnography,” sponsored by Durham University. Durham, U.K., 20-22 September 2016.
2015 “Places, people, and tools: designations of legal and illegal in southeastern Cameroon.” Invited paper presented at the Eleventh International Conference on
Hunting and Gathering Societies. Vienna, Austria. 7-11 September 2015.
2015 “Teaching the Next Generation Cross-Regionally: Challenges and Capacity Gaps.” Invited comments for the Working Group Meeting of the China-Africa
Knowledge Project, Social Science Research Council. New York City, 4-5 June 2015.
2015 “Historical and Social Contexts of HIV Emergence.” Invited presentation for research group meeting. Coimbra University, Department of Life Sciences. Coimbra,
Portugal. 15-17 April 2015.
2015 “Blackouts: Illuminating Structures of Power in New York City.” Invited presentation for the New York Academy of Sciences. 23 February 2015.
2014 “People and Primates: Investigating Interspecies Intimacies in the History of HIV/AIDS Emergence.” Invited paper for the panel “Political, Social, and Cultural
History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS” at the 57th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Indianapolis, IN. 20-23 November 2014.
2014 “Luxury vs. Extinction: Ivory, Elephants, and the Global Circulation of Value.” Invited lecture for the History Society, City College of New York, City University of
New York. 1 May 2014.
2014 “Consuming to Extinction: The Africa-Asia Ivory Trade.” Invited lecture for African Studies, Asian Studies, Anthropology, and Environmental Studies Departments
at Smith College. 10 April 2014.
2014 “People and Great Apes: Relationships in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Research Plans.” Presentation at the workshop “The Political, Social, an
Cultural History of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS in Africa.” Indianapolis, IN: University of Indiana. 20-21 March 2014.
2013 “Ivory Intricacies: Pluralism and Diversity in African-Asian Ivory Networks.” Invited paper prepared for the conference, “Making Sense of the China-Africa
Relationship: Theoretical Approaches and the Politics of Knowledge.” New Haven, CT: Yale University and Social Science Research Council. 18-19 November
2013.
2013 “Currents and Circuits: Dynamics of Power in New York City Blackouts.” Invited paper prepared for the Colloquium Series, Department of Anthropology, Graduate
Center, City University of New York. 11 October 2013.
2012 “Sublime Identities: Pygmies, Hunter-gatherers, and Indigenous People.” Invited paper prepared for the panel “Remediating Cartographies of Erasure:
Anthropology, Indigenous Epistemologies, and the Global Imaginary.” Presidential Session at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. San Francisco, CA: 14-18 November 2012.
2012 “People and Primates: Hunting and Interspecies Intimacies in the Congo River Basin.” Invited paper prepared for the conference “History of HIV Emergence in
Africa: Unanswered Questions” at the Institut d’Etudes Avancées de Nantes. Nantes, France. 3-4 May 2012.
2011 “Africa, China, Energy: Trading Powers.” Invited paper presented at the Yale China-Africa Diaspora Workshop. Yale University, New Haven, CT. 21-22 October
2011.
2010 “Powerplay: Ghana, China, and the Politics of Energy.” Invited paper presentation at the conference “China and Africa: A New Scramble?” Council on Asian
Studies and Council on African Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT. 23-24 April 2010.
2009 “China, Africa, and Human Rights.” Invited paper presentation and moderation of roundtable discussion at the “Youth Forum on China-Africa.” Yale University,
New Haven, CT. 25-26 April 2009.
2008 “Cosmopolitan Images, Local Realities.” Invited paper presented at the conference “Comparative Ecological Nationalisms.” Department of Anthropology, Yale
University, New Haven, CT. 25-26 April 2008.
2008 “Africa and China: Politics of (Everyday) Engagement.” Invited lecture presented at the Council on African Studies, Yale University. New Haven, CT. 24 April
2008.
2008 “Africa-China: (Neo)colonialism or Mutual Benefit?" Invited lecture presented at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. 10 April 2008.
2008 “China’s Investment: Discouraging or Encouraging Development in Africa.” Introduction and moderation of panel at the 14th Annual International Development
Conference, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 5 April 2008.
2008 “Chinese Dumplings and African Puff-puffs: Social interactions among Chinese and Africans.” Invited seminar and roundtable discussion, African Studies
Association, Wellesley College. 10 March 2008.
2008 “Chinese Influence in Africa.” Invited seminar and roundtable discussion at the Department of Political Science, Northeastern University. 3 April 2008.
2007 “Africa-China: The Politics of Everyday Engagement.” Invited seminar presented at the International Security Program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University. Cambridge, MA. 15 November 2007.
2007 “Africa and China: Images, Perceptions, and Stereotypes.” Invited seminar presented at the Program on Intrastate Conflict, Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University. Cambridge, MA. 9 November 2007.
2007 “Cosmopolitan Conservation, Indigenous Indignation.” Invited paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Ethnological Society and the Canadian
Anthropology Society. Toronto, Canada. 10 May 2007.
2007 “Africa-China: ‘Pragmatic Cooperation for Mutual Benefit’ or Neocolonialism, Dependency, and Insecurity?” Invited seminar presented at the International
Security Program, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA. 26 April 2007.
2006 “Fault Lines: The Politics of Categorization.” Invited seminar presented at the Program on Intrastate Conflict, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University. Cambridge, MA. 17 November 2006.
2005 “Indigeneity: Global Images, Local Dilemmas.” Invited paper prepared for the international symposium Cultural Diversities and Nation-states in a Globalizing Age,
National University of Singapore. 1-5 September 2005.
2005 “The Ethnographic Onion.” Workshop designed and presented at the request of the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. Singapore.
June 2005.
2003 “Anthropology in Action: Fostering Social Inquiry and Intercultural Understanding in International Service Learning.” Paper prepared for the Conference on
International Service Learning, Singapore International Foundation. Singapore, 31 July-2 August 2003.
2003 “International Service Learning: Applying Anthropology.” Workshop designed and presented at the request of the Youth Expedition Programme, Singapore
International Foundation. Session addressed the application of anthropological field methods to international service learning projects throughout Southeast
Asia. Singapore. July 2003.
Conference Presentations
2014 “Elephants : Existence : : Ivory : Extinction: Animals, Objects, and Conflicting Regimes of Value.” Paper prepared for the panel “Animals: Existences and
Extinctions” at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 3-7 December 2014.
2014 “Pathogenic Exchanges, People and Great Apes in the Northern Equatorial Forest, Congo River Basin.” Paper co-authored with Tamara Giles-Vernick for the
panel “Animals: Existences and Extinctions” at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 3-7 December 2014.
2014 “Underlying Power: Energy Infrastructure and Inequality in New York City.” Plenary paper prepared for the annual meeting of the Society of Economic
Anthropology. Austin, TX. 21-24 April 2014.
2013 “In the Wake of the Storm: Energy, Power, Agency, and Hurricane Sandy.” Paper prepared for the panel “Power of Power: Energy, Agency and Politics” at the 112th
Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Chicago, IL. 19-24 November 2013.
2013 “Ivory Ironies: Flows of Ivory from Africa to Asia.” Paper prepared for the panel “(Re)Negotiating Values: The Circulation of Objects between Africa and Asia” at
the 56th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Baltimore, MD 21-24 November 2013.
2013 “Elephants and Ivory: Traditions, Transformations, and Trade in the Western Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the conference Central African Forests and
Institutions. Paris, France. 20-21 September 2013.
2013 “Histories of Hunting: Technological Strategies of Non-‘Hunter-Gatherers’ in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the Tenth International Conference on
Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS), 25-28 June 2013. Liverpool, U.K.
2011 “From the Energizer Bunny to Pokémon: Children’s Conceptions of Energy.” Paper presented on the panel “Come Hell or High Water: Landmarks and Legacies in
the Cultures of Energy” at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Montreal, Canada. 16-20 November 2011.
2010 “Considering Energy.” Paper presented on the panel “Circuits, Currents, and Cascades: Energy in Transit/ion around the Globe“ at the 109th Annual Meeting of
the American Anthropological Association. New Orleans, LA. 17-21 November 2010.
2010 “Forests of Belonging: Identities, Ethnicities, and Stereotypes in the Congo River Basin.” Paper presented at the International Conference on Congo Basin Hunter
Gatherers. Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Montpellier, France. 22-24 September 2010.
2009 “Blackout! Understanding energy in its absence: New York City, 1965, 1977, and 2003.” Paper presented on the panel “Ethnographies of Energy” at the 108th
Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Philadelphia, PA. 2-6 December 2009.
2009 “Oil Out, Electricity In: African Public Perceptions of China’s Investments in the Energy Sector.” Paper presented on the panel “Africa and China: Through the
Looking Glass?” at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. New Orleans, LA. 19-22 November 2009.
2008 “Africa and China: Engaging Postcolonial Interdependencies?” Paper presented on the panel “Conceptualizing, Negotiating, and Executing Power: Case Studies
from Africa” at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. San Francisco, CA. 19-23 November 2008.
2008 “Africa and China: Engaging Postcolonial Interdependencies?” Paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association for the panel
“Transnational Links and Lessons.” Chicago, IL. 23-26 November 2008.
2007 “Africa and China: Images and Perceptions.” Paper prepared for the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 29
November - 2 December 2007.
2007 “African Responses to China in Africa.” Paper prepared for the 50th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. New York, NY. 18-21 October 2007.
2005 “Cross-cutting Kinship: Lateral Relationships and the Formation of Identities in the Congo River Basin.” Paper presented at the 104th Annual Meeting of the
American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 30 November - 4 December 2005.
2004 “Mercury, Power, and Marginalization in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the panel “Ambiguities of Violence: Managing Uncertainty in West Central
Africa” at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. San Francisco, CA. 17-21 November 2004.
2003 “Collaboration and Cohesion, Competition and Conflict: Communities in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the panel “Ethnic Conflict and Ethnic Peace
in Africa” at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Chicago, IL. 19-23 November 2003.
2003 “Images of Apes, Images of Others: Metaphors of Power and Identity in Equatorial Africa.” Poster prepared for the conference Animal Symbolism: the “Keystone”
Animal in Oral Tradition and Interactions between Humans and Nature. Paris, France. 12-14 November 2003.
2002 “Mercurial Technologies: Red Mercury, Power, and Marginalization in the Congo River Basin.” Paper prepared for the panel “Historical Narratives: New Paradigms
and Use of New Technologies” at the 45th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Washington, D. C., 5-8 December 2002.
2002 “Place, Perception, and Politics: Past and Present in the Lobéké Forest of Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Reading History in the
Landscape: Observation, Intuition, and Memory in Telling Local Stories of Continuity and Change,” at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. New Orleans, LA. 20-24 November 2002.
2002 “Tangles: Interethnic Relations in Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Recent Advances in Central African Hunter-Gatherer Studies: A
Comparative Perspective” at the Ninth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies. Edinburgh, Scotland. 9-13 September 2002.
2002 “Socialities, Selves, and Others in the Lobéké Forest, Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Sociality and Personhood” at the Ninth International
Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies. Edinburgh, Scotland. 9-13 September 2002.
2001 “Changing Places, Shifting Identities: Social Landscapes in Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper prepared for the panel “Ecology, Culture, and the Transformation of
Values: Place-based Analyses and Globalization” at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. 28 November
2001.
2000 “Ape Tales: Western Equatorial Africans’ Historical and Contemporary Visions of Gorillas and Chimpanzees” with Tamara Giles-Vernick. Paper presented at the
43rd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. Nashville, TN. November 2000.
1998 “The Bangando, People of the Crocodile: Tracing Threads of Identity through Oral History and Linguistic Analysis.” Paper presented to the Agrarian Studies
Program, Yale University.
1997 “Identity, Power, and Natural Resources: Mapping the Lobéké Forest of Southeastern Cameroon.” Paper presented to the Agrarian Studies Program, Graduate
Student Colloquium, Yale University.
1997 “Human Development and Natural Resource Management: Conflicting Concepts?” Paper presented at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. Washington, D.C. November 1997.
1997 “Debuts des Programmes des Recherches à Lobéké, Cameroun.” Paper presented at the Seminaire sur Recherches Scientifiques et le Développement Rural.
Bayanga, Central African Republic. 31 July-2 August 1997.
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RESEARCH
Research Interests
- Conceptual boundaries and their negotiation: culture-nature; economy-ecology; value-power
- Cultural and historical contexts of emergence of HIV/AIDS, Congo River basin
- Cultural values of ivory and elephants; equatorial Africa, East and Southeast Asia, North America
- Ethnography of energy, focusing on New York City
- Contemporary engagement between African and Asian individuals, organizations, companies, and state agencies, especially in the energy sector and in ivory markets
- Processes of identity formation and change, focusing on networks and relationships between individuals and groups and examining differences between social identities, ethnic affiliations, and stereotypes; Congo River basin
- Politics of representation and categorization
Research Positions
2006-09 Faculty Associate, Program on Intrastate Conflict, Harvard Kennedy School,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
2006-09 Research Fellow, International Security Program, Harvard Kennedy School,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
2000-01 Visiting Scholar, Centre for Advanced Studies
National University of Singapore
1994-95 Research Assistant, World Peace Foundation
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
1994 Research Intern, Wildlife Conservation Society
Epulu, Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaïre)
1993-94 Laboratory Research Assistant, Environmental Studies Program
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
Research Experience
Congo River Basin: 1994-present (Democratic Republic of Congo; Cameroon)
Working on behalf of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the White Oak Conservation Center, non-profit organizations that manage the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Ituri Forest, northeastern Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), I conducted socioeconomic research and educational planning for six months in 1994. As part of a team of Congolese and American social scientists and conservationists, I worked to design conservation strategies that take account of local communities’ cultural and economic values of the forest ecosystem. My project focused on women’s use of natural resources, seeking ways to integrate local communities in general, and women in particular, in the management of the protected area of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.
In 1995, in the wake of violent repercussions from the Rwandan genocide, I changed field sites to southeastern Cameroon where the Wildlife Conservation Society was in the process of establishing the Lobéké National Park using integrated conservation and development strategies. As an independently funded researcher working alongside these conservation initiatives, I conducted extensive ethnographic research on the forest communities in the Lobéké region to analyze cultural values of forest resources, how people’s relationships to the surrounding forest shapes their sense of social identity, and how the politics of belonging to particular communities—in particular, to communities designated as either “pygmy” and therefore “indigenous” or “villager” and therefore “non-indigenous”—affects their integration into conservation and development policies. As part of this long-term ethnographic research, I also undertook extensive archival research in various locations in Cameroon, including collections of documents in forest regions and in the capital city, Yaoundé.
My field site is located 1000 km from the capital city, Yaoundé, based in the small village of Dioula. I traveled throughout the forest region of southeastern Cameroon, including northern Congo and western Central African Republic, to examine complementary perspectives. I conduct my research in the local language of my host community, Bangando, a Ubangian language that has not been formally studied by linguists. My original field research spanned 26 months: 1995-96 (ten months), 1997 (three months), 1998-99 (ten months), 2000 (three months).
Most recently, my research in this area has examined species boundaries between primates (in particular great apes) and humans, and has investigated histories of hunting technologies. The Lobéké region of southeastern Cameroon has become the focus of analytical attention by virologists and geneticists, who have identified this particular forest as the geographical site of the transmission of SIV in chimpanzees to HIV in humans. As a result, my knowledge, language skills, and social networks are extremely useful in conducting ethnographic and historical research into the contexts of the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the first half of the twentieth century; I am part of a research team funded by a multi-year collaborative research grant provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. As part of this project, I will return to southeastern Cameroon for field work during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Since 2012 I have been studying cultural values and networks of exchange of ivory as it moves from forests of central Africa to markets in Asia, including China and Thailand (see below). When I return to the Congo River basin during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016 I will conduct ethnographic research on contemporary practices of elephant hunting as well as networks and markets for elephant products such as ivory and meat.
Asia-Africa: 1999-present (Singapore, Thailand)
Since 2000 I have conducted research on relations between Asian and African nations, in particular focusing on African images of contemporary Chinese engagement with the continent. This research began as part of my teaching of African studies at a major Asian university, the National University of Singapore, where I was the only Africanist scholar on a campus of 36,000 students. Students expressed great interest in learning about Africa, while senior colleagues needed convincing that Africa was relevant to Singapore in particular and Asia in general. Since 2000 Asian investments in Africa have increased spectacularly, generating intense public scrutiny and debate in particular regarding China’s ambitions on the continent. My research on Africa-Asian engagements includes analysis of mutual interdependencies between economic and political structures, with a particular focus on the energy sector. Because exploitation of African natural resources by Asian actors has resulted in surging demand for raw ivory, resulting in a sharp increase in elephant hunting throughout the Congo River basin, I have also been conducting research on cultural values of ivory in both Asian contexts (Thailand, Singapore) and in equatorial Africa.
New York City: 2008-present
I have developed a new project that examines cultural values of energy in New York City, continuing my conceptual interest in tensions between cultural and natural systems, consumption and conservation, and value and power. This project posits that New Yorkers in particular, and Americans in general, lack the scientific and technical background to understand energy systems, even as their lives are thoroughly steeped in and dependent upon inexpensive, ever-preset energy. Understanding cultural models of energy—energy as an omnipresent force that mediates information and mobilizes individual agency; energy as effervescent, social connectivity; energy as individual ability to do work; energy as embodied stamina—enables us to analyze root assumptions that Americans hold about energy as a human as well as a natural resource. This project entails multiple sub-sections, which are currently underway. For example, I have collected oral histories of New Yorkers’ experiences with blackouts—notably in 2012, 2003, 1977, and 1965—when electricity was suddenly and dramatically absent, in order to analyze the social meanings that New Yorkers attach to energy. I have also conducted reviews of both historical and contemporary newspapers, journals, and other popular media (such as advertising campaigns) to gauge public metaphors for energy. I am currently working with New York City school children to see how they express views of energy—in drawings, writing, and oral discussions—both before and after they have encountered energy experiments (batteries, alligator clips, and light bulbs) formally in the fourth grade science curriculum. These ethnographic materials present compelling materials for re-examining social theories about relations among science, magic, and religion; about power as political authority, as individual agency, and as physical force; and power as energy resources and an interface between natural and social systems.
France: 1997-2000
As part of my ethnographic and historical research on forest communities in the Congo River basin, I undertook intensive work in the archives, museums, and libraries in France. I made several trips to the French colonial archives in Aix-en-Provence and to collections at museums and libraries in Paris. This archival research focused on the French colonial era in Cameroon, as well as images and representations of “pygmies” in museums and popular culture.
Germany: 1997
I conducted historical research on the German colonial period in Cameroon, studying the archival collections at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin over a period of one month.
Tanzania: 1992
I conducted ethnographic research for my senior honors thesis on the impact of German missionary education in the Kilimanjaro region of northern Tanzania. I conducted interviews with women and elderly members of the Chagga, Warush, and Maasai communities (interviews conducted in KiSwahili), and consulted mission archives, libraries, and contemporary missionaries, over a period of six months.
_______________________________________________
TEACHING
Teaching Interests
- Anthropology of Globalization and Cultural Change
- Africanist Anthropology
- Ethnography of New York City (selected topics)
Home: Immigration, Deportation, Gentrification, and Homelessness
Politics of Food and Hunger
- Kinship and Family
- Energy and Society
- Nature and Culture: Environmental Anthropology
- Humanity and Animality
- Politics of Identification and Representation
- Engagements: Africa and Asia
- Qualitative Research Methods
- Anthropology of Sports
Courses
ANT211: Introduction to Anthropology. Lehman College, City University of New York
Through this course, students become anthropologists. We explore fundamental issues of how people represent others, and how people might better understand themselves and their own cultural settings through insightful observation and critical analysis. By introducing students to the theoretical and methodological foundations of anthropological inquiry, students will gain new intellectual insights on other peoples and places, even as they come to appreciate their own cultural contexts from new and surprising perspectives. Fundamentally, the course helps students learn to observe and listen carefully, record and analyze data thoroughly, and reflect and write on cultural phenomena. Through this course students develop an appreciation for the wonderful opportunity that anthropology affords as a way of thinking and learning. Anthropology is the study (logia) of people (anthropos); as students become anthropologists, they will experience the tremendous challenge and insight of being people who are engaged in studying people.
ANT230: Africa: Societies and Cultures. Lehman College, City University of New York
Through this course students read, write, and debate African geography, history, literature, politics, and contemporary arts. The course provides students with fresh perspectives on African cultures and communities, places and politics; although many students at Lehman College have personal connections to Africa through their own heritage, they embrace this opportunity to learn about the continent and its contributions throughout history to the elaboration and expression of human values, to intellectual development, to global trade, and to contesting political frameworks of domination and exploitation. As a result of this course students learn African geography in both breadth and depth, read African epic poems as well as colonial and contemporary novels, and appreciate the scope of African arts.
ANT322: Kinship and Family, Structure and Intimacy. Lehman College, City University of New York
The course will expands, by popular demand, the section of my Introduction to Anthropology (ANT211) course that addresses issues of sex and gender, kinship and family. The course is designed to offer undergraduate students an in-depth introduction to theories, methods, and ethnographies of kinship and family. In particular, the course presents ethnographies of kinship in urban American settings side by side with comparative studies of analogous kinship structures (and their negotiations) in different cultural settings. For example, the course addresses issues of kinship in contexts of urban American incarceration, examining how people retain a sense of “family” despite physical separation, with ethnographies of kinship in contexts of prisons in Argentina. Another example of such productive lines of comparison is material on the politics of kinship in New York City homeless shelters compared with kinship and its mobilization in contexts of refugee camps and post-conflict homelessness in West Africa.
ANT330: Globalization, Technology, and Social Change. Lehman College, City University of New York
In this course, we trace the connections among themes of globalization, technology, and social change. While significant social science literature exists on topics such as globalization and change, and another body of literature examines technology and society, there is sparse anthropological attention to the role of technology in driving globalization and social change. In this course, we explore exactly this intersection of forces that shape the contemporary world that we all experience. In this course students develop skills of persuasion in both oral and written argumentation. This course is also designed to give students hands-on experience designing independent social science research, providing a bridge to 400-level courses, especially the independent study course, ANT489. In this class we use databases to search for relevant journal articles and other secondary sources. Each student also designs and executes an individual research project on a topic related to technology, globalization, and social change, and will undertake original field research to provide the basis for a final paper. By supporting them develop research skills, I hope to help students build a strong foundation for future social science research.
ANTH71000: Contemporary Kinship: Configurations and Contingencies of Relatedness. Graduate Center, City University of New York
This course offers an expansive view of anthropological theory, conceptual history, ethnography, and methods in kinship. Designed for graduate-level students whose individual research interests engage kinship, the course provides grounding in theories of social structures and boundaries, experience with kinship research methods, and wide-ranging exposure to ethnographies of kinship and family. The course combines the presentation of classic kinship methods and concepts, along with contemporary, comparative ethnographies that demonstrate that kinship categories cannot be reduced to definitions or genealogical structures. The course provides opportunities for students to tailor the curriculum to meet their own research interests and needs; each week students choose and prepare for discussion a subset of readings on kinship topics, allowing them to select the materials that engage their own interests most directly. The final project for the course is an original, ethnographic research paper that utilizes kinship methods and engages theory, while encouraging students to engage with their larger masters- and doctoral-level research projects.
LEH100: Ready; Aim; Fire: Success! (Freshman Seminar). Lehman College, City University of New York
This course offers a foundation for students’ academic experiences and provides a foundation for liberal arts education at Lehman College. The course is designed to offer tools to facilitate students’ transitions to Lehman and to provide strategies for envisioning, planning, and managing their academic experiences in college as well as their professional goals beyond. By helping first-year students navigate educational choices in college, the course builds on students’ individual passions, links these interests to future professional opportunities, and anchors these long-term career possibilities to concrete majors and programs of study at Lehman College. By the end of the first semester of their first year of college, students have linked passion, profession, and major, have thought critically about the link between personal discipline and academic rigor, have prepared a polished CV, and have submitted this CV along with three cover letters to potential internships and part-time employment that supports their intended major.
USHB05: Unraveling Riddles of Culture. University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
This course introduces interdisciplinary students to anthropological ways of looking at, asking about, thinking about, and discussing the social world. Through the course, students come to understand (and hopefully to embrace) new creative, critical perspectives on their own cultural patterns and ways of living by exploring central themes in the discipline. Creative and critical thinking and writing are essential to anthropological research; students are invited to engage with anthropological texts and films through reading, critical analysis and comparisons, and ethnographic research and writing of their own. I have designed a set of ethnographic projects that students undertake, to help them experience anthropological research and analysis from first-hand experience. Several students have gone on to graduate studies in anthropology as a result of this course.
USCC05: Africa: Cultures, Communities, and Civilizations. University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
This course offers an introduction to African culture, politics, and geography, presenting diverse perspectives on the historical happenings and contemporary developments of the continent. Students are challenged to confront their preconceptions of Africa and to reevaluate the stereotypes of Africa and Africans that are promoted in many non-African media. An important component of this course is close examination of articulations and comparisons between Africa and Asia, particularly Southeast Asia. I have also integrated field trips to “Africa in Singapore,” guest speakers and panels, and workshops into the course syllabus.
SOC119: Cultures in the Contemporary World. Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
This course explores culture as a dynamic process that shapes the social world we all inhabit, and seeks to understand the ways in which we also contribute to cultural patterns, relations, and events. By examining and comparing cultural and social systems in Southeast Asia and throughout the world, the course strives to make the foreign more familiar, even as we examine processes that may seem familiar from new (and more distant) perspectives. The course challenges common assumptions about the social world around us, shedding new light on taken-for-granted “truths” through ethnographic materials and new analytical perspectives. I co-taught this course with a colleague from the Department of Sociology.
SOC210: Anthropology of the Human Condition. Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
This course provides students with an introduction to the discipline of anthropology as the study of human society and culture. Students come to appreciate intellectual developments in anthropology from the late-19th century into the early 21st century. This course is a core offering in the Department of Sociology; I substantially updated and energized the course syllabus that I had inherited.
Student Supervision
2008-present ANT489, Independent Research Seminar, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York (28 students)
2013-2014 Ph.D. Committee, Lauren Suchman. Graduate Center, City University of New York.
2003-06 Honours Thesis Supervision, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore (5 students)
2000-06 Independent Study Module Supervision, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore (17 students)
1999-06 Academic Advising, University Scholars Programme and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore (85 students)
Teaching Assistantships
1999 Department of Anthropology, Yale University. “The Anthropology of Religion: Myth, Ritual, and Power.”
1994-95 Medford High School, Medford MA. American History (Advanced Placement class); World History; World History (English as a Second Language)
1993-94 Environmental Studies Program, Dartmouth College. “Introduction to Environmental Science.”
1991-93 Department of German, Dartmouth College.
1991 Rassias Foundation, Dartmouth College. English as a Second Language.
1989 Bonga, Tanzania Village School. English as a Second Language.
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ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE
2016-present Personnel and Budget Committee, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York
2014-present Lehman College Senate Representative
2014-present Curriculum Committee, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York
2010-14 Curriculum Committee, School of the Natural and Social Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York
2009-14 Assessment Ambassador, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, City University of New York
2010-11 Transitions Committee, Foundations of Excellence, Lehman College, City University of New York
2008-present Graduate school advisor, Anthropology Club advisor, Grievance Committee member, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College
2003-06 Student Exchange Coordinator, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
2002-03 Assistant Dean, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2001-03 Curriculum Committee, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
2001-02 Coordinator, Human Behaviour Area, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore
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PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES and AFFILIATIONS
Conference and Network Organizing
2016 Histories of HIVs: Social Contexts of the Emergence of HIV/AIDS. International conference co-sponsored by Lehman College and the American
Museum of Natural History, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 20-22 May 2016.
2015 “Elephant Engagements: Cultural Values, Ecological Roles, and Political Action.” Panel organized for the 114th annual meeting of the American
Anthropological Association. Denver, CO. 17-22 November 2015.
2014 “Animals: Existences and Extinctions.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C., 3-7
December 2014.
2013-present Social Science Research Council, China-Africa Working Group member.
2013 “Power of Power: Energy, Agency and Politics.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Chicago, IL. 19-24
November 2013.
2013 “Circulating Objects and their Meanings in Africa-Asia Mobility.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the African Studies Association. Baltimore,
MD. 21-24 November 2013.
2011 “Come Hell or High Water: Landmarks and Legacies in the Cultures of Energy.” Panel organized for the annual meeting of the American
Anthropological Association. Montreal, Canada. 16-20 November 2011.
2010 “Circuits, Currents, and Cascades: Energy in Transit/ion around the Globe.“ Panel organized for at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological
Association. New Orleans, LA. 17-21 November 2010.
2009 “Ethnographies of Energy.” Panel prepared for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Philadelphia, PA. 2-6 December 2009.
2009 “Africa and China: Through the Looking Glass?” Panel prepared for the annual meeting of the African Studies Association. New Orleans, LA. 19-22
November 2009.
2001 “Islam and the West: Conflict and Dialogue,” Conference co-organizer and convener. University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore.
1998 “Sangha River Network, Research Meetings,” co-organizer and convener. Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France.
1997 “Resource Use Relations in the Trinational Sangha River Region, Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions.” Conference co
organizer and convener. Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Service as Reviewer
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, African Studies Review, International Security, Africa Today, Anthropology Quarterly, American Political Science Review, National Science Foundation, American Ethnologist, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Journal of Hunter-Gatherer Research
Professional Affiliations
1996-present American Anthropological Association member
1996-present African Studies Association member
1995-present Fulbright Association member
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APPLIED and CONSULTING EXPERIENCE
2003-06 Board of Directors, Singapore International Foundation, Centre for International Service Learning.
2002-03 Consultant, Singapore International Foundation, Youth Expedition Programme.
1994 Educational consultant, White Oak Conservation Center, Okapi Wildlife Reserve, Epulu, Zaïre.
1989 Volunteer, Dareda Hospital, Dareda, Tanzania.
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2008-present Public School 87, New York City: Public speaker on topics relating to Anthropology, African geography and culture, and readings from my own field
work; Classroom parent representative.
2009-present West Side Soccer League: Coach of multiple, often concurrent youth soccer teams; Named Coach of the Year, 2014; Nominated as Coach of the Year,
2013.
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LANGUAGES
- German (fluent)
- French (fluent)
- Bangando (fluent)
- Mandarin (conversational)
- KiSwahili and KiNgwana (proficient)