Department of Anthropology

(contact Jennifer Anderson )

(contact Sandra Cate )

Sandra Cate, Ph.D. (Lecturer)

Education:
Ph.D. - UC Berkeley, 1999

Interests:
Dr. Cate offers courses in social-cultural anthropology. Her work examines transnationalism and global culture, tourism, consumption and exchange, art in cultural context, folklore, and religion and ritual. She has done fieldwork in Southeast Asia — most recently in Laos — and among Southeast Asian communities in the U.S. and Europe. Her latest book, Making Merit, Making Art: A Thai Buddhist Temple in Wimbledon (2002), is is now available from University of Hawai'i Press.

(Contact Chuck Darrah)

Charles N. Darrah, Ph.D. (Professor)

Education:
Ph.D. - Stanford, 1990

Interests:
Dr. Darrah directs our new graduate program in Applied Anthropology and offers graduate and undergraduate courses courses in cultural anthropology, ethnographic methods, and applied anthropology. He is interested in the relationship of technology  and organization to work and skills; industrial ethnography; anthropology of education; and identity and culture in Silicon Valley.  His research on work has resulted in the book, Learning and work: An exploration in industrial ethnography.Since 1991 he has been working with Jan English-Lueck at San Jose State developing the Silicon Valley Cultures Project (SVCP). He is a research affiliate of the Institute for the Future and will be our next departmental chairperson. For more information, visit the homepage for The Silicon Valley Cultures Project. For information on his new book, Busier than Ever, visit our faculty news page.

(contact Jan English-Lueck )

Jan English-Lueck, Ph.D. (Professor)

Education:
Ph.D. - UC, Santa Barbara, 1985

Interests:

Jan English-Lueck received her doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara, studying social change and community among alternative health practitioners. This research resulted in the book, Health in the New Age: A Study in California Holistic Practices. She went on to investigate visions of the future among science and technology workers in the People's Republic and Hong Kong, resulting in the book Chinese Intellectuals on the World Frontier.

Since 1991 she has been working with Chuck Darrah at San Jose State developing the Silicon Valley Cultures Project (SVCP). In the course of this research, she has investigated information technologies in the homespace and workplace, and the complex dance of work, home and community life in Silicon Valley and other global technopols. Her new book,  Cultures@SiliconValley is now available. She is a research affiliate of the Institute for the Future. For more information, visit her faculty homepage or the homepage for The Silicon Valley Cultures Project. For information on her new book, Busier than Ever, visit our faculty news page.

(contact Karen Fjelstad)

Karen Fjelstad, Ph.D. (Lecturer)

Education:
Ph.D. - University of Hawaii, 1995

Interests:
Karen is a cultural anthropologist with interests in gender, religion, and cross-cultural psychiatry. She teaches courses in Culture and Personality and the Emerging Global Culture.

Karen has studied spirit possession among Vietnamese-Americans in Silicon Valley and Vietnamese in Hanoi. Karen has been working with Aid to Children Without Parents, an organization which helps disadvantaged children in Vietnam. Her most recent project was to help build an elementary school in Dam Sam hamlet, central Vietnam.

(contact Roberto Gonzalez)

Roberto Gonzalez, Ph.D. (Associate Professor) - On leave Fall 2009

Education:
Ph.D. - UC, Berkeley 1998

Interests:
Roberto Gonzalez is a sociocultural anthropologist whose work focuses upon the relationship between humans and their environment; science, technology, and society; militarism and culture; and anthropological ethics. He has conducted ethnographic research in Latin America and the United States. Professor Gonzalez teaches a broad range of undergraduate and graduate courses on anthropological theory and methods, social and cultural controls, global processes, and economic anthropology. He has published many articles in academic journals, newspapers, and other periodicals. Professor Gonzalez has also published three books: Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca (2001), Anthropologists in the Public Sphere: Speaking Out on War, Peace, and American Power (2004), and American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and the Human Terrain (2009).

(Contact Jonathan Karpf)

Jonathan Karpf (Lecturer)

Education:
ABD - UC, Berkeley, 1980

Interests:
Jonathan Karpf offers courses in physical anthropology, human and non-human primate behavior and evolution, human heredity, new and old world archaeology, and human sexuality. His research interests include human evolution, the biological basis of behavior, non-human primate behavior and ecology, and the use of forensic anthropology to promote human rights, especially in Guatemala. He also teaches an innovative new, hands-on course in the Archaeology of Metals (ANTH 187).

(contact Marco Meniketti)

Marco Meniketti's Faculty Webpage

Marco Meniketti, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor)

Education:
Ph.D. - Michigan State University, 2004

Interests:
Marco Meniketti is an Anthropological Archaeologist with scholarly training in Historical, Industrial and Nautical archaeology. He has broad interests ranging from the age of exploration to colonial and industrial development, which he approaches from world-systems perspective. His focus is on diasporic populations and identity formation among marginalized communities, particularly in the Caribbean. Current projects include investigation of maritime slave communities and the ethnicity of exploration.

For more about Dr. Meniketti visit his Caribbean Historical Archaeology website.

(contact Carol Mukhopadhyay)

Carol Mukhopadhyay's Faculty Website

Mukhopadhyay, Carol (Professor)

Education:

Ph.D - University Riverside, 1980

Interests:

Dr. Mukhopadhyay is a cultural anthropologist who currently offers courses on
Human Sexuality.  Her research specialties are gender, family, multicultural
education-race, culture-cognition, and methodology. She has done fieldwork in
both India and the United States on women's science-related academic career
choices.  She also works on race-gender-education-culture issues. She is a Key
Advisor on the American Anthropological Association's public education project
and traveling museum exhibit, RACE: Are We So Different?

Some recent publications include:
How Exportable are Western Theories of Gendered Science? A Cautionary Word. In
Neelam Kumar, ed. Women and Science in India: A Reader;
"Getting Rid of the Word “Caucasian”. In Pollack, Mica, ed.  Everyday
Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School.
How Real is Race? A Sourcebook on Race, Culture, and Biology, with Henze and
Moses; and
"A Feminist Cognitive Anthropology: The Case of Women and Mathematics, Ethos
Journal.

(Contact Tracey O'Rourke)

Tracey O'Rourke (Lecturer)

Education:

Ph.D - University of Michigan, 1994

Interests:

Dr. O'Rourke is a physical anthropologist with an emphasis in Paleoanthropology.  She is particularly interested in archaic and modern humans and the question of Modern Human Origins.  Her research has included work on everything from Eocene primates to modern humans with an overriding question about variation and how it is interpreted.

(contact Lorna Pierce)

Lorna Pierce ( Lecturer) - Spring only

Education:
Ph.D. - University of Tennessee, 1987

Interests:
Dr. Pierce is a physical anthropologist who specializes in skeletal biology, paleopathology, and forensic anthropology. Her current research in human osteology focuses on the epidemiology of pathological lesions in prehistoric populations and the determination of biological heritage in modern skeletal remains.

(contact William Reckmeyer)

William Reckmeyer Faculty Website

William Reckmeyer, Ph.D. (Professor) - On leave AY 09/10

Education:
Ph.D. (Russian Studies) - American University, 1982; post-doctoral studies (Leadership) - Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Interests:
Dr. Reckmeyer is a systems scientist/cybernetician who offers undergraduate and graduate courses in leadership, global affairs, national strategy, and systems science.  His work as a scholar and practitioner has primarily focused on using collaborative systems approaches to develop more integrative solutions for complex strategic, organizational, and technological challenges.  This has included more than thirty multi-year applied projects (strategic planning efforts, policy studies, leadership development programs, scientific research, etc) for academic, government, corporate, non-profit, and philanthropic clients in the United States and Europe. 

Bill currently serves as Faculty Chair of the International Study Program in Global Citizenship at the Salzburg Global Seminar, Strategic Advisor & Core Faculty Member with the CA Agricultural Leadership Foundation, and Strategic Advisor to the CA Levees Roundtable.  He has also served as Chief Systems Scientist for the Systems of Systems Center of Excellence (2003-2006) and as a Visiting Professor or Fellow at more than a dozen major universities in the United States and abroad – including Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (2005-2006), University of Maryland’s Burns Academy of Leadership (2000-2005); Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education (1993-1999), and Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology’s PhD Program in Systems Science (1986-1993).  A former President of the American Society for Cybernetics (1983-1985), Bill was a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow (1988-1992) and has been a Salzburg Fellow several times (1995-2004).

(contact Guadalupe Salazar)

Guadalupe Salazar, Ph.D (Assistant Professor)

Education:

Ph.D. - UC San Francisco/UC Berkeley, 2004

Interests:

Dr. Salazar teaches courses in medical anthropology, Latin America, Urban Anthropology, culture & conflict, childhood & youth, violence, and social suffering. Her current research projects explore the lived experience of street children in Chile and quality of life among children and adolescents with stigmatizing chronic illness.

(contact Robert Simpkins)

Robert Simpkins Faculty Webpage

Robert Simpkins (Lecturer)

Education:
MA, Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1995
ABD, Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison 2005

Interests:
Robert Simpkins is an Archaeologist with field experience studying Old and
New World Civilizations, with a specialization in the Civilizations of South
Asia. His interests include the study of trade networks, monumental
architecture, and religious traditions. As a graduate student, he was
involved in excavations at Harappa, Pakistan, a major center of the Indus
Valley Civilization, and is currently conducting a study of architecture and
trade routes in the Kingdom of Golconda, in South India. From 1994 to 1999,
he also worked as an Archaeological Assistant in the Office of the State
Archaeologist for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. From 2004 to
2009, he served as President of the Santa Clara County Archaeological
Society.

(contact Elizabeth Weiss)

Elizabeth Weiss's Faculty Webpage

Elizabeth Weiss, Ph.D., (Assistant Professor)

Education:

Dr. Weiss completed her B.A. in anthropology from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996 and finished her M.A. in anthropology from California State University, Sacramento in 1998. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in Environmental Dynamics (an interdisciplinary program involving anthropology and the geosciences), which she completed in 2001. From 2002 to 2004, she was a post-doctoral research associate at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Interests:
Elizabeth Weiss is an assistant professor in the Anthropology Department who is teaching physical anthropology courses, such as osteology, introduction to human evolution, and forensics. Her primary research expertise is in post-cranial studies using CT scans, X-rays, and metrics on past populations to reconstruct lifestyles and better understand bone biology.

For a list of publications, conference presentations, and her curriculum vitae, please visit Elizabeth Weiss's personal home page: http://www.anthrosciences.com.

(contact Kathleen Zaretsky)

Kathleen Zaretsky (Volunteer)

Education:
ABD - UC, Berkeley, 1972

Interests:
Kathleen Zaretsky teaches courses in cultural anthropology, culture and conflict, film, human development, and human sexuality. Her research interests include indigenous peoples' movements, utopian communities, gender and sexuality, India, and Guatemala.