Assistant Professor 
Ph.D. Arizona State University, 2018

 

Office Hours Spring 2020:

TR 9:00am-10:00am

Clark Hall 402G
408-924-4778
melissa.beresford@sjsu.edu

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Dr. Melissa Beresford is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at San José State University. Her research focuses on the intersection of the economy and the environment, largely aimed at understanding how humans respond to economic inequality and water insecurity. To date, her work has examined (1) community-based economies, (2) efforts to create alternative (hybrid/non-market) economies, and (3) how such economies can be used (or not) to address water and other resource insecurities. She is also an anthropological methodologist, focused on researching and innovating methods for ethnographic research and qualitative data analysis. Her fieldwork is primarily based in Cape Town, South Africa, however she has collaborated on research in Latin America, the United States, and in cross-cultural context. 

As an enthusiastic and experienced teacher, Melissa's primary teaching foci include supporting diverse students; research methods training; pedagogy and practice of diverse teaching modalities (including online); and experiential learning (undergraduate research experiences, study abroad). She also teaches Qualitative Data Analysis for the National Science Foundation funded Research Methods in Anthropology training program and in other national workshops for students and research professionals.