Teaching and Other Academic Positions
My long-term teaching career has been at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I began in 1983.
Over the years I've held teaching positions at many other campuses as well, including Princeton University, Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), University of Virginia, Lewis and Clark College, Virginia Union University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
I've also had research or visiting scholar positions at several other campuses, including the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris) and the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (Lisbon). Currently, I am a Visiting Scholar in Anthropology at Brown University.
Supervisory Work with Doctoral Students
I consider it an honor to work with doctoral students who will be the next generation of leaders both within and outside the academy.
At the University of Illinois, I have closely supervised 16 advisees who have completed their doctorates in anthropology. Of these, five have achieved tenure, two are on tenure-track positions, and two have administrative positions at U.S. universities; one works as an applied medical anthropologist for a US government agency; two are visiting assistant professors at U.S. universities; three work internationally as consultants and researchers; and one is working as a librarian.
Currently I am supervising one doctoral student at Illinois who is completing doctoral field research.
I also enjoy serving as an external member on doctoral committees for other students at campuses beyond Illinois (currently, two).
With Lance Larkin (left) and Tim Landry (right) receiving their doctorates in anthropology from the University of Illinois in May 2014.
For my work mentoring doctoral students I am honored to have received a campus-wide award from our Graduate College.
Within my department, I have also received two mentoring awards for my work with graduate students (2011 and 1995).
At Illinois, I am gratified to have appeared on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent 23 times for teaching:
Cultural Images of Women (undergraduate class)
Memoirs of Africa (undergraduate honors seminar)
Women's Lives (undergraduate honors seminar)
Ethnographic Writing (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Kinship/Culture/Africa (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Writing Ethnography (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Interpretive Anthropology (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Religions of Africa (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Religion in Anthropological Perspective (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Infants and Young Children in Cross-Cultural Perspective (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
African Immigrants in Europe (combined graduate/upper-level undergraduate seminar)
Explorations in Feminism and Postmodernism in Anthropology (doctoral seminar)
Feminism, Gender and Sexuality (doctoral seminar)
Kinship and Social Structure in Africa (doctoral seminar)
Research Proposal Seminar (doctoral seminar)
Dissertation Writing Workshop (doctoral seminar)
Working with Undergraduate Students
I enjoy teaching and mentoring undergraduate students across all majors. In recent years, I've supervised several undergrad students who have worked as my research assistants, as part of the wonderful Researchers Initiative program at UIUC. This year, Huiyi Chen has worked on constructing genealogies from my fieldnotes with Cape Verdeans. Juliana Snarski has worked to help establish the Beng Community Fund (BCF) as a legal entity recognized by the state of Illinois, and will serve as the BCF's secretary for the next two years.
Huiyi Chen presented a poster about her work as my research assistant during AY 2014-15 (UIUC Researchers Initiative conference, April 2015).
Juliana Snarski presented a poster about her work as my research assistant during AY 2014-15 (UIUC Researchers Initiative conference, April 2015).
At UIUC, I am lucky to teach courses for our Campus Honors Program (usually one course/year). Capped at 18 students, these small seminars always produce lively and engaged conversations with some of our campus' most academically impressive students.
Congratulating Kathleen Downey at the UIUC Campus Honors Program reception for new graduates, May 2015. Kathleen graduated as a Bronze Tablet scholar (among the top 3% of her graduating class), majoring in Community Health, with a focus on Rehabilitation and Disability Studies. Next year she will attend Adelphi University to gain an M.S. in Social Work, with an emphasis on disability studies. I am honored to have taught Kathleen, an outstanding and exceptionally thoughtful student, in an anthropology course on Women's Lives. You can read some of her awesome writings here and here.
Doctoral Students' Awards
Since 1991, under my direction, 16 doctoral advisees have won 50 predoctoral, doctoral, and postdoctoral research grants, fellowships, and prizes in national competitions (average 3/student), including:
Social Science Research Council (10)
Fulbright-IIE, Fulbright-Hays, and Fulbright Group Project Abroad (10)
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (6)
Woodrow Wilson Foundation (4)
Rockefeller Foundation (3)
Ford Foundation (2)
Andrew Mellon Foundation (2)
West African Research Association (2)
American Council of Learned Societies (2)
Other agencies (3)
National graduate student paper awards (6)
I love teaching and enjoy developing new courses! Many of my courses are cross-listed in several departments, including Anthropology, African Studies, Gender and Women's Studies, Religious Studies, Global Studies, and European Union Studies. Over the years, I have taught over two dozen courses, including:
Graduate Level:
Feminism, Gender and Sexuality
Feminist Theory in Anthropology
Explorations in Feminism and Postmodernism in Anthropology
Cultural Images of Women
Research Proposal Seminar
Dissertation Writing Seminar
Kinship/Culture/Power/Africa
Kinship and Social Structure in Africa
Integrated Four-Subfield Seminar
Combined Graduate/Advanced Undergraduate Level:
African Immigrants in Europe
Writing Ethnography
Infants and Young Children in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology: Theory and Method
Religions of Africa
Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology
Religion in Anthropological Perspective
Cultures of Africa
Undergraduate Level:
Cultural Images of Women/Women's Lives
Women Cross-Culturally/Women in World Cultures
Women's Bodies, Women's Lives
Memoirs of Africa
Images of the "Other": Anthropological Perspectives
Personal Anthropology
Introduction to Modern Africa
Anthropology in a Changing World
Global Politics of African Women's Bodies
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Introduction to Social Anthropology and Ethnology