Michelle Bigenho, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
School of Social Science, Hampshire
College
Amherst, MA 01002
(413) 559-5355 -- Fax (413) 559-5620 mbigenho@hampshire.edu
I am a sociocultural anthropologist with a geographical specialization in Latin America and topical specializations in expressive culture, music, ethnicity, and nation-states. I have conducted field research in Bolivia and Peru, and my current research interests include alternative modernities, sensory experience and meaning, authorship and indigenous rights, transnational cultural work, memory in post-conflict societies, comparative multiculturalism, and folklorization and patrimony.
In the fall of 2002, I will be on sabbatical.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Cornell University 1998 Cultural Anthropology Dissertation: "Sonorous Power: Making Ethnic and National Places Through Bolivian Music Performances"
Magister Pontifícia Universidad Católica del Perú 1991 Antropología Thesis: "Contratos con Dios, pactos con el diablo: La perspectiva religiosa de músicos y danzantes migrantes lucaninos en Lima" Abstract
B.A. UCLA 1988 Political Science, Latin American Studies
COURSE REPERTOIRE
Indigenous Politics in Latin America
Life Stories From Latin America
Zapatistas, Fidelistas, and el Che: Changing Visions of Latin American Society (with Carollee Bengelsdorf)
Political Economy of Pleasure (with Bethany Ogdon
Anthropological Approaches to Popular Culture
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PUBLICATIONS AND PROJECTS
Sounding Indigenous: Authenticity in Bolivian Music Performance. Palgrave, 2002 Abstract/ Website
Current projects: Oral histories of Bolivian folklore movements; Ethnography of studio recording in Bolivia; comparative multiculturalism in Japan and Bolivia.
1999 "Sensing Locality in Yura: Rituals of Carnival and of the Bolivian State " American Ethnologist Abstract
1998 "Coca as a Musical Trope of Nation-ness" Political and Legal Anthropology Review Abstract
1996 "Imaginando lo imaginado: las narrativas de las naciones bolivianas" Revista andina Abstract
MUSIC
Since the age of three I have played the violin and music has been an integral part of my research and relaxation.
Bolivian music:
Música de Maestros
Irish music
Peruvian music: violín
ayacuchano
American Youth Symphony 1982-1990
NEWS AND OTHER LINKS
New York Times
La republica (Peru)
El comercio (Peru
Caretas (Peru)
La prensa (Bolivia)
Los tiempos (Bolivia)