University of Southern California
USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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About
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Janet Alison HoskinsProfessor of Anthropology and ReligionContact Information E-mail: jhoskins@usc.edu Phone: (213) 740-1913 Office: GFS 131 LINKS Faculty Profile on Departmental Website Personal Website Professional Website |
Education |
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 Ph.D. Anthropology, Harvard University, 1984
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M.A. Anthropology, Harvard University, 1982
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B.A. Anthropology, Pomona College, Claremont, 1975
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Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History |
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Tenure Track Appointments |
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Professor of Anthropology, University of Southern California, 09/01/1985-
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Research Scholar, Getty Research Institute, The Getty Center, Los Angeles, Ca., 09/01/2002-06/01/2003
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Scholar Associate, Getty Research Institute, The Getty Center, Los Angeles, Ca., 10/01/1995-06/01/1996
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Professor of Anthropology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 06/01/1995-10/01/1995
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Research Fellow, The Insitute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 09/01/1990-06/01/1991
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 01/01/1984-09/01/1985
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Visiting and Temporary Appointments |
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Lee Kong Chian International Fellowship, Visiting Professorship at Stanford and the National University of Singapore, 2012-2013
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Visiting Researcher in Residence, Kyoto University Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 2011-2012
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Description of Research |
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Summary Statement of Research Interests |
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Janet's research interests are defined around several overlapping themes, each of which draws on a separate set of interdisciplinary connections : (1) indigenous representations of the past and of time, (2) the relation between gender, exchange and narrative, and (3) colonial and postcolonial theory, with specific reference to Caodaism, a new universal religion born in French Indochina in 1926. Her first book The Play of Time: Kodi Perspectives on Calendars, History and Exchange (winner of the 1996 Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies) was both an ethnographic study of the politics of time in an Eastern Indonesian society and a theoretical argument about alternate temporalities in the modern world. Based on more than three years of fieldwork with the Kodi people of Sumba, it examined indigenous calendars, historical narratives and new symbols of nationalist unity to show how a complex ancestral heritage has been changed in the contemporary context. Her second book, Headhunting and the Social Imagination in Southeast Asia (1996), continued this interest in history and anthropology by examining the reasons why headhunting rituals are still performed in the postcolonial era, several generations after pacification. These new instances suggest that headhunting is a powerful symbolic trope that resonates throughout the region, pitting a heritage of violent raids against new anxieties about domination by external political forces. Her third book Biographical Objects: How Things Tell the Stories of People's Lives (1998) explores the relationship between persons and their possessions, and in particular the ways in which both men and women may choose to tell their own life histories by using a domestic object as a pivot for narrative articulation. It draws on the fields of gender studies, cultural studies, literary analysis and exchange theory, and opposes forms of biographic identification to the different forms of materialism in Western consumerism. Her current book project, The Left Eye of God: Caodaism travels from Vietnam to California, looks at the changing historical contexts of a new millenarian religion that articulated an Asian synthesis of world religions in the context of anti-colonial resistance, the American war in Vietnam, and the post 1975 diaspora. |
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Research Keywords |
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| Visual Anthropology, Colonial and Postcolonial Theory, Transnational Religion, Ritual Performance, Indigenous Representations of the Past and of Time, Material Culture, Gender, Exchange, Narrative and Healing | |
Funded Research |
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Contracts and Grants Awarded |
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Transpacific Connections, Translocal imaginations (Luce Foundation), Janet Hoskins, Viet Nguyen, $200,000, 2011-2012
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Religion on the Move: Crossing Borders, Setting Boundaries (Henry Luce Foundation), Diane Winston, Janet Hoskins, $395,000, 2010-2011
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Vietnamese Indigenous Religions (National Science Foundation), Janet Hoskins, $28,000, 2009-2010
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Ethnic Resilience & Indigenous Religion (National Science Foundation), Janet Hoskins, $245,000, 07/01/2008-07/01/2010
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Vietnamese Indigenous Religion Finds A New Home In California (California Council for the Humanities), Hoskins, Janet Alison, $10,000, 09/20/2007-03/20/2008
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Caodai in California, Vietnam and Cambodia (Pew Charitable Trusts), Janet Hoskins, $2,500, 11/01/2004-11/01/2005
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Publications |
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Book |
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Hoskins, J. A., Valeri, V.
(2001).
Fragments from Forests and Libraries. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press.
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Hoskins, J. A., Feldman, M.
(1999).
The Space Between One Self and Another: Anthropology as a Search for Identity. Rome: Donizelli.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(1998).
Biographical Objects: How Things Tell the Stories of People's Lives. London, UK / New York, NY: Routledge.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(1996).
Headhunting and the Social Imagination in Southeast Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(1994).
The Play of Time: Kodi Perspectives on Calendars, History and Exchange. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
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Book Chapter |
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2012).
A Spirit Medium as Architect: Caodaism’s Visual Theology. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Southeast Asian Studies Publications.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2012).
The Spirits You See in the Mirror: Spirit Possession in the Vietnamese American Diaspora. The Southeast Asian Diaspora in the US Cambridge, England: Cambridge Scholars Press.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2012).
Purity, Soul Food and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance. Taking Food Public: Redefining Food in Changing W pp. p. 175-195. New York, New York: Routledge.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2011).
Folklore as a Sacred Heritage: Vietnamese Indigenous Religions in California. Asian American Identities and Practices: Folkloric New York: Lexington Books.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2011).
The Personal and Religious Imagination of the Caodai Leader Pham Cong Tac. Modernity and Dynamics of Tradition in Vietnam: An pp. 45 pages. Ho Chi Minh City: University of Social Sciences.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2009).
"The Camera as Global Vampire? Tourism and Photography in Remote Areas" In David Picard, ed. The Framed World: Tourism, Tourists and Photography. pp. 24 pages. Hants, England: Ashgate Publishers .
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2008).
Can a Hierarchical Religion Survive Without Its Center? Caodaism, Colonialism and Exile in Hierarchy: Persistence and Transformation of Social Formations. pp. p. 113-141. London, England: Berghahn Press.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2008).
From Kuan Yin to Joan Of Arc: Female Deities in the Caodai Pantheon In The Changing Faces of the Goddess in Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2007).
In the Realm of the Indigo Queen; Dyeing, Exchange Magic and the Elusive Tourist Dollar on Sumba in What's the Use of Art? Asian Visual and Material Culture in Context. pp. 141-175. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2007).
La Biographie Visuelle des Objets in Objets et Mémoires. pp. 139-152. Paris: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2007).
Who Owns a Life History? Scholars and Family Members in Dialogue in Southeast Asian Lives: Personal narratives and Historical Experience. pp. 88-124. Athens, Ohio and Singapore: Ohio University Press Southeast Asia Series.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2006).
Agency, Objects and Biography. pp. 74-85. London, UK / New York, NY: Sage Handbook of Material Culture/Routledge.
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Hoskins, J. A., Frank, G.
(2006).
Biography. pp. 287-291. London, UK: Encyclopedia of Sociology/Blackwells Publisher.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2006).
Caodai Exile and Redemption: A New Vietnamese Religion's Struggle for Identity in Religion and Social Justice for Immigrants. pp. 191-210. Rutgers, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2005).
Calling on the Ancestors to Fight Crime: Reinvented Ritual in an Age of Intermittent Violence. pp. p. 131-153. London: Expressive Genres and Historical Change/Ashgate Publisher.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2005).
Slaves, Brides and Other Gifts: Resistance, Marriage and Rank in Eastern Indonesia. pp. p. 109-127. London, UK / New York, NY: Slaves and Resistance in Africa and Asia/Routledge.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2005).
Preface: Introduction to Caodaism. pp. p. 11-15. Redlands, California: Le Caodaisme: Theories des Trois Tresors et des Cinq Fluides/Chan Tam Publisher.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2004).
Calendrical Rituals. pp. p. 65-71. London, UK / New York, NY: Encylopedia of Religon and Society: Religious Rites, Rituals and Festivals/Routledge.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2004).
Matriarchy. pp. p. 1384-89. London, UK / New York, NY: Dictionary of the History of Ideas/Routledge.
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Book Review |
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2010).
The Keeper of the Kris. Anthropology Today (Royal Anthropological Society).
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2006).
Possessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese. Journal of Vietnamese Studies. pp. 308-311.
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Broadcast Media |
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2010, February).
Documentary Educational Resources. Watertown, Massachusetts.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2010, February).
Documentary Educational Resources. Watertown, Massachusetts.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2010, February).
Documentary Educational Resources. Watertown, Massachusetts.
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Encyclopedia Article |
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2007).
Caodaism in Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. 23-25. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
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Journal Article |
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2012).
God’s Chosen People: Race, Religion and Anti-Colonial Resistance in French Indochina". Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
Vol. N. 189 (ARI Working Paper Series), pp. 25 pages.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2012).
A Posthumous Return from Exile: The Legacy of An Anticolonial Religious Leader In Today’s Vietnam. Southeast Asian Studies.
Vol. 1 (2)
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2011).
What are Vietnam’s Indigenous Religions?. Newsletter of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
Vol. 64, pp. 3-7.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2011).
Diaspora as Religious Doctrine: "The Apostle of Vietnamese Nationalism" Comes to California. Journal of Vietnamese Studies (University of California).
Vol. 4 (1), pp. 45-86.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2010).
Seeing Syncretism as Visual Blasphemy: Critical Eyes on Caodai Religious Architecture. Material Religion/Berg Publishers.
Vol. 6 (1), pp. 30-59.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2010).
Derrièrre le voile de l’oeil céleste: Le rôle des apparitions dans l’expansion du Caodaïsme",. Péninsule: Etudes Interdisciplinaires sur l’Asie du Sud- Est Péninsulaire.
Vol. 56 (2), pp. 211-249.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2009).
"When the Sun Rises: A Toraja Priest". Visual Anthropology.
Vol. 22 (2 & 3), pp. 242-244.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2007).
Postcard from the Edge of Empire: Images and Messages from French Indochina in Colonial Photographies. International Institute for Asian Studies.
Vol. 44, pp. 16-17.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2007).
Gendering Religious Objects: Placing Them as Agents in Matrices of Power. Material Religion/Berg Publishers.
Vol. Volume 3 (No. 2.), pp. 112-121.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2004).
Slaves, Brides and Other Gifts: Resistance, Marriage and Rank in Eastern Indonesia. Slavery and Abolition/Routledge.
Vol. Vol. 25 (No. 2), pp. August , Pp. 1-18.
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Hoskins, J. A., Rouse, C.
(2004).
Purity, Soul Food and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance . Cultural Anthropology.
Vol. Vol.19, pp. Issue 2.
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Hoskins, J. A.
(2002).
Predatory Voyeurs: Tourists and Tribal Violence in Remote Indonesia. American Ethnologist/American Anthropological Association.
Vol. Volume 29, pp. number 4.
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Multimedia Scholarship and Creative Works |
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Feast in Dream Village, Ethnographic Documentary based on a decade of field research in Eastern Indonesia, 2009-2010
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Horses of Life and Death, Ethnographic Documentary based on a decade of field research in Eastern Indonesia, 2009-2010
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The Left Eye of God: Caodaism Travels from Vietna, Ethnographic documentary based on five years of research in Vietnam and California, 2008-2009
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Honors and Awards |
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Lee Kong Chian Fellowship to Stanford and the National University of Singapore, 2012-2013
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Documentary Educational Resources to distribute three films, 2008-2009
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Documentary selected for Vietnamese International Film Festival, 2008-2009
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National Science Foundation Research Grant, 2008-2009
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Residency at the Getty Center for Humanities and Arts, Getty Scholar, Getty Research Institute, 9/2002-6/2003
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National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Recipient, For university professors, 9/1995-6/1996
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Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, Harry J. Benda Prize for best book in Southeast Asian Studies, awarded by the Association for Asian Studies, 3/1996
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Residency at the Institute for Advanced Study, Research Scholar, 9/1990-6/1991
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Fulbright Award, Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 9/1987-8/1988
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American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Recipient, Social Science Research Council Fellowship, 9/1979-6/1981
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Service to the University |
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Administrative Appointments |
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Co-founder (with Viet Nguyen) Center for Transpacific Studies, 2010-2011
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Advisory Board, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, 2009-2010
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Review Panels |
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Center for Religion and Civic Culture, Academic Advisory Panel, 2007-2008
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Visual Studies Program, seminar coordinator, 2007-2008
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Service to the Profession |
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Conferences Organized |
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Organizer (with Nancy Lutkehaus and Gary Seaman), Cultural Dimensions of Visual Ethnography: U.S.-China Dialogues, USC, 2009-2010
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Co-organizer (with Viet Nguyen), Transpacific Studies: Homelands, Diasporas and the Movement of Populations, USC, 2009-2010
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Editorships and Editorial Boards |
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Editorial Board, Visual Ethnography, 2012-2013
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Editorial Board, American Ethnologist, 2007-2008
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Editorial Board, Journal of Material Culture, 2007-2008
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Editorial Board, Journal of Religious History, 2007-2008
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Professional Offices |
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President , Society for the Anthropology of Religion, American Anthropological Association, 2011-2012
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