Susan Seizer
Associate Professor, Scripps College Anthropology Gender & WomenÕs Studies 1030 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711 ph. 909-607-3547, fax 909-607-7143 sseizer@scrippscollege.edu
Academic Employment History
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Gender & WomenÕs Studies. Scripps College, 2003-present. Department Chair, Anthropology. Scripps College, 1998-present. Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Gender & WomenÕs Studies. Scripps College, 1998-2003. Department Chair, GWS. Scripps College, 1999-2001, co-chair 2002-2003. Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, 1998. Visiting Professor of WomenÕs Studies, UCSB, 1996.
Education
Areas of Specialization
Cultural Anthropology; Ethnographic Narrative; Stigma in Social Theory; Humor in Use; Performance Studies; South Asian Studies; Queer Studies; Disability Studies; Gender, Feminism & WomenÕs Studies; Anthropological Field Methods
Honors, Awards and Fellowships
Mary Wig Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, Scripps College 2003-2004 Mary Wig Johnson Faculty Achivement Award for Excellence in Service to the Community, Scripps College 2002-2003 Scripps College Faculty Research Grants, Summer 1999, Fall 2001, Spring 2006 American Council of Learned Societies International Area Studies Fellow, 2001-02 Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Anthropology, New York University, Fall 1997 Committee on South Asian Studies, Univ. of Chicago, Dissertation Support 1993-4, 1996-7 WomenÕs Studies Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, UCSB, 1995-96 Sylvia Forman Prize in Feminist Anthropology, Association for Feminist Anthropology, 1995 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Fdtn, 1994-95 American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Research Fellow, India, 1992–93 Fulbright-Hays Fellow, United States Department of Education, India, 1991–92 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, 1988–1991 American Institute of Indian Studies, Advanced Tamil Language Program in India, 1989-90 Cmte. on Institutional Cooperation, Foreign Language Traveling Scholar, Summer 1988 Jacob K. Javits Fellow, 1987–88 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, ÒEmergent Forms,Ó1987 Barnard College Cabell Greet Award for Excellency in English, 1981 Elected to PHI BETA KAPPA, 1981
Field Experience and Foreign Exchange
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India. 22 months doctoral dissertation fieldwork in Tamilnadu, South India, 1991-93 Fieldwork support: Fulbright Scholarship, 1991-2; American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowship, 1992–93 Fieldwork supervision: Dissertation committee: Bernard S. Cohn, Jean Comaroff, Nancy D. Munn and Norman Cutler, U Chicago. Site advisor Dr. Mu. Ramaswamy, Tamil Univ., Tanjore, India
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India. 9 mos intensive language study and preliminary research site preparation, 1989–90 Scholarship support: AIIS Language Program, Dr. K. Paramasivam, Tamil language instruction supervisor
Residency support: Funded in part by the New York Foundation for the Arts, in part by private donors. Site supervision El Comite Nicaraguensa del Arte Internationale
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Alaska. Alaskan Internships Program. Craig, Alaska, Spring 1976
Professional Service
Panel Organizer and Chair, Post-field Positionings. AAA meetings, Wash. DC, Dec. 2005 Convener and organizer, Interdisciplinary Faculty Working Group on LGBTQ Histories. Funded by a J. Stanley Johnson Faculty Grant, Scripps College, 2005-2006. Faculty Board Member, South India Term Abroad (SITA) program, 2005 to present Faculty Executive Committee, Scripps College, 2002-2004 Panel Organizer and Co-chair. The Significance of Live Performance in Media-Saturated Locales. American Anthropological Assocciation meetings, New Orleans Nov. 2002 Curator, Gender & WomenÕs Studies Event Series. Scripps College, 1998-present Panel Organizer and Chair, Embodied Feminisms. PSWSA Conference, SD, CA, April 2000 Chair, Ruth Benedict Prize Committee, SOLGA, American Anthropological Assoc., 1999 Curator, South Asia at Chicago: Fifty Years of Scholarship. Regenstein Library, Special Collections, U of Chicago, 1997 Panel Chair, Sharing the Dance: Essays on Performance in Memory of Cynthia J. Novack. American Anthropological Association, 96th Annual Meeting, Nov. 1997 Panel Organizer and Chair, Worldly Women and Homely Acts: Cultural Codes and Spatial Practices in South Asia. South Asian WomenÕs Conference, L.A., CA, Sept. 1997; Association of Asian Studies annual meeting, Chicago, IL, March 1997; South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, Oct. 1996 Panel Organizer and Chair, Gendered Cartographies: the politics of space and sexuality in South Asia. American Anthropological Assn Meetings, Atlanta, GA, 1994 Curator and Photographer, Special Drama: stage artists and publicity materials from South India. Haskell Hall exhibit, Dept. of Anthropology, U. of Chicago, 1994-95
Professional Memberships:
American Anthropological Association (AAA) Society for Cultural Anthropology (SCA) Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA) Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGA) Association for Feminist Anthropology (AFA)
Language Proficiencies:
Tamil, fluent (Reading, Writing, Speaking) French, fluent (Reading, Speaking) Spanish, passable (Reading, Listening, Speaking)
Bibliography Publications and Manuscripts
Stigmas of the Tamil Stage: An Ethnography of Special Drama Artists in South India. Duke University Press, April 2005. (Reviewed in Anthropological Quarterly V78N3:751-764, Summer 2005.)
ÒOffstage Negotiations of Stigma by Special Drama Actresses in South India.Ó In Everyday Life in South Asia, ed. Diane Mines and Sarah Lamb. Indiana University Press, 2002.
ÒRoadwork: Offstage with Special Drama Actresses in Tamilnadu, South India.Ó Cultural Anthropology, V15N2,:217-259, May 2000.
"Jokes, Gender, and Discursive Distance on the Tamil Popular Stage." American Ethnologist, V24N1:62-90, Feb. 1997.
ÒSouth Asia at Chicago: Fifty Years of Scholarship.Ó Exhibit catalogue, University of Chicago Regenstein Library Department of Special Collections, Sept. 1997.
ÒPlaying the Field.Ó Review essay, Taboo: sex, identity and erotic subjectivity in anthropological fieldwork, D. Kulick and M. Wilson, eds. In Transition: An International Review. Issue 71, V6N3:100-113, Fall 1996.
"Paradoxes of Visibility in the Field: Rites of Queer Passage in Anthropology." Public Culture, V8N1:73-100, Fall 1995.
Book Review, You Don't Need FourWomen to Play Shakespeare, I. Prosky. American Anthropologist, V96N1, March 1994.
Book Review, The Theater of the Mahabharata, R. Frasca. South Asia Outreach Newsletter, V16N1, 1992.
"The Women's Circus Trip to Nicaragua." Heresies, V6N2, Issue 22, 1987.
Academic Conference Presentations ÒThe Afterlife of Fieldwork Relations.Ó
ÒPostfield Positionings: Introductory Remarks.Ó
ÒEverything You See is Part of the History of This Place.Ó
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Bernard S. Cohn Memorial Conference, University of Chicago, May 2005
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Invited Session honoring the Scholarly Vision of B. S. Cohn, American Anthropological Association meetings, S.F., CA, Nov. 2000.
ÒLaugh til it Hurts: Domestic Violence on the Tamil Popular Stage.Ó
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United States Educational Foundation in India, Chennai, India, Nov. 2001. á Conference on Visual Media, Mass Communication, and Violence in South Asia. Center for Asian Studies, U Texas-Austin, TX, April 2001. á Feminist Anthropology Speakers Series, Occidental College, L.A., CA, April 2001
"The Drama Tongue and Local Eyes: A Secret Language among Theater Artists in India." á Asian Studies Speakers Series, Pomona College, Claremont, CA, Feb. 2000 á American Ethnological Society Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, March 1999
ÒRoad Work: Off-stage Scripts for Acting the Ideal Tamil Woman.Ó
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Scripps College Faculty Seminar, Claremont, CA, March 2000 ¥ South Asian WomenÕs Conference, 2nd annual, L.A., CA, Sept. 1997 ¥ Graduate Conference on Space in South Asia, Univ. of Chicago, May 1997 ¥ Association for Asian Studies, 49th annual meeting, Chi., IL, March 1997 ¥ Conference on South Asia , 25th annual meeting, Madison, WI, Oct. 1996 ÒWomen with Swords: Matriarchal Queendoms on the Tamil Popular Stage.Ó
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Women in Religious Studies Salon, Claremont Graduate University, Nov. 1998
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American Anthropological Assoc., 97th Annual Meeting, Phil. PA, Dec. 1998
ÒDancing while Wearing Anthropological Glasses.Ó ¥ American Anthropological Assoc., 96th annual meeting, Wash. D.C., Nov. 1997
ÒRepresentations of the Reign of Tipu Sultan.Ó ¥ Centre of South Asian Studies conference ÒThe Place of the Past: Uses of History in South Asia,Ó School of Oriental and African Studies, U. of London, April 1997 "ÔThe Distances Appropriate to HumorÕ: Jokes, Gender, and Discursive Distance on the Tamil Popular Stage." ¥ WomenÕs Studies Program Public Colloquium, UCSB, Jan.1996 ¥ American Anthropological Assoc. 94th annual meetings, Wash. DC, Nov.1995 ¥ Association for Asian Studies 47th annual meeting, Wash. DC, April 1995 ¥ International Society for Humor Studies conference, Ithaca, NY, June 1994
"Gender Plays: Sociospatial Paradigms on the Tamil Popular Stage." ¥ American Anthropological Association 93rd annual meetings, Atlanta, GA, Dec., 1994 ¥ 23rd annual Conference on South Asia , Madison WI, Nov 3-5, 1994 ¥ South Asia Workshop, University of Chicago, Chi, IL, Oct. 1994
"Paradoxes of Visibility in the Field: Rites of Queer Passage in Anthropology." ¥ Culture, Life Course, & Mental Health Workshop, Univ. of Chicago, IL, May 1997 ¥ Graduate seminar on Religious Studies/Queer Studies, UCSB, CA, April 1996 ¥ Gay and Lesbian Studies Workshop, University of Chicago, IL, Nov. 1994 ¥ National Graduate Student Conference on LGBT Studies, U Texas-Austin, March 1994
Invited Guest Lectures
ÒFiery Configurations: Same-Sex Relations in India.Ó Pomona College, for Prof. Ralph Bolton, Spring 2001, 2003. ÒAnthropological Research in South Asia.Ó Claremont Graduate University, Cultural Studies seminar, for Prof. Ranu Samantrai, March 2000 ÒResearch Methods in Cultural Anthropology.Ó Psychology Dept., for Prof. Alan Hartley, Scripps College, March 1999 & 2000 ÒCurrent Anthropological Research: on analyzing popular cultureÓ Presentation to the Social Sciences Visiting Committee, University of Chicago, Nov. 1996 ÒFantastic Analogs: Dravidian kinship and the representation of love-marriage on the Tamil popular stage.Ó TeachersÕ Institute in Asian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. E. Valentine Daniel, faculty host. June 1995 ÒGender Play: Staging the Social.Ó The Artist in Society, Columbia College, Chi, IL. Joan Erdman, faculty host. May 1995 "On the Uses of Street Theater in Activist Movements." Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Chi, IL. Jeannette May, faculty host. Nov 1994 "Working Women and the Tamil Public Sphere." South Asian Civilizations, University of Chicago. Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, faculty host. May 1994 "Reflections on South Indian Art and Ritual." Art Institute of Chicago. Marilyn Holberg, faculty host. Oct 1993 "New, Known, and Noteworthy: ReadingÔSpecial Drama Notices." Fatima College Tamil Department, Madurai, India. Shenbagham Ramasamy, faculty host. June 1992 "Observing the Observers: Laban movement analysis and the question of cross–cultural application." St. Xavier's College, Tirunelveli, India. Dr. Lourdu, faculty host. April 1990
Theatrical Performance History and Employment
Director of Development, Circus Amok. Brooklyn-based circus-theater company, 1996-98 Editorial Consultant, Juggling Gender, video documentary by Tami Gold, Dist. by Women Make Movies, 1992 Chicago, 1990–91 productions. NYC (multiple venues), 1982–87 Performer and Co–founder:
¥ "The Women's Circus." Traveling circus-theater. Mexico and Nicaragua, 1986–7 ¥ "The Soft Shoulder Roadside Revue." A two–woman traveling circus, with Jennifer Miller. U.S. & Canada, 1986 Performer and Company member: ¥ "Johanna Boyce and The Calf Women," a dance company. NYC, 1984–87 ¥ "They Won't Shut Up," an improvisational performance collective. NYC, 1983–85
¥ ÒMore Fire! Productions,Ó a womenÕs theater company. NYC, 1982–84 Program Moderator, Open Performance, School for Movement Research, NYC, 1986 Instructor, "Contact Improvisation," The School for Movement Research, NYC 1985-86 Movement Therapist, NYC Parks and Recreation Department, Brownsville, Brooklyn 1986 After-school Dance Instructor, Creative Dance, Brooklyn Public Schools, 1985 Administrative Assistant, Hunter College Dance Therapy Masters Degree Program, 1982-86 Editorial Assistant, Dance Research Journal & American Journal of Dance Therapy, 1982–86
References
Dean Michael Deane Lamkin, Dean of Faculty, Scripps College. 909-607-2822
Prof. Daniel A. Segal, Pitzer College Anthropology & History. dsegal@pitzer.edu |