Nancy J. Eberhardt

Professor of Anthropology, Chair of Anthropology and Sociology

General Interests
"I have always been fascinated with the way culture and social organization affect our personal experience of the world. How do the ideas, social arrangements, and structures of power that we happen to have grown up with affect our sense of who we are and what's important? In my research and writing, I try to examine and render visible the contingent relationships between these factors and their significance for people's everyday lives. These were some of the themes I explored in my book, Imagining the Course of Life, which looks at how people's ideas about human development are connected to cultural constructions of self and personhood.

The primary site for my research has been in Thailand, where I have conducted extensive and long-term fieldwork in the Thai-Burma border area and in the city of Chiang Mai. Over the course of this fieldwork experience, I have developed strong research interests in Buddhism, indigenous psychologies, rural economic change, schools and education, cross-border migration, and the contemporary expression of identity in urban, multi-ethnic contexts. I am always looking for ways to introduce students to the pleasures and rigors of ethnographic fieldwork, and often incorporate examples from my own research in my courses."

Years at Knox: 1984 to present

Education
Ph.D., Anthropology, 1984, University of Illinois.
M.A., Anthropology, 1979, University of Illinois.
B.A., Anthropology, 1975, University of Iowa.

Teaching Interests
Cultural anthropology, socio-economic change, psychological anthropology, Southeast Asia, gender, religion, ethnographic research methods

Recent Recognition
Grants
ACM grant allowing for conducting fieldwork in northern Thailand in Mae Hong Son province and consulting with faculty and graduate students at Chiang Mai University, 2005.

Recent Accomplishments
Publications
"Rite of Passage or Ethnic Festival? Shan Buddhist Novice Ordinations in Northern Thailand" in Contemporary Buddhism 10.1 (2009.)

Imagining the Course of Life: Self-Transformation in a Shan Buddhist Community. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2006.

Presentations
"What Does It Mean to Be Shan? Shifting Ethnic Markers for Shan in Northern Thailand." Paper presented at the International Burma Studies Conference, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, 2008.

"Stepping into the Same River Twice? Re-studies of a Shan Community in Northern Thailand." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Atlanta, Georgia, 2008.

"Negotiating Shan Identity in Northern Thailand." Paper presented at the Conference on Shan Buddhism and Culture, hosted by SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) at the University of London, 2007.

"Evolving Economic and Gender Practices in a Shan Community of Mae Hong Son Province," with Steve Cohn, paper presented at IAFFE (the International Association for Feminist Economics), Bangkok, 2007.

"Religion and Self Transformation." Paper presented at a conference on Religion and Culture, hosted by the Institute of Religion, Culture, and Peace at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2007.

"Changing household strategies in a Shan community of Mae Hong Son province: The Impact of Cross-Border Migrants and Capitalist Development." Invited talk at the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2007.

"Buddhism and Animism," guest lecture for course on Thai Buddhism at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2007.

"Education and Poverty." Invited discussant for panel at the international conference Critical Transitions in the Mekong Region hosted by the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University Thailand, 2007.

Field Work
Research on Shan Buddhist texts and ritual change in monasteries in northern Thailand, Summer of 2009.

Sabbatical year in Chiang Mai, Thailand; affiliation with the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University; research on impact of cross-border migrants from Burma on Shan population in northern Thailand, 2006-2007.

Exploratory research in northern Thailand, supported by an ACM sabbatical preparation grant, Mini-term 2005.

Field research (12 months) in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand, funded by a Social Science Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship and a grant from Knox College, 1990-1991.

Field research (24 months) in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand, funded by grants from Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Grant, Social Science Research Council, and the National Science Foundation, 1979-1981.

Exploratory fieldwork (3 months) in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand, funded by the University of Illinois Department of Anthropology, 1977.

Archeological survey and excavation during the summer for the State Archeological Society of Iowa, 1975-1976.

Campus & Community Involvement
Member, American Anthropological Association.
Member, Society for Psychological Anthropology.
Member, Association for Asian Studies.
Member, Thailand/Laos/Cambodia Studies Group.
Member, Executive Board of the Central States Anthropological Society.
Member, Phi Beta Kappa.

What Students Say
"Nancy permanently affected my way of thinking, more so than almost any of my professors during my time at Knox. Always caring and approachable, she conducts an open, comfortable classroom, and she has the rare ability to incorporate and balance all aspects of sociology and anthropology in her teaching - women, gender, economics, climate, sexuality, methodology, history, language, etc. Her time spent researching in Thailand clearly shows her students that she is not just a professor of anthropology, but an anthropologist herself. She chooses contemporary ethnographies written by men and women who are thinking in new ways - every day, Nancy challenges her students to analyze the human condition, propelling us to leave our comfort zones or ethnocentrism and instead view all people and cultures as equals, on the same plane."
-Olivia Evelyn Engel, English Creative Writing Major, Anthropology/Sociology Minor

Contact
309-341-7242
neberhar@knox.edu