History and Interests
Interests: Economics, Ritual, Narrative, Mexico, Ecuador, U.S.Publications
Books
Corner-Store Dreams and the 2008 Financial Crisis: Risk, Immigration, Entrepreneurship, and Latino-Anglo Friendship. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Hollywood Blockbusters: The Anthropology of Popular Movies. Berg: 2009 (with David Sutton).
Magical Writing in Salasaca: Literacy and Power in Highland Ecuador. Boulder: Westview Press, 2004.
Articles
"Existential Economics: Mexican-American Dream Strategies to Understand and Predict Business Outcomes." Economic Anthropology 4: 276-278, 2017.
"Compliment Topics and Gender." Women and Language 29: 21-28, 2006 (with Christopher Parisi).
"Audience Reception and Ethnographic Film: Laughing at First Contact." Visual Anthropology Review 22:14-33, 2006.
"Deep Hanging Out: Reflections on Fieldwork and Multi-sited Andean Ethnography." Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 11: 129-139, 2004.
"The Gun, the Pen, and the Cannoli: Orality and Writing in The Godfather, Part I." Anthropology and Humanism 28:155-167, 2003 (with David Sutton).
"Imagined Communities Reconsidered: Is Print-Capitalism What We Think It Is?" Anthropological Theory 1:403-418, 2001.
"Magical Literacy: Encountering a Witch's Book in Ecuador." Anthropological Quarterly 71:186-202, 1998. Reprinted in Sacred Realms: Essays in Religion, Belief, and Society. Richard Warms, James Garber, Jon McGee, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
"Perceptions of European Literacy in Early Contact Situations." Ethnohistory 41:407-29, 1994.
Online Essays:
"Why De We Throw Coins in Fountains?" Greater Good Magazine, January 26, 2017
"Magical iPads: Why Did We Believe Mike Daisey?" AnthropologyWorks.com, April 26, 2012
Awards and Fellowships
Mortar Board Professor of the Year, Willamette University, 2007.Faculty Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence, Willamette University, 2003.
Robert Manners Prize for Best Specialist Essay, Brandeis University, 1994.
Degrees Held
Ph.D., Brandeis University (Anthropology), 1997M.A., University of Chicago (Anthropology), 1987
B.A., Vassar College (Political Science), 1984