Susan Seizer

Associate Professor, Communication & Culture

Indiana University

1790 East 10^th Street, Bloomington, IN

812-856-1986

E-mail

www.stigmasofthetamilstage.com

 

 

                                                                                            

Academic Employment History

 

Associate Professor, Department of Communication & Culture, Indiana University, 2006-present.

 

Associate Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Gender & Women’s Studies, Scripps College, 2003-2006. 

 

Department Chair, Department of Anthropology, Scripps College, 1998-2006.

 

Assistant Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Gender & Women’s Studies, Scripps College, 1998-2003.

 

Department Chair,  Gender & Women's Studies,  Scripps College, 1999-2001; co-chair 2002-2003.

 

Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, 1998.

 

Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1996.   

 

 

Education

 

University of Chicago, Anthropology. MA. 1988,  Ph.D. 1997

Barnard College, Columbia University, English.  BA Summa Cum Laude, 1981.

Hampshire College, Dance. 1976–1978.

 

Areas of Specialization

 

Stigma in Context Humor in Use Performance Studies Ethnographic Narrative Cultural Anthropology

South Asian Studies Queer Studies Disability Studies Gender & Women’s Studies Field Methods

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honors, Awards, Fellowships

 

Mary Wig Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Research, Scripps College, 2004-2005.

Mary Wig Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, Scripps College, 2003-2004.

Mary Wig Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Service to the Community, Scripps College 2002-2003.

Scripps College Faculty Research Grants, Spring 2006.

Scripps College Faculty Research Grants, Fall 2001.

Scripps College Faculty Research Grants, Summer 1999.

American Council of Learned Societies International Area Studies Fellow, 2001-2002.

Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Anthropology, New York University, Fall 1997.

Committee on South Asian Studies, University of Chicago, Dissertation Support, 1996-1997.

Committee on South Asian Studies, University of Chicago, Dissertation Support, 1993-1994.

Women’s Studies Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1995-1996.

Sylvia Forman Prize in Feminist Anthropology, Association for Feminist Anthropology, 1995.

Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, 1994-1995.

American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Research Fellow, India, 1992–1993.

Fulbright-Hays Fellow, United States Department of Education, India, 1991–1992.

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, 1988–1991.

American Institute of Indian Studies, Advanced Tamil Language Program in India, 1989-1990.

Committee on Institutional Cooperation, Foreign Language Traveling Scholar, Summer 1988.

Jacob K. Javits Fellow, 1987–1988.

New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, "Emergent Forms", 1987.

Barnard College Cabell Greet Award for Excellency in English, 1981.

Elected to PHI BETA KAPPA, 1981.

 

Field Experience and Foreign Exchange

 

India. 22 months doctoral dissertation fieldwork in Tamilnadu, South India, 1991-93.

Fieldwork support

Fulbright Scholarship, 1991-1992

American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowship, 1992–1993

Fieldwork supervision

Dissertation committee: Bernard S. Cohn, Jean Comaroff, Nancy D. Munn and Norman Cutler (University of Chicago); Dr. Mu. Ramaswamy (Tamil University, Tanjore, India)

 

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

 

Mexico and Nicaragua. 3 month performance residency, "The Women's Circus", 1987.

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

 

Alaska. Alaskan Internships Program. Craig, Alaska, 1976.

 

Finland. American Field Service Foreign Exchange Program. Helsinki, Finland, 1975.

 

Professional Service

 

Panel Organizer and Chair, Post-field Positionings. AAA meetings, Washington DC, December 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, 2005-2006.

 

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, LA, November 2002.

 

Curator, Gender & Women’s Studies Event Series, Scripps College, 1998-2006.

 

Panel Organizer and Chair, Embodied Feminisms, PSWSA Conference, San Diego, CA, April 2000.

 

Chair, Ruth Benedict Prize Committee, SOLGA, American Anthropological Association, 1999.

 

Curator,  South Asia at Chicago: Fifty Years of Scholarship, Regenstein Library, Special Collections, University of Chicago, 1997.

 

Panel Chair, Sharing the Dance: Essays on Performance in Memory of Cynthia J. Novack, American Anthropological Association, 96th Annual Meeting, November 1997.

 

Panel Organizer and Chair,  Worldly Women and Homely Acts: Cultural Codes and Spatial Practices in South Asia, South Asian Women’s Conference, Los Angeles, CA, September 1997;  Association of Asian Studies annual meeting, Chicago, IL, March 1997;  South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 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, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1994-1995.

 

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, passable  (Reading, Listening, Speaking)

Spanish, passable (Reading, Listening, Speaking)

 

Publications and Manuscripts

 

"The Afterlife of Fieldwork Relations.", Indian Folklife, Serial No. 23, National Folklore Support Centre,  Chennai, India, August 2006.

 

"Post-Field Positionings.", Guest Editor, Indian Folklife, Serial No. 23, National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai, India, August 2006.

 

Editor’s Concept Statement for upcoming issue, Indian Folklife, Serial No. 22, National Folklore Support Centre,  Chennai, India, July 2006.

 

Stigmas of the Tamil Stage: An Ethnography of Special Drama Artists in South India, Duke University Press, April 2005.

 

"Offstage Negotiations of Stigma by Special Drama Actresses in South India.", Everyday Life in South Asia, ed. Mines, Diane and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2002.

 

 "Roadwork: Offstage with Special Drama Actresses in Tamilnadu, South India.", Cultural Anthropology, V15N2:217-259, May 2000.

 

"Jokes, Gender, and Discursive Distance on the Tamil Popular Stage.", American Ethnologist, V24N1:62-90,  February 1997.

 

"South Asia at Chicago: Fifty Years of Scholarship.", Exhibit catalogue, University of Chicago Regenstein Library Department of Special Collections,  September 1997.

 

"Playing the Field.",  Review essay, Taboo: sex, identity and erotic subjectivity in anthropological fieldwork, Kulick, D. and M. Wilson, eds., 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 Four Women to Play Shakespeare, Prosky, I., American Anthropologist, V96N1, March 1994.

 

Book Review, The Theater of the Mahabharata, Frasca, R., South Asia Outreach Newsletter, V16N1, 1992.

 

"The Women's Circus Trip to Nicaragua." Heresies, V6N2,  Issue 22, 1987.

 

 

Academic Conference Presentations

 

"The Grotesque in Sheep's Clothing, Rearing its Head to Make Us Howl.", American Anthropological Association meetings, San Jose, CA, December 2006.

 

"The Afterlife of Fieldwork Relations.", American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington DC, December 2005.

 

"Postfield Positionings: Introductory Remarks.", American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington DC, December 2005.

 

"Everything You See is Part of the History of This Place.", Bernard S. Cohn Memorial Conference, University of Chicago, May 2005; Invited Session honoring the Scholarly Vision of B. S. Cohn, American Anthropological Association meetings, San Francisco, CA, November 2000.

 

"Laugh til it Hurts: Domestic Violence on the Tamil Popular Stage.", United States Educational Foundation in India, Chennai, India, November 2001; Conference on Visual Media, Mass Communication, and Violence in South Asia; Center for Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin, TX, April 2001; Feminist Anthropology Speakers Series, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, April 2001.

 

"The Drama Tongue and Local Eyes:  A Secret Language among Theater Artists in India.", Asian Studies Speakers Series, Pomona College, Claremont, CA, February 2000; American Ethnological Society Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, March 1999.

 

"Road Work:  Off-stage Scripts for Acting the Ideal Tamil Woman." , Scripps College Faculty Seminar, Claremont, CA, March 2000; South Asian Women’s Conference, 2nd annual, Los Angeles, CA, September 1997; Graduate Conference on Space in South Asia, University of Chicago, May 1997; Association for Asian Studies, 49th annual meeting, Chicago, IL, March 1997; Conference on South Asia , 25th annual meeting, Madison, WI, October 1996.

 

"Women with Swords:  Matriarchal Queendoms on the Tamil Popular Stage.", Women in Religious Studies Salon, Claremont Graduate University, November 1998; American Anthropological Association, 97th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia,  PA, December 1998.

 

"Dancing while Wearing Anthropological Glasses.", American Anthropological Association, 96th annual meeting, Washington DC, November 1997.       

 

"Representations of the Reign of Tipu Sultan.", Centre of South Asian Studies Conference "The Place of the Past: Uses of History in South Asia", School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, April 1997.

 

"‘The Distances Appropriate to Humor’: Jokes, Gender, and Discursive Distance on the Tamil Popular Stage.", Women’s Studies Program Public Colloquium, University of CA at Santa Barbara, January 1996; American Anthropological Assoc. 94th annual meetings, Washington DC, November 1995; Association for Asian Studies 47th annual meeting, Washington 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, December 1994; 23rd annual Conference on South Asia , Madison WI,  November 1994; South Asia Workshop, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, October 1994.

 

"Paradoxes of Visibility in the Field: Rites of Queer Passage in Anthropology.", Culture, Life Course, & Mental Health Workshop, University of Chicago, IL, May 1997; Graduate seminar on Religious Studies/Queer Studies, Univ of CA at Santa Barbara, April 1996; Gay and Lesbian Studies Workshop, University of Chicago, IL, November 1994; National Graduate Student Conference on LGBT Studies, University of Texas, Austin, March 1994.

 

 

Invited Guest Lectures

 

"Fiery Configurations: Same-Sex Relations in India." Pomona College, for Professor Ralph Bolton, Spring 2001, 2003.

 

"Anthropological Research in South Asia." Claremont Graduate University, Cultural Studies seminar, for Prof. Ranu Samantrai, March 2000.

 

"Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology." Psychology Dept., for Prof. Alan Hartley, Scripps College, March 1999 &  2000.

 

"Current Anthropological Research: on analyzing popular culture" Presentation to the Social Sciences Visiting Committee, University of Chicago, November 1996.

 

"Fantastic Analogs:  Dravidian kinship and the representation of love-marriage on the Tamil popular stage." Teachers’ Institute in Asian Studies, E. Valentine Daniel, faculty host, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, June 1995.

 

"Gender Play:  Staging the Social." The Artist in Society, Columbia College, Chicago, IL, Joan Erdman, faculty host,  May 1995.

 

"On the Uses of Street Theater in Activist Movements."  Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Jeannette May, faculty host, Chicago, IL,  Nov 1994.

 

"Working Women and the Tamil Public Sphere."  South Asian Civilizations, University of Chicago, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, faculty host, Chicago, IL,  May 1994.

 

"Reflections on South Indian Art and Ritual." Art Institute of Chicago, Marilyn Holberg, faculty host, Chicago, IL, October 1993.

 

"New, Known, and Noteworthy:  Reading‘Special Drama Notices."   Fatima College Tamil Department, Shenbagham Ramasamy, faculty host, Madurai, India, June 1992.

 

"Observing the Observers:  Laban movement analysis and the question of cross–cultural application." St. Xavier's College, Dr. Lourdu, faculty host, Tirunelveli, India, April 1990.

 

Theatrical Performance History & Employment

 

City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Grants Program, peer panelist, 2005.

 

Director of Development, Circus Amok, Brooklyn based circus-theater company, 1996-1998.

 

Editorial Consultant,  Juggling Gender,  video documentary by Tami Gold,  Distributed by: Women Make Movies, 1992.

 

Curatorial Committee Member, Time–Arts Programming Committee, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, 1990–1991.

 

Independent choreographer and performer in experimental dance, theater, and circus–theater productions. NYC (multiple venues), 1982–1987.

 

Performer and Co–founder:

"Theater With Alienating Tendencies," a feminist agit–prop theater collective,  Chicago, IL, 1991.

"The Women's Circus." Traveling circus-theater.  Mexico and Nicaragua, 1986-1987.

"The Soft Shoulder Roadside Revue." A two–woman traveling circus, with Jennifer Miller, US & Canada, 1986.

 

Performer and Company member:

"Johanna Boyce and The Calf Women," a dance company, New York City, NY, 1984–1987.

"They Won't Shut Up," an improvisational performance collective, New York City, NY, 1983–1985.

Tim Miller Dance Company, New York City, NY, and touring, 1984.

"More Fire! Productions", a women’s theater company, New York City, NY, 1982–1984.

 

Program Moderator, Open  Performance, School for Movement Research, New York City, NY, 1986.

Instructor, "Contact Improvisation," The School for Movement Research, NYC, NY, 1985-1986.

Movement Therapist,  NYC Parks and Recreation Department, Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY, 1986.

After-school Dance Instructor, Creative Dance, Brooklyn Public Schools, Brooklyn, NY, 1985.

Administrative Assistant, Hunter College Dance Therapy Masters Degree Program, 1982-1986.

Editorial Assistant, Dance Research Journal & American Journal of Dance Therapy, 1982–1986.

 

 

Student Supervision

 

Tutorial in Medical Anthropology. Patricia Cardona, medical student at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemal, March 2006.

 

Supervision of Honors Thesses in Anthropology at Scripps College:

2006: Kristiana Willsey, Nicole Berger

2005: Panyiota Jraige

2004: Theresa Preston

2000: Amanda Carr