Ph.D. 1978 Brown University
University Distinguished Professor &
Ruth Collins Altshuler Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary Institute
Heroy Hall 451
(214) 768-4254
cbrettel@smu.edu
- Anthropology
- Europe
- Immigration
- Gender
- Urban
Courses Taught
ANTH 2301 - Introductory Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 3310 - Gender and Sex Roles: A Global Perspective (co-listed with CFB 3310)
ANTH 3333 - The Immigrant Experience (co-listed with CFA 3316)
ANTH 3355 - Society and Culture in Contemporary Europe
ANTH 3366 - Magic, Myth, and Religion Across Cultures (co-listed with RELI 3366)
CF 3367 - The Greater Dallas Experience
ANTH 4304 - Migration, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
ANTH 5335 - History of Anthropology, Part Two
ANTH 6304 - Migration, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
ANTH 6320 - Regional Ethonography
ANTH 7341 - Current Anthropological Literature
ANTH 7342 - Seminar in Social Organization
ANTH 7351 - Research Strategies in Ethnology
Recent Happenings
Interview conducted by Dr. Brettell with individuals in Portugal. Click here to link to the interview.
Dr. Brettell was recently asked to speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on the influx of immigrants to Nebraska over the last several years. Click here to see an article written on her talk.
Dr. Brettell was recently interviewed by KERA radio. Please click here for a podcast of that interview.
Bio
Caroline Brettell joined the faculty of Southern Methodist University in 1988. In 2003, she was named Dedman Family Distinguished Professor and in 2009 University Distinguished Professor. She served as Director of Women's Studies from 1989-1994 and as Chair of Anthropology from 1994-2004, as well as Dean ad Interim of Dedman College, 2006-2008. She is currently serving as Director of the Interdisciplinary Institute in Dedman College. She received her B.A. in Latin American Studies from Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brown University. In 2000-2001, she served as President of the Social Science History Association and between 1996 and 1998, she was President of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE). She served as President of the SMU Faculty Senate and as a member of the SMU Board of Trustees in 2001-2002. She served as a member of the selection committee for the International Dissertation Research Program for the Social Science Research Council (2003-2005) and for their International Migration Program (2000-2002). She has also served as a member of SNEM-3 Scientific Review Panel, National Institute of Health (1999-2003). Among her research interests are: migration and immigration, the cross-cultural study of gender, the intersections of anthropology and history, and European ethnography, particularly Portugal. Other interests include ethnicity, historical demography and family history, kinship, and the anthropological study of religion.
Brettell's recent research on immigration includes one funded by the National Science Foundation, focusing on the DFW metroplex as a new city of immigration and how immigrants are incorporated into the economic, social, and political structures of a sunbelt city. Another, funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, explores aspects of citizenship practice and civic engagement among Asian Indian immigrants in the DFW area. A third addresses the experience of a group of post-colonial migrants, Goans, who left Portuguese India after the "liberation" (or "invasion" from Portugal's perspective) of Goa in 1961 and settled in Lisbon.
Research
Dr. Brettell's research on immigration includes one funded by the National Science Foundation, focusing on the DFW metroplex as a new city of immigration and how immigrants are incorporated into the economic, social, and political structures of a sunbelt city. Another, funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, explores aspects of citizenship practice and civic engagement among Asian Indian immigrants in the DFW area. A third addresses the experience of a group of post-colonial migrants, Goans, who left Portuguese India after the "liberation" (or "invasion" from Portugal's perspective) of Goa in 1961 and settled in Lisbon.
Selected Publications
Brettell, Caroline B., 2012 (print) "Experiencing Everyday Discrimination. A Comparison Across Five Immigrant Populations" Race and Social Problems, Volume 3 (4), 2011, pp. 266-279. (DOI) 10.1007/s12552-011-9055-1. [PDF]
Civic Engagements: The Citizenship Practices of Indian and Vietnamese Immigrants (with Deborah Reed-Danahay) Stanford University Press, 2012.
Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 6th Edition (coedited with Carolyn F. Sargent) Prentice-Hall 2013.
"Immigrant Organizations and Scales Positioning: Asian Indians and the Dynamics of Place in a Southwestern Suburban Metropolis" In The Location of Migration: The City and the Scale, Nina Glick Schiller and Ayse Caglas (eds.). Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
"Immigrant Suburban Settlement and the 'Threat' to Middle Class Status and American Identity: The Case of Farmers Branch, Texas" (with Faith Nibbs), In International Migration, 49 (1), 2011, 1-30. [PDF]
"Anthropology, Migration, and Comparative Consciousness" New Literary History 40 (3), 2009, pp. 649-671. [PDF]
Brettell, Caroline B. and Faith Nibbs, 2009. "Lived Hybridity: Second-Generation Identity Construction Through College Festival" Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 16: 678-699. The definitive version was published in Identities, Volume 16 Issue 6, November 2009. [PDF]
Portugal's Firest Post-Colonials: Citizenship, Identity, and the Repatriation of Goans. PORTUGUESE STUDIES REVIEW 14(2) (2006/7) 143-170. [PDF]
Citizenship, Political Engagement, and Belonging: Immigrants in Europe and the United States. Rutgers University Press, 2008 (co-edited with Deborah Reed-Danahay).
Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines (second edition) with James F. Hollifield. New York, Routledge, 2008.
For a complete listing of publications, please click here.
Memberships and Affiliations:
American Anthropological Association
Society for Applied Anthropology
Society for the Anthropology of Europe
Society for Urban, National and Transnational Anthropology
American Ethnological Society
Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
Social Science History Association