* I am currently accepting new grad students *
Mentorship Philosophy
​​My students’ research has mainly been based on anthropological fieldwork in North America or Asia. Although a number of my students are native speakers of Asian languages (including Chinese, Burmese, Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Khmer, and Nepali), others have received intensive language training in Vancouver.
I expect a lot out of my students, and I devote “relational energy” to them, matching their levels of involvement.
Many students, especially doctoral students, will go through challenging times. My goal as a supervisor is to support them and try to create space for them to figure things out. I tend not to be pushy, so I rely on student initiative to let me know they are ready to re-engage with academic worlds. I prize good communication. I find it hard to deal with students who dis-engage and don't reply to emails.
I relish providing opportunities for my students' growth, such as encouraging them to present papers at conferences, find public speaking opportunities or arranging events for visiting scholars. I often introduce students to leaders in their particular fields.
I deeply appreciate students who are independent and brave thinkers, able to creatively put forward a claim and then through research and conversation with other intellectuals, nuance that claim over time. I want thinking to evolve.
I am a historical anthropologist who always emphasises the ways local situations are in dialogue with dynamic global histories. I expect my students to take a keen interest in history.
I am increasingly writing for a more-than-academic audience. Compelling and clear writing takes multiple drafts, sharing work with others, and incorporating feedback.
I am building a student cohort, from the first classes I taught at the University of Michigan in 2006, to my graduate students at SFU since 2007. I have now trained nearly four dozen students.
I am a strong supporter of funding opportunities for my students. I actively monitor for new funding possibilities, encourage students to apply, and build actively build supportive networks between students. I help students acquire sample winning grant proposals, study what was successful and use the grant writing process as a way to refine their research projects.
Recommendation Letters
In general I only write letters for students who receive a solid A in my class. It's in your best interest to have the most glowing letters you can--- it's a competitive world out there.
Check in with me 3-4 weeks in advance to see if I can fit this into my schedule. Preparing successful recommendation letters takes a lot of work--- it's not just a generic statement, it's a 2 page in depth analysis and description of your capacity as a researcher, including commentary on your analytic abilities, writing level, interest in improvements, ability to incorporate critical feedback, self-initative, skills at working on teams, and so forth.
I'm often writing letters for a number of students (remember I started teaching in 2007, and I now have thousands of students), so please be as organized as you can. Clear requests that are well done and organized make me happy, trying to locate old emails to find necessary information can make me grumpy.
Letter timing:
-
Two weeks from deadline provide your latest CV, statement of purpose and a short description of why you choose this particular program. In terms of the latter information, this is important for me to customize my letters, if possible, for each award or school you are applying to.
-
One week to deadline reminder
-
Three days to deadline reminder
-
One day before deadline reminder
*When you send reminders please provide all of the necessary information with each email for all remaining letters that need be be written, numbered in chronological order of when my letter is due. If you make any changes to your statement of purpose please be really clear about this within the text of your email.
​
Keep in mind that many requests for recommendation letters go into my spam folder, so I often have to search for them.
The system should contact you when my letter is received.
Past Students
Senior Supervisor:
​
Ty Bryant (MA Student). Chinese-Indigenous Encounters in British Columbia. Ongoing. Co-Founder and Director of Research at Asian Indigenous Relations.
​
Regina Baeza Martinez (MA Student, Co-Supervised with Evelyn Encalada Grez). "State, Ethnic and Finca Cross-Border Exchanges: The Place-Making Practices of Indigenous Migrant Farmworkers in Metro-Vancouver." Ongoing.
​
Morgaine Lee (MA Student). "This does not render the world gentle" An Anthropological Foray into the Worlds of Fungi and Art," and film, do I know you, mushroom? Completed 2024.​
​
Elizabeth Danis (MA Student). Indigenous Health Care in British Columbia. On leave.
​
Yueming Chen (MA Student). Transferred during pandemic.
​​
Yuan Wei (PhD Student). "Asia as Method: The Emergence of LGBTQ Activism in China." Transferred during pandemic.
​
Cheyanne Brown Armstrong (MA Student). "Becoming Ainu: Negotiating Indigeneity and Belonging in North America." Completed 2021,​
​
Paola Vidal (MA Student). "The Emergence of Ethical Research." On leave.
​
Bardia Khaledi (MA Student). "Legacy of 'Living Museums': An Examination of the Contemporary Workings of a Botanical Garden." Completed 2010.
​
Committee Member:
​
Michelle Hak Hepburn (PhD Student, UBC Anthropology)
“Thinking with Trees to See the Forest: Environmental Governance and Social Relations with Trees and Forests in the Peruvian Amazon.”
​
Zhexi Hu (PhD Student)
"Queer Parenting Strategies in Urban China." Ongoing
​
​Cynthia Cui (MA Student, School of Art and Interactive Technology).
The Water We Call Home, an exhibition that shares Indigenous women’s connection to fish, family, and water surrounding the Salish Sea. Ongoing.
​
Paloma Bhattacharjee (MA Student)
"Human-elephant Entanglements in Assam, India." Completed 2024.
​
Cheyanne Brown Armstrong (PhD Student, Indigenous Studies, UBC)
"Negotiating Authenticity among Young Indigenous Adults." Ongoing.
​
Denise Findlay (PhD Student, School of Education).
"Gathering our Medicine: Exploring the Role of Ritual in Indigenous Healing." Ongoing.
​
Jelena Golubović (PhD Student)
"Zones of Violence: Serb Women inside the Siege of Sarajevo." Completed 2020.
Tenure Track Professor at Northeastern University.
​
Maggie Tsang (MA student, Humanities). “Chinese Medicine as Hermeneutic Knowledge? On the Role of Classical Works such as Huangdi neijing suwen in Chinese Medicine.” Completed. PhD Program at SFU, Faculty of Health Sciences.
​
Siran Huang (MA student, International Studies). “China ‘Going Out’ to Ecuador: Barriers of Communication.” Completed. PhD Program in Asian Studies at Leiden University.
​
Candace Massey (MA student). “Making the Breast Cancer Gene: An Archaeology of the Translational Clinic.” Completed. PhD Program at The University of Toronto. Institute for History and Philosophy of Science.
​
Scott Garoupa (MA student). “Spaces of Negotiation: Community, governance, and pacification in Rio de Janeiro.” Completed. UBC Law Program (Gold Medalist). Human Rights and Labour Lawyer, Vancouver.
​
Sibo Chen (MA student, Communication).
“Environmental Communication in China.” Completed. PhD in Communications at SFU. Tenure track Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
​
Aynur Kadir (PhD student, School of Interactive Arts and Technology). Completed. “Utopian Archive, Dystopian Reality: Safeguarding, Documenting and Transforming Uyghur Intangible Cultural Heritage.” Completed. Tenure track professor at UBC.
​
Maureen Kihika (PhD student). “Negotiating Borders: The ‘Everyday’ encounters of Black African immigrant Caregivers in Vancouver, British Columbia.” Completed. Tenure track professor at SFU.
​
Noah Schillo (MA student, Geography). “Prospective Forests and Farmers’ Perspectives: The Politics of Rubber Trees and Ecological Restoration in Southwest China.” Completed. Professional Acupuncturist in Victoria, BC.
​
Jennifer Thomas (PhD student). “The World of Male Cosmetic Genital Surgery.” Completed. Tenure track professor at SUNY.
​
Lisa Poole (PhD student). “Male Bisexual Identities.” Completed. Instructor at Douglas College.
​
Debbie Dergousoff (PhD student. “An Institutional Ethnography of Women Entrepreneurs and Post-Soviet Rural Economies in Kyrgyzstan.” Completed. Instructor at SFU.
​
Kathleen Inglis (PhD student). “The Social Life of Monitoring and Evaluation: An Ethnography of the Monitoring and Evaluation of an HIV/AIDS Prevention Program in Ghana.” Completed. Researcher at BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.
​
Pepita McKee (MA student). “Indigenous People, Dams and Development in Upland Philippines.” Completed. CEO and Founder, Impact Resolutions Ltd. Consulting.
​
Jillian Deri (PhD student). “Don’t You Get Jealous? A Sociological Inquiry into Polyamory, Jealousy and Gender.” Completed. Instructor at Alexander College.
​
Chris Hergesheimer (MA student). “Weaving Chains of Grain: Exploring the Stories, Links and Boundaries of Scale with Grain Initiatives in Southwestern British Columbia.” Completed. UBC PhD. Post-doctoral Fellow, Royal Roads University; Lead Food Programmer, Sunshine Coast Community Services Society
​
​Sun Chen (PhD student, University of California at Davis). "Orchid Becomings and Environmental Justice for the Yao Nation in Taiwan." Completed 2023.
​
Zheng Yayi (PhD student, Aarhus University, Denmark). "Too many bulls: more than human kinship in Borana, Ethiopia." Completed 2023.
​
Erica Weston (MA student, International Studies). "Compounding Fractures: State-Society Relations and Inter-Ethnic Estrangement in Thailand's 'Deep South'" Completed 2016. National Immigration Projects Coordinator.
​
Julie Andreyev (PhD student, Graduate Liberal Studies). "Anthropocentrism: Its Rise, Range and Legacies." Completed 2015. Professor at Emily Carr University.
​
Lesley Cerney (PhD student, external for qualifying exam defense. "Two Worlds, One Hope? A Multi-Sited Ethnography of How Biomedical Discourses of Antiretroviral Drugs Influence Marginalized Peoples' Access to and Use of Drugs." Completed 2008. Nurse Navigator at Nuu chach nulth Tribal Council.
​