Noah Butler
Advanced Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
How did studying ethnic and racial issues contribute to developing our own careers?
My research focuses on economics and religion in West Africa (primarily Niger). I am a Cultural Anthropologist, which essentially involves giving voice to things that are significant to people on a day-to-day basis and learning more about why. I am interested in both the social and historical aspects of race and ethnicity in West Africa: socially, understanding at the local level ways race and ethnicity inform interactions in everyday life; historically, examining factors that have generated, shaped, maintained, or transformed ways race and ethnicity are conceptualized. (Here, I am especially interested in comparing pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial phases—and the impacts of change, power, and resistance.) I hope cross-cultural learning can be informative in many ways; for students, learning about race and ethnicity in different parts of the world, across space and time, can present opportunities for deeply instructive points of reflection.
Advanced Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
How did studying ethnic and racial issues contribute to developing our own careers?
My research focuses on economics and religion in West Africa (primarily Niger). I am a Cultural Anthropologist, which essentially involves giving voice to things that are significant to people on a day-to-day basis and learning more about why. I am interested in both the social and historical aspects of race and ethnicity in West Africa: socially, understanding at the local level ways race and ethnicity inform interactions in everyday life; historically, examining factors that have generated, shaped, maintained, or transformed ways race and ethnicity are conceptualized. (Here, I am especially interested in comparing pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial phases—and the impacts of change, power, and resistance.) I hope cross-cultural learning can be informative in many ways; for students, learning about race and ethnicity in different parts of the world, across space and time, can present opportunities for deeply instructive points of reflection.