Claire Cesareo-Silva

Ph.D. (ABD), Anthropology, Columbia University, 2008
M.Phil., Anthropology, Columbia University, 1992
M.A., Anthropology, Columbia University, 1989
B.A., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 1985

Professor Cesareo-Silva joined the faculty of Saddleback College in 2000, after having previously taught at several other colleges/universities including Whittier College, New York University and Columbia University. She is a cultural anthropologist who continues to do research, primarily in Brazil, on issues of agrarian reform, social movements, and the construction and use of social memory. Other areas of interest include visual anthropology, especially the use of photography in the construction of memory, the role of religion in social change, and the politics of ethnographic practice.

Her current projects include a study of the “landless workers movement” in Brazil and the creation of a nostalgic ideology, and a study of Christian fundamentalist youth in the United States.

Professor Cesareo-Silva is also currently Chair of the Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Studies departments and the Distance Education Committee.

Courses Frequently Taught

Anth 2 – Cultural Anthropology
Anth 1 – Biological Anthropology
Anth 3 – Culture and Language
Anth 21 – Women and Culture: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Anth 14 – Introduction to Visual Culture
Anth 5 – Anthropology of Latin America
CCS 1 – Multicultural Experiences in the United States
CCS 2 – Multicultural Identities in the United States

Awards, Grants and Fellowships

Wenner-Gren Foundation Grant (1995)

SSRC-MacArthur Committee on International Peace and Security Research Workshop Award (1995)

Lindt Dissertation Writing Fellowship (1994-5)

Fulbright-Hays IIE Grant (1992-3)

Wenner-Grant Foundation Grant (1992-3)

Columbia University Traveling Fellowship (1991-2)

Sigma Xi Research Foundation Award (1991)

American Women in Science Award (1991)

Inter-American Foundation Master’s Fellowship (1990)

Institute of Latin American And Iberian Studies at Columbia University Travel Grant (1990)

MacArthur Foundation Dissertation Development Grant (1989)

Columbia University Presidential Fellowship (1988-98)