Position
Academic Background
Sample Courses
Teaching Philosophy
Research & Interests
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards  
Publication Highlights
Selected Scholarly Presentations 

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Position              

• Associate Professor of Anthropology

Academic Background         

• Providence College, Providence, RI - M.A. in Biblical Studies, 1983.
• The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
  • Ph.D. in Anthropology, 1969.
  • M.A. in Anthropology, 1966.
• Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA - B.A. in History and Politics, 1961.

Sample Courses Taught at Providence College   

• Latin America: Mexico and Central America
• Latin America: South America
• Religion and Magic
• Cities and Urban Life
• Art in Everyday Life
• The Built Environment

Teaching Philosophy            

Important ideas in my teaching philosophy may be stated succinctly as follows.  Remember that fulfillment of obligations as a member of the Faculty--including, for example, preparedness for a class--is a matter of justice.  Begin working with students at the level at which one finds them.  Challenge students to reach up to grasp what they do not presently know.  Teach students what questions can be asked and what kinds of answers are possible given the concepts, methods, and techniques of the discipline studied.  Communicate joy and excitement in learning, together with perseverance when conceptual material is difficult. 

Demand integrity and intellectual humility of oneself and of the students.  In teaching, consider the whole person.  Have compassion on students.  Trust them to live up to the expectations set for them.  Treat students with respect and with equity--that is, with justice tempered with mercy.  A little laughter can go a long way.

Research & Interests                  

My research and interests lie within the areas of cultural anthropology and ethnohistory; with particular focus on the peoples and cultures of Latin America; the anthropology of religion; expressive culture--especially art and aesthetics; and the built environment and spatial form.  Subsidiary to, and because of, these principal areas of research and interest, is study of Native North American cultures.  

My current research project, begun in 1981, is an ethnographic and ethnohistorical study of pilgrimage in Central America, concentrating to the present on Guatemala and Costa Rica.  I am interested in pilgrims and the sacred centers to which they travel; the beliefs, images, and practices involved in pilgrimages; relationships between pilgrimage centers and patterns and other aspects of the culture and natural environment; and between 'pilgrimage' and the tradition of 'visits of the saints among themselves.'

Community service involvements channel my ministry in education toward primarily younger children.  I am a Dominican Sister, Congregation of St. Catherine de' Ricci, and, thus, am very happy to serve the parish of St. Pius V, Providence, Rhode Island, as a Catechist, school lunch/recess volunteer once a week, and Executive Board Member of the St. Pius V Athletic Association.

Notable Academic Appointments & Awards

• Coordinator of Anthropology, Providence College Department of Sociology, 1996-present.
• Three grants awarded by the Committee to Aid Faculty Research, Providence College, Providence, RI, in partial support of ethnographic and ethnohistorical field work in Guatemala, C.A., December 31, 1981-February 17, 1982; and in Costa Rica, C.A., July 26, 1984-September 4, 1984; March 30, 1985-April 23, 1985; June 10, 1985; and June 29, 2002-July 28, 2002, to study patterns and centers of pilgrimage.
• Fulbright Central American Republics Regional Research Award, granted by the Board of Foreign Scholarships, for work on the project, "Patterns and Centers of Pilgrimage in Costa Rica," May 7, 1987-September 1, 1987; December 20, 1987-January 20, 1988.
• Penrose Fund award granted by the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA, in partial support of ethnographic and ethnohistorical field work in Guatemala, C.A., December 31, 1981-February 17, 1982; and in Costa Rica, C.A., July 26, 1984-September 4, 1984, to study patterns and centers of pilgrimage.
• Research grant from the Organization of American States in support of ethnographic field work in Cali, Colombia, S.A., 1967, to study sociocultural dimensions of self-concept among adolescent girls in a Colombian urban barrio.

Publication Highlights

• "Pilgrimage to Our Lord of Chalma, Mexico: Landscape as Text and as Context" In Paras Kumar Choudhary, Ed. Sociology of Pilgrims. Delhi: Kalpaz Publications, 2004, pp. 59-78.
• "Pilgrimage to the Cruz de Alajuelita, Costa Rica: Imprints on Landscape, Experience, and Cultural Traditions." In D.P. Dubey, Ed., Pilgrimage Studies: The Power of Sacred Places. [Pilgrimage Studies, Number 5.] Allahabad, India: Society of Pilgrimage Studies, 2000, pp. 288-301.
• "Icon as Sacred Center: The Esquipulas Pilgrimage in Guanacaste, Costa Rica." In Makhan Jha, Ed., Pilgrimage: Concepts, Themes, Issues, and Methodology. New Delhi, India: Inter-India Publications, 1995, pp. 28-42.
• "Formal Replication in Costa Rican Pilgrimages," In Makhan Jha, Ed., Social Anthropology of Pilgrimage. New Delhi, India: Inter-India Publications, 1991, pp. 276-291.
• "Through the Fields to Amatitlán," In N. Ross Crumrine and E. Alan Morinis, Eds., Pilgrimage in Latin America. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991, pp. 157-174.
• "La Patrona, su santuario nacional y la ciudad de Cartago," In C. Alvaro Santaló, Mariá Jesús Buxó y S. Rodríguez Becerra, Coords., La Religiosidad Popular.  Vol. III. Hermandades, romerías y santuarios. Barcelona, Spain: Fundación Machado and Editorial Anthropos, 1989, pp. 253-267.
• "La romería como modelo de la peregrinación en las tradiciones Centroamericanas," Mesoamérica (1985):104-132.
• Cultural Values and Social Reality: Self-Concept Formation in a Colombian Urban Barrio [Anthropology Studies, No. 14]. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms, Inc., 1969.

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• Principal Field Work: Research on Complex Societies in Colombia, 1967; Guatemala, 1982; and Costa Rica, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2002.
• "Icon as Sacred Center: The Esquipulas Pilgrimage in Guanacaste, Costa Rica."  Symposium Keynote Address, 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Mexico City, Mexico, July 29-August 5, 1993.
• "Routes to the Cruz de Alajuelita, Costa Rica: Landscape Design for Pilgrimage." Paper read and Organizer, Gen 09 "General Art and Architecture," a symposium held at the 47th Congress of Americanists, New Orleans, July 7-11, 1991.
• "La Yegüita: Religious Accommodation in Nicoya, Costa Rica." Paper read by invitation, in, "Continuing the Research: Papers in Honor of Michael Kenny," a Memorial Symposium, held at the meeting of the American Anthropological Society, Washington, D.C., December 4-7, 1986.
• "The Return to Origins in the Pilgrimage to Ujarrás." Paper read, American Society for Ethnohistory, Chicago, Illinois, November 7-10, 1985.
• "Through the Fields to Amatitlán." Paper read in "Pilgrimage: The Human Quest," a conference held at The University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 14-17, 1985.

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