ALISSA JORDAN, PhD
CONTACT
Florence, MA
Tel: 909-289-6212
Email: alissa.jordan@yale.edu
Tel: 203-764-9401
LANGUAGES
Spanish: Fluent S/R Kreyòl: Fluency S/R French: Intmd.Fluency R Swahili: Basic S/R
EDUCATION
Dec. 2016 PhD Cultural Anthropology. University of Florida Department of Anthropology. Atlas of Skins: A Sensual Map of Becoming Persons, Becoming Werewolves, and Becoming Zonbi in a Haitian Vodou Courtyard
2009 MA Social Sciences. University of Chicago. Cum Laude. Greeting The End of The World With Assault Rifles: Narratives of Tyranny and a Chronotope of the Post-Apocalypse in the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia
2007 BA in Anthropology. Indiana University. Highest Honors and Departmental Honors. Honors Thesis: Salt for the Living, Salt for the Dead: Salt use in rites of transition and socio-economic correlates.
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2017-Curr. Media, Teaching, & Anthropology. Human Relations Area Files. Yale University.
2016-2017 Melvin Ember Research Fellow. Human Relations Area Files. Yale University.
2016 Criser Fellow. Harn Museum of Art. University of Florida
PUBLICATIONS
In Review Jordan, A.M. & Vadala, J. “Assembling Ugandan Knuckles: VRChat, white gamer pleasures, and the image of the “African Other” in virtual reality” Digital Studies Peer Reviewed Journal.
In Review Jordan, A.M. “Feeling Roads: Contestation, forced labor, and uncanny encounters on Haiti’s road networks” Interdisciplinary Peer Reviewed Journal
Revise/Resubmit Jordan, A.M. (Author) Unbroken Work of Becoming: Travay & Other Sensuous Media of Embodied Being in Haitian Petwo Vodou. (Co-Director of accompanying short film “Travay” with Wobenso Exantus, N. Exantus, M. Exantus. M. Sen Pierre, W. Sen Ville, J. Vadala, S. Olsinski.) Peer Reviewed Journal
Forthcoming Jordan, A.M. “Vodou Skins: Enculturated Perception in Early Childhood Practices in Rural Haiti” in Vodou Matters Eds. Tim Landry, Eric Montgomery, and Christian Vannier. Indiana University Press
Forthcoming Nagy, R. and A.M. Jordan. 2018. “On the Cutting Edge: Emerging Contemporary Art in Ghana”. African Arts. Peer Reviewed Journal
2014 AMJ. 2014. “Kongo Memory in the Afro Atlantic.” In: Kongo Across the Waters edited by S. Cooksey, R. Poynor, H. Vanhee. Gainesville: University of Florida. Peer Reviewed Book.
2012 Jordan, A.M. 2012. “Border Agents of the Beyond in Haiti”. Anthropology News.
2011 Jordan, A. M. 2011. “No Room for Fate.” Winning Photograph, Caption. Anthropology News.
2011 Jordan, A.M. 2011 October. “Joy trumps Misery in Haiti”. Article, Photo. Gainesville Sun.
AWARDS & HONORS
2016 Research Award. Emerging Artists in Ghana. Center for African Studies. Univ of Florida
2016 Criser Award. For Emerging Artists in Ghana Research. Harn Museum of Art, Univ of Florida.
2016 Criser Fellowship. Museum Director’s Menteeship. Harn Museum of Art, Univ of Florida
2016 Dissertation Writing Fellowship. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Univ of Florida
2015 Course Design Grant. For Global Humankind. Department of Anthropology and
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida.
2015 Latin American Studies Grant. For “Werewolf Metaphysics and Chanpwel Security” Center for Latin American Studies. University of Florida.
2014 Land Use and Environmental Change Institute Grant. For “Why You Need Us: An Ethnographic Informant’s Perspective on Anthropology & Development Practices in Haiti.” October 10, 2014, University of Florida.
2014 College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Grant. For Why You Need Us: An Ethnographic Informant’s Perspectives Anthropology & Development Practices in Haiti October 10, 2014, University of Florida.
2014 UF Anthropology Departmental Fund. For Why You Need Us: An Ethnographic Informant’s Perspective on Anthropology & Development Practices in Haiti. October 10, 2014, University of Florida.
2014 UF Anthropology Departmental Fund. For Latourian Archaeology.
2012 Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship. U.S. State Department. Fellow in Haitian Creole. Center for Latin American Studies. University of Florida. $33,000
2010-16 Alumni Graduate Fellow. Department of Anthropology. University of Florida $140,000
2011 A. Curtis Wilgus Fellowship for Field Research. Center for Latin American Studies. University of Florida.
2009 Graduate Student Award. Graduate School. University of Chicago.
2007 National Science Foundation REU Fellow. Bioarchaeology of Bab edh’ Dhra.
University of Notre Dame.
2006 Distinguished Alumni Association Fellowship for Undergraduates for College of Arts and Sciences. Indiana University, Bloomington
2006 Hutton Honors College Grant. Hutton Honors College. Indiana University.
2003 Twenty-First Century 4-Year Scholarship. Indiana University, Bloomington.
INVITED TALKS
2018 (Forth.) Jordan, A.M. “Thinking with Film and Non-Linear Narrative: Visible and invisible relations in a Haitian lakou a (family courtyard)” in Visualising the Visible and the Invisible: ethnography and technologies of the unseen, chaired by Paolo Favero and Samuel Collins at the 117th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in San Jose, November 2018.
2018 Jordan, A.M. Film Screening. 25 minutes. “Travay/Travail”. In Visual Vodou and Vodu: Resembling and Re-Assembling Spirit Service through Visual Anthropology, chaired by Christian Vannier at the American Ethnological Society/Society for Visual Anthropology Annual Meeting. March 2018.
2018 Jordan, A.M. Crafting Ethnographic Modernities: eHRAF and the Human Relations Area Files Project. In Digital and Virtual Matter(s): Quasi-Objects of Archaeological Analysis and Representation, chaired by Jeffrey Vadala. Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference. March 2018.
2017 Jordan, A.M. United States of Armageddon: Security, Discipline, and Apocalyptic Liberation in a Contemporary Right-Wing Militia. Wesleyan University. November 2017.
2017 Jordan, A.M. Vodou Skins: Enculturated Perception in Early Childhood Practices in Rural Haiti. In Vodou Matters chaired by Tim Landry, Eric Montgomery, Christian Vannier. The 116th Annual American Anthropological Association Conference. Washington, DC.
2015 Jordan, A.M. The Ethical Aesthetics of Recycling Your Body Parts: Zonbi Practices in Petwo Vodou In: Zombie: The Haitian and American Realities behind the Myth, organized by J.L. Matory, Duke University. Presented by the Center for African and African American Studies.
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY/PARTICIPATION
Papers Presented
2017 Jordan, A.M. Closing Paper. Round Table: Creative Coalescing/ Artists of KNUST and Ghana’s Contemporary Art Revolution. Arts Council of the African Studies Association Triennial Conference, chaired by Rebecca Nagy, Susan Cooksey, and Alissa Jordan. August 2017
2016 Jordan, A.M. Zonbi Aesthetics and Surfaces of Selves: Practices of Assembling,Disassembling, and Reusing Persons in Haitian Petwo Courtyards. In Identity, Aesthetics, Possession at the 115th Annual A merican Anthropology Association Meeting. Minneapolis.
2016 Jordan, A.M. Contemporary Archaeology of Haitian Vodou Caching. In: Colonial and Caribbean Archaeology At the 81st Annual Society for American Archaeology Meeting.
2015 Jordan, A.M. Chanpwèl Security and Werewolf Metaphysics: Technologies of Magic, Defense, and Diagnosis in Petwo-Kongo and Chanpwèl Vodou Practice” in Navigating the Sacred: American Ethnological Society at the 114th Annual American Anthropology Association Conference.
2014 Jordan, A.M. Life Hacking Latour: Vodou Caching and Assemblage Theory. In Latourian Archaeology, Organized by Jeffrey Vadala, Alissa Jordan, Randee Fladeboe. At the Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference 2014. University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign
2012 Jordan, A.M. Werewolves and Infrastructure, With Vigilante Justice In Between: Lougawou in Post- Quake Haiti and the Night Time Roads that Carry Them. In: Emergent Movements during States of Emergency in Post-Quake Haiti. Organized by Tess Kulstad and Alissa Jordan. At the 59th Annual Conference of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies. Gainesville, FL.
2011 Jordan, A.M. Dream-walking through disaster worlds: Making future resistance, and the architecture of catastrophe in a contemporary US militia. In Violence, Security and the State. At the American Ethnological Society and Society for Urban, National and Transnational Anthropology Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2007 Jordan, A.M. and D. Bradley. Incidence of Osteomata in the Bab edh’ Dhra Skeletal Collection from Charnal House A22. 2007 Indiana Academy of Sciences Meeting. Indianapolis.
2006 Jordan, A.M. Salt Use in Rites of Transition and Its Subsistence Correlates. Paper Presentation. Theory and Method in the Study of Diet and Human Adaptation, chaired by Alissa Jordan. Society for American Archaeology. San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Panels Organized
2017 with R. Nagy, S. Cooksey,. Round Table: Creative Coalescing/ Artists of KNUST and Ghana’s Contemporary Art Revolution. Arts Council of the African Studies Association Triennial Conference. August 2017
2014 Why Anthropologists Need Us: Ethnographic Practices in Haiti from the perspective of an Ethnographic Participant. Invited Speaker: Michel St. Phard. Presented by the Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and LUECI
2014 with J. Vadala, R. Fladeboe. Latourian Archaeology: Object Agency, Actor Network Theory and Modes of Existence. At the Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference 2014. University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign
2012 with Tess Kulstad. Emergent Movements during States of Emergency in Post-Quake Haiti. Co-Organized by At the 59th Annual Conference of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies. Gainesville, FL.
CAMPUS/DEPARTMENTAL TALKS
2017 with R. Nagy, S. Cooksey. On the Cutting Edge: The Contemporary Art Scene in Accra and Kumasi. Center for African Studies Baraza Lecture Series. January 2016.
2014 Jordan, A.M. Werewolf Metaphysics: Magic, Ritual, and Technology in Rural Haiti. In Florida Association of Student Anthropologists at the University of Florida Department of Anthropology
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2016 Global Humankind. Department of Anthropology. Univ of Florida and UF Online.
2015 Course Designer. Global Humankind. Department of Anthropology. Univ of Florida and UF Online.
2015 Module Designer. Digital Anthropology. Department of Anthropology. Univof Florida.
2014 Race and Racism. Department of Anthropology, Univ of Florida.
2013 Course Design Assistant. Consumer Culture. with Dr. Susan Gillespie. Department of Anthropology. Univ of Florida.
2012 Human Sexuality. Department of Anthropology. Univ of Florida.
2012 Sex-Roles Cross-Culturally. Department of Anthropology. Univof Florida.
2011 Teaching Assistant. Political Anthropology. With Dr. Brenda Chalfin. Department of Anthropology. Univ of Florida.
RESEARCH POSITIONS
2017-Curr. Media, Teaching, & Anthropology Fellow. Human Relations Area Files. Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut.
2016-2017 Melvin Ember Research Fellow. Human Relations Area Files. Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut.
2016 Research Fellow. Criser Museum Studies Fellowship (2). Harn Museum of Art. University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida.
2016 Research Fellow. Criser Museum Studies Fellowship (1). Harn Museum of Art. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
2017 Principal Investigator. Northwest and Central Haitian Field Sites. Research Followup. Arcahaie, Saint Marc, Haiti.
2017 Principal Investigator. “Aesthetics, Space, Resistance in Art Activism in Contemporary Ghana” Field research in Accra. Center for African Studies at the University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida.
2016 Co-Principal Investigator. “Digital Networks and Contemporary Art in Ghana.” with Harn Museum of Art Director Rebecca Nagy and Curator of African Arts Susan Cooksey. Accra & Kumasi, Ghana.
2016 Principal Investigator.Northwest Haitian Field Sites, Research Follow Up. Arcahaie and Saint Marc, Haiti.
2016 Museum Director’s Research Assistant. Dr. Rebecca Nagy. Samuel P. Harn Museum. University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida
2016 Museum Director’s Intern. Dr. Rebecca Nagy, Harn Museum Director. University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida.
2015 Principal Investigator.Northwest Haitian Fieldsite, Research Followup. Arcahaie, Haiti.
2015 Research Assistant. Dr. Jeffrey Vadala. “Virtual Reality Design and Reconstruction of a Pre-Classic Maya City by the Sea”. Yucatan Region, Mexico.
2015 Curatorial Assistant (Internship). Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida.
2014 Research Assistant. “Accra Infrastructure and Architecture”. Dr. Brenda Chalfin. Director of the Center for African Studies. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
2013-14 Principal Investigator. “Atlas of Nanm: Becoming Persons, Becoming Werewomen, Becoming Zonbi in a rural Haitian courtyard.” Dissertation Research. Arcahaie and Artibonite, Haiti.
2010-15 Alumni Fellow. Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida.
2012 Principal Investigator. Preliminary Dissertation Research. Barbancourt, Haiti.
2011 Principal Investigator. “We Refuse to Become Animals: Social Strategies for Disaster & Risk Mediation in a post-earthquake Haitian IDP Camp.” Exploratory Dissertation Research. Arcahaie, Haiti.
2009 Curatorial Assistant (Internship). Oriental Institute Museum. University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois.
2007 Research Fellow. National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Fellowship. “Bioarchaeology of Bab edh Dhra”. Biological Anthropology Laboratory. Notre Dame University.
2005 Assistant Research Director. Semliki National Forest, Uganda. Semliki Chimpanzee Project. Indiana University. Dr. Kevin Hunt.
2004 Museum Collections Practicum (2). Mathers Museum of World Cultures. Indiana University, Bloomington.
2004 Museum Collections Practicum (1). Mathers Museum of World Cultures. Indiana University, Bloomington.
CURATION & EXHIBITION
2014 Jordan, A.M. and S. Hussey, Co-Curators. The Visual Art of Anthropology. Turlington Hall Permanent Photography Exhibit presented by the Department of Anthropology
2013 Jordan, A.M. and DaSilva, N.M, Co-curators
Mother of the Sea: Tracing Yemaja in Africa and the Americas. University Galleries Exhibit, Grinter Hall.
2013 Jordan, A.M, Curator
Spirit Bodies: Kongo Inspirations in Afro-Creole Sacred Objects. Curator. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. 2013
2009 Jordan, A.M, Audio Exhibit AuthorPowerful Nature: History of Animal, Human and Environmental Representations in the Ancient Near East. Oriental Institute Museum. University of Chicago.
2009 Jordan, A.M, Exhibit Study Author Ethnographic Study of Visitor Behavior in The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt. Oriental Institute Museum. University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
2014-2017 Women’s health advocate. Arcahaie, Haiti
2011 Volunteer Teacher. Subjects: English, Art. Camp Mahanaim, Barbancourt, Haiti.
2011 Community Organizer. Global DIRT. Cite Soleil, Haiti.
2010 Post-Earthquake liason. United Sikhs. Throughout Haiti.
2005-2012 International Projects Coordinator. .Rwenzori Regional District Community Association. Kasese, Uganda. Indiana, USA. Gainesville, USA
COURSES PREPARED TO TEACH
Race, Racism, Visuality
Creative Digital Cultures in African Atlantic
Visual Ethnographies of African Atlantic
Critical Digital Ethnography
Security/Insecurity
Critical Realities & Digital Worlds
Security, Gender, Power
Magic, Science, Technology
Afro-Creole Religions and Metaphysics
Alissa Jordan 