Orin Starn, Professor and Bass Fellow

Orin Starn is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and History. He has wide-ranging interests including Latin America, Native North America, social movements and indigenous politics, the history of anthropology, activist anthropology, and, more recently, sports and society. His latest book, "The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal," examines the superstar golfer's place in American society and culture. Starn is also the author of the award-winning "Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last 'Wild' Indian," a chronicle of the life and legend of the last survivor of California's Yahi tribe. Starn began as an anthropologist in Peru, and is now finishing a co-authored book about the Shining Path guerrilla movement there. He is the editor of the "The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics" and co-edits Duke University Press's very successful World Readers Series. In 2005, Starn won Duke's highest undergraduate teaching award and was awarded the Sally Dalton Robinson Professorship in Cultural Anthropology. Starn also edited the recent volume "Writing Culture and the Life of Anthropology" from Duke University Press about the state of the discipline today, and is the co-editor of two other books -- "Indigenous Experience Today" and "Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest." His essays and op-ed pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chronicle of Higher Education and many other newspapers, and his work cited in the New York Times, USA Today, and other newspapers. He has also appeared on NPR, ESPN and numerous other radio and tv programs. Starn has served as the Director of Duke's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Duke Human Rights Centers, and chaired the Editorial Advisory Board of Duke University Press. He also teaches a MOOC through the online education group Coursera about "Sports and Society" accessible at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/sports-society He continues to do research in Peru as well as a new project on the experience of Latina housecleaners in North Carolina (www.thehousecleanerproject.org).

Representative Publications (More Publications)

Starn, O. Ishi’s Brain: In Search of America’s Last "Wild" Indian. W.W. Norton, 2004.
Starn, O; Cadena, MDL. Indigenous Experience Today, Translated into Spanish as "Indigeneidadas Contemporaneas: Cultura, Politca, y Globalizacion" (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2010). Berg, 2006.
Starn, O. Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes. Duke University Press, 1999. [abs]
Starn, O; et. al.. The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Revised and Expanded Editon). Duke University Press, 2005.
Starn, O; Fox, R. Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Movements. Rutgers University Press, 1997. [abs]