Orin Starn, Professor of Cultural Anthropology

Please note: Orin has left the "Center for Latin American Caribbean Studies" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Orin Starn is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and History. His interests include technology and internet studies; social movements and indigenous politics, sports and society;cultural theory and the history of anthropology; Latin America; Latinx experience; Europe; Native America.  See www.orinstarn.com for more information.

Contact Info: 

Office Location:	205 Friedl, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 717-7090
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.OrinStarn.com

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• CULANTH 101D.001, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  White Hall 107, Tu 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as ICS 101D.001)

• CULANTH 101D.01D, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  East Duke 204B, Th 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as CULANTH 101D.02D, ICS 101D.01D, ICS 101D.02D)

• CULANTH 101D.02D, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  East Duke 204D, Th 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as CULANTH 101D.01D, ICS 101D.01D, ICS 101D.02D)

• CULANTH 101D.03D, INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTHRO Synopsis

  East Duke 204A, Th 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as ICS 101D.03D)

• CULANTH 803S.01, RESEARCH METHODS PORTFOLIO SEM Synopsis

  Friedl Bdg 118, Th 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

• CULANTH 204S.01, UNION ACTIVISM Synopsis

  Class Bldg 106, MW 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as AAAS 204S.01, ECON 120S.01, HISTORY 207S.01, SOCIOL 204S.01)

• CULANTH 700S.01, SURVEILLANCE AND TECHNOLOGY Synopsis

  Friedl Bdg 204, M 03:20 PM-05:50 PM

  (also cross-listed as LIT 700S.01, SOCIOL 700S.01)

Education:

Ph.D.	Stanford University	1989
MA	Stanford University	1985
B.A.	The University of Chicago	1982
General Studies	University of California, Berkeley	1981
General Studies	Haverford College	1979

Specialties:

Culture Theory
Bassett
Globalization
South America
Social Movements
Popular Culture
North America
Identity
Politics of Memory

Research Interests:

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).

Areas of Interest:

Cultural theory
Indigenous politics and identity
Politics of representation and nationalism
transnationalism and globalization
history of anthropology
activist anthropology
Andes and Latin America
Native North America
sports and society

Keywords:

Anthropology

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Erin Parish  
• Fari Nzinga  
• Lorien Olive  
• Lia Haro  
• Kristina Jacobsen  
• Neta Bar  
• Leigh Campoamor  
• Yektan Turkyilmaz  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Starn, O, The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal (2012), Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-5210-9
2. Starn, O, Here Come The Anthros (Again): The Strange Marriage Of Anthropology And Native America, Cultural Anthropology, vol. 26 no. 2 (May, 2011), pp. 179-204, WILEY, ISSN 0886-7356 [doi]  [abs]
3. Starn, O, Ishi’s Brain: In Search of America’s Last "Wild" Indian (2004), W.W. Norton
4. O. Starn, Missing the Revolution: Anthropologists and the War in Peru, Cultural Anthropology (1991)
5. Starn, O; Cadena, MDL, Indigenous Experience Today, Translated into Spanish as "Indigeneidadas Contemporaneas: Cultura, Politca, y Globalizacion" (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2010) (2006), Berg
6. Rockafellar, N; Starn, O, Ishi's Brain, Current Anthropology, vol. 40 no. 4 (August, 1999), pp. 413-416, University of Chicago Press, ISSN 0011-3204 [Gateway.cgi], [doi]
7. Starn, O, Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes (1999), Duke University Press  [abs]
8. Starn, O; et. al., , The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Revised and Expanded Editon) (2005), Duke University Press
9. Starn, O, To Revolt against the Revolution: War and Resistance in Peru's Andes, Cultural Anthropology, vol. 10 no. 4 (November, 1995), pp. 547-580, Wiley, ISSN 0886-7356 [doi]
10. Starn, O; Fox, R, Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Movements (1997), Rutgers University Press  [abs]
11. Starn, O; Harris, O; Nugent, D; Nugent, S; Orlove, BS; Reyna, SP; Smith, G, Rethinking the Politics of Anthropology: The Case of the Andes [and Comments and Reply], Current Anthropology, vol. 35 no. 1 (February, 1994), pp. 13-38, University of Chicago Press, ISSN 0011-3204 [pdf], [doi]
12. O. Starn, Engineering Internment: Anthropologists and the War Relocation Authority, American Ethnologist (1986)

The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal 2011 Duke University Press

Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last "Wild" Indian 2004 W.W. Norton

Indigenous Experience Today 2007 Berg Press

Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes 1999 Duke University Press

The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics 2005 (Revised and Updated Edition) Duke University Press

Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest 1997 Rutgers University Press