Dustin M. Wax is a cultural anthropologist and writer. He currently teaches anthropology and Women's Studies at both the community college and university levels. His research interests include the history of anthropology, Cold War history, Native American cultures, gender roles and sexual identity, and the representation of culture and identity in scientific literature, museums, and the mass media. He has also been active in attempts to use the Internet to improve and broaden research and education, and is a founding contributor to the anthropology site Savage Minds [1], selected as one of the 20 Best Science Blogs by Nature in 2006. He is also the project manager at the personal productivity site lifehack.org [2], a Technorati Top 100 blog, where he writes about writing, learning, studying, project management, technology, and other topics in personal development.
For more information on his work and writing, please check out his portfolio [3] at this site.
Summary
I received my MA from the New School for Social Research and a BA from UC Santa Cruz, both in anthropology with honors in the major. I have been teaching as an adjunct for over four years,and currently teach anthropology at the College of Southern Nevada and women's studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I have worked with non-profit organizations, museums, and dot-com startups, where I have done everything from organizing catering to putting together exhibition brochures to interviewing researchers to writing marketing and educational copy to redesigning websites.
I have recently published an edited volume about anthropologists during the Cold War (available in the U.K., due out in the US in March, 2008), and am working on as a dissertation on the University of Chicago's Fox Project. I also do freelance writing for print and online publication, focusing primarily on issues in diversity and education, as well as on technology, writing, and organization skills. For further information, please review my full Curriculum Vita below, or contact me [4].
Curriculum Vita
EDUCATION
1997-Present | New School for Social Research, Graduate Faculty, New York, NY
- ABD May 2002; MA
December 2000- Major: Cultural Anthropology
- Dissertation topic: The Fox Project and Post-War Anthropology
1994-1995 | University of California at Santa Cruz
- Bachelor of Arts, June 1995
- Major: Anthropology
1992-1994 | MiraCosta Community College, Oceanside, CA
- Major:General Studies
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2002| Smithsonian Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, National Museum of Natural History
2002-2003 | PhD Maintenance of Status Scholarship
2001 | Outstanding MA Graduate Student Award, Anthropology
2000 | Research Assistantship
1995 | BA with Honors in the Major, Anthropology
1992-1994 | Phi Theta Kappa
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2006-present | Part-Time Instructor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Gender, Race, and Class
2003-present | Adjunct Instructor, Community College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, NV
- ANTH 101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- WMST 113: Gender, Race, and Class
2002 | Teaching Assistantship, New School for Social Research
- Scale and Complexity (Prof. Judith Friedlander)
1997-1998 | SAT Tutor, The Princeton Review, New York, NY
- Taught general mathematics and test-taking skills to high-school juniors and seniors in Harlem and Brooklyn in preparation for the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
PUBLICATIONS
2008. Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War: The Influence of Foundations, McCarthyism and the CIA. Dustin M. Wax, ed. London: Pluto Press.
2008. “Organizing Anthropology: Sol Tax and the Professionalization of Anthropology”. In Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War: The Influence of Faoundations, McCarthyism and the CIA. Dustin M. Wax, ed. London: Pluto Press.
2007. “Book Review: Sex and Pleasure in Western Culture”. Archives of Sexual Behavior 37(3): 471 - 472.
2006. “God Gene”. In Encyclopedia of Anthropology. H. James Birx, ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Pp. 1093-4.
2000. “Franz Boas and the Rise of Modern Culture”. Suite101.com. (No longer available online)
2007-Present. Contributing Editor for Lifehack.org. URL: www.lifehack.org [5].
2005-Present. Contributing writer for Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology. URL: http://www.savageminds.org [6]
PRESENTATIONS
2008 Paper: "The Uses of Anthropology in the Insurgent Age", Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency [7].
2003 Panel: “Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War”, 2003 AAA Annual Meeting (Organizer and Chair).
Paper: “Organizing Anthropology: Sol Tax and the
Professionalization of Anthropology”, 2003 AAA Annual Meeting.
FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE
2003 Dissertation research: Meskwaki (Sac and Fox)
Settlement, IA (February-June)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Anthropology Association (General Anthropology
Division, Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges, National Association of Student Anthropologists)
Textbook and Academic Authors Association
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Native American Culture and History; Cold War Anthropology; History of Anthropology; Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration; Cultural Identity; Museum Studies; Artistic Expression and Communication.
WORK EXPERIENCE
7/07 – Present | Project manager and Contributing Editor, Stepcase Lifehack (lifehack.org)
- Post regularly on topics related to personal productivity for audience of 1 million monthly unique visitors
- Edit and schedule work from staff of 25+ contributing writers
- Produce weekly podcast with over 3,500 listeners
- Oversee marketing and cross-promotional efforts
1/06 – Present | Part-Time Instructor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Teach multiple sections of the general education requirement "Gender, Race, and Class".
9/03 – Present | Part-time Adjunct Faculty, Community College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, NV
- Teach multiple sections of introductory cultural anthropology and Women's Studies.
11/04 – 5/05 | Webmaster, Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, The Hague, The Netherlands
- Updated and maintained website for NGO.
8/03 – 2/04 | Scheduling Specialist, West Las Vegas Public Library, Las Vegas, NV
- Scheduled and supervised community user group usage of library spaces.
3/01 – 6/02 | Assistant Web Editor, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, New York, NY
- Maintained and updated educational website. Created and edited content. Designmed and implemented workflows to facilitate publication of several magazines and journals along with their web counterparts.
3/00 – 1/01 | Communications Coordinator, eclaro.com (RecruitDynamics, llc), New York, NY
- Supervised customer service and marketing efforts for a dot-com startup in IT staffing. Wrote and edited marketing copy, business requirement documents, and technical documentation for
both internal and external use.1/01 – 5/02 | Research Intern, New York Academy of Science, New York, NY
- Located, copied, and archived materials relating to the history of anthropology at the New York Academy of Science, 1895-present.
11/99 – 5/00 | Contributing Editor, Suite101.com, Topic: Jewish-American History
- Wrote articles and compiled and annotated links on Jewish-American history.