Associate Professor of International Studies

Year Joined RCNJ: 2006

Contact Information

• Phone: (201) 684-7259
• Email: ecastell@ramapo.edu
• Office: B-213
• Office Hours: MR 1:00-2:00 pm; R 4:30-5:30 pm

Education:

• B.A. Pomona College
• M.A. John Hopkins University
• M.A. & PhD. Brown University

Courses Offered:

• Introduction to International Studies
• Introduction to Anthropology
• Latin American Culture and Civilization
• Urban Anthropology
• Crossing Borders: Growing Up Latino Politics, Culture
• Identity Food and Culture International Migration

Teaching Interests:

• Urban Anthropology
• Political Anthropology
• Anthropology of Europe
• Anthropology of the Americas
• National, Racial and Ethnic Identity
• Migration and Transnationalism
• Latino Studies
• Population and Society
• Anthropological Demography
• Research Methodology
• Anthropological Theory
• Applied Anthropology
• Social Problems
• International Relations

Research Interests:

• Migrant Assimilation and Marginalization
• National Identity, Nationalism
• Ethnicity
• International Migration
• Anthropological Demography
• Politics
• Symbols
• Culture and International Relations
• Food and Identity
• Italy
• Europe
• the United States
• Latin America.

Scholarly Activity:

• 2014.  “The Mexican and Transnational Lives of Corn: Technological, Political, Edible Object.”  In Edible Identities: Exploring Food and Foodways as Cultural Heritage, edited by Ronda Brulotte and Michael A. Di Giovine.  London: Ashgate Publishing.  (With Sara M. Bergstresser)
• 2012.  “Narcotraffic, NAFTA, and the Resurgence of Demon Possession in 21^st Century Mexico.”  In El futuro del Estado laico en el siglo XXI: Religión y libertades religiosas. ¿Un conflicto de intereses? Edited by Elio Masferrer Kan and Blanca Estela Gutierréz Grageda.  Querétaro, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro.  (With Sara M. Bergstresser)
• 2010.  “The Symbolic Construction of Communities in Italy: The Nation and Locality.”  In Ethnology, Winter, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 61-78
• 2006.  “Food Fights at the EU Table: The Gastronomic Assertion of Italian Distinctiveness.”  In Consuming Cultures: Food, Drink and Identity in Europe, edited by Thomas M. Wilson.  Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers. (With Sara M. Bergstresser)
• 2006.  “Migrant Mirrors: The Replication and Reinterpretation of Local and National Ideologies as Strategies of Adaptation by Foreign Immigrants in Bergamo, Italy,” American Behavioral Scientist, 50(1):27-47.
• 2003.  “Il Campanile, la Nutella e l’Europa: Bolognese identity in the face of immigration.”  In Migrazioni, interazioni e conflitti nella costruzione di una democrazia europea, edited by Dario Melossi.  Bologna: Giufrè Editore.

Conference Papers

• “Food, Commodity, or Heritage: The Multiple Meanings of Maize in Mexico.”  Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.  November 2013.
• “Chop Suey and Refried Beans: Transnational Food Identity Among Mexicans and Guatemalan Restaurant Workers.”  Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.  December 2012.