Conrad P. Kottak
University of Michigan
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Primary Section: 51, Anthropology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2008)
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Research Interests
As a sociocultural anthropologist, I have done ethnographic field work in Brazil (since 1962), Madagascar (since 1966), and the United States (since 1976). Most generally, my research interests are in the processes by which local cultures are incorporated-and resist incorporation-into larger systems. This interest links my earlier work on ecology and state formation in Africa and Madagascar to my current research on global change, national and international culture, and the mass media. In recent research projects, in collaboration with Brazilian, French, Malagasy, and American colleagues, I have examined the emergence of ecological awareness in Brazil, the social context of deforestation and biodiversity conservation in Madagascar, and popular participation in economic development planning in northeastern Brazil. Most recently I have been active in the University of Michigan's Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life. In that capacity, for a research project titled "Media, Family, and Work in a Middle-Class Midwestern Town," I have investigated how middle-class families draw on various media in planning, managing, and evaluating their choices and solutions with respect to the competing demands of work and family.
