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Elizabeth Bird

Elizabeth Bird
Professor, Chairperson, and Director of the Center for Applied Anthropology

Contact

Office: SOC 156A
Phone: 813/974-0802
Email:

Links

• Curriculum Vitae

Education

Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Strathclyde (U.K.)
M.A., Journalism & Mass Communications, University of Iowa
M.A., Folk Life Studies, University of Leeds (U.K.)
B.A., Anthropology, University of Durham (U.K.)

Teaching

Undergraduate and graduate classes taught at USF include Research Methods, Cultural Anthropology, Folklore, Visual Anthropology, and Anthropology, Media and Culture.

Research

My research focuses on practices around the media in everyday life, with particular interests in the role of news and journalism in framing cultural issues, and the relationship of media texts and audience practices. Recent and current projects include student response to the use of visuals in the classroom; museums as popular culture; the relationship of public art with community identity; and the role of oral histories in preserving cultural heritage.

With my students, I have been exploring a variety of visual methods to work with communities to document cultural practices and heritage issues.

Graduate Students

Joel Amnott, Felicidad Creagan, Elizabeth Heath, Jennifer Hunsecker, Baboucar Jobe, Margaret A. Karnyski, Deborah O'Hearn, Suellen R. Regonini, Alex Ritzheimer, Mabel Sabogal, Poonam Ratna Valliappan

Current Courses

Recent Publications

In Progress:

• Bird, S.E. ed. (Under contract). The Anthropology of News and Journalism: Global perspectives. Manuscript due to Indiana University Press, Jan. 2008.
• Bird, S.E. (Forthcoming). “Mediated practices and the interpretation of culture.” In Theorising Media and Practice, Postill, J. & Braeuchler, B. (eds). Oxford: Berghahn, expected 2008.
• Bird, S. E. and R.W. Dardenne (In press). News as myth and storytelling: Lessons and challenges. In K. Wahl-Jorgenson & T. Hanisch, eds. Handbook of Journalism. expected 2008.
• Bird, S.E. (In press). True believers and atheists need not apply: Mainstream faith and television drama. In Faith in High Definition, ed. D. Winston and J. Iwamura, Baylor University Press, expected 2008.
• Bird, S.E. (In press). The burden of history: Representations of American Indian women in popular Media. In Marion Myers, ed., Women in Popular Culture: Representation and the Media, expected publication 2008.

Published:

• Bird, S.E. (2003) The Audience in Everyday Life: Living in a Media World. New York: Routledge. (Winner of Best Book Award, International Communication Association, 2004).
• McBride, L.B. and S.E. Bird (2007). From smart fan to backyard wrestler: Ritual, performance, and pain. In Fandom: Identities and communities in a mediated world, ed. C. Sandvoss, L. Harrington, & J. Gray, New York University Press, 165-168. For pdf, click here
• Bird, S. E. (2007). Using visual methods in anthropological research. In Michael Angrosino, ed. Doing Cultural Anthropology: Projects for Ethnographic Data Collection. (2nd Ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 129-38. For pdf, click here
• Bird, S.E., J.P. Ambiee, and B.J. Kuzin (2006). Action research in a visual anthropology class: Lessons, frustrations, and achievements. In Pedagogies of Practice, ed. N. Hofman and H. Rosing, Anker Publishing, 111-133. For pdf, click here
• Bird, S.E. and Godwin, J. (2006). Film in the Undergraduate Anthropology Classroom: Applying Audience Response Research in Pedagogical Practice. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 37:3, 285-299. For pdf, click here
• Salkowe, R., Tobin, G.A. and S.E. Bird (2006). Calamity, catastrophe and horror: Representation of natural disaster, 1885-2005. Papers of Applied Geography Conferences, 29, 196-205.
• Bird, S.E. The Journalist as Ethnographer? (2005). How anthropology can enrich journalistic practice. In Media Anthropology, ed. E.Rothenbuhler and M.Coman. Sage, 301-308. For pdf, click here
• Gayles, J. and S.E. Bird (2005) Anthropology at the movies: Jerry Maguire as ‘expeditionary discourse’. In American Visual Cultures, ed. David Holloway and John Beck. London: Continuum.
• Bird, S.E. (2005). CJ's Revenge: A case study of news as cultural narrative. In Media Anthropology, ed. Eric Rothenbuhler and Mihai Coman. Sage, 220-228.
• Bird, S.E. (2002). It Makes Sense to Us: Cultural Identity in Local Legends of Place. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography,31: 5, 519-547. For pdf, click here
• Bird. S.E. and J.Jorgenson (2002). Extending the school day: Gender, class and the Incorporation of technology in everyday Life.” In M.Consalvo and S. Paasonen (eds), Women and Everyday Uses of the Internet: Agency and Identity. New York: Peter Lang, 255-74.
• Bird, S.E. (2002). Taking it personally: Supermarket tabloids after September 11. In B. Zelizer and S. Allen (eds). Journalism after September 11. London: Routledge: 141-159.
• Bird, S.E. and Barber, J. (2002). Constructing a virtual ethnography. In Michael Angrosino, ed. Doing Cultural Anthropology: Projects for Ethnographic Data Collection. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 129-138.
• Bird. S. E. and Stamps, S. D. (2001). Engagement in the Metropolitan Research University: The University of South Florida Creates its Identity. Metropolitan Universities, 12:3, 51-62.
• Bird, S.E. (2001). “Indians are like that:” Negotiating identity in a media World. In Karen Ross and Peter Playdon, eds. Black Marks: Minority Ethnic Audiences and Media. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 105-122.
• Bird, S. E. (2001). Savage desires: The gendered construction of the American Indian in popular media. In Carter Jones Meyer and Diana Royer, eds. Selling the Indian: Commercializing & Appropriating American Indian Cultures, University of Arizona Press.
• Bird, S.E. (2000). Audience demands in a murderous Market: Tabloidisation in U.S. television news. In C. Sparks & J. Tulloch, eds. Tabloid Tales. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 213-228.
• Bird, S.E. (2000). Facing the Distracted Audience: Journalism and Cultural Context. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 29-33.