Earlham College | A national liberal arts college in the Midwest
JoAnn Martin
Professor of Sociology/Anthropology; Convener of Women's, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program

JoAnn Martin has decades of experience researching social movements, and now explores the interactions between humans and non-human animals. Her favorite courses, though, are Contemporary Social Thought and Women, Gender and Sexuality. In those courses she sees students gain confidence in their ability to read, think, and discuss complicated ideas. She also sees them connect the material to their own lives—and their insights constantly challenge her own views of the world.

“I teach at Earlham because the students are great,” JoAnn says. “Our students love to be challenged, so I get to teach courses that I wouldn't be able to teach anywhere else.”

Contact Info

Campus Mail
Drawer 153

Phone
765-983-1226

E-mail

Office
333 Landrum Bolling Center

Office Hours
Varies depending on the semester but you can always schedule to see me through the social science office.

Programs/Departments

  • Sociology/Anthropology
  • Women's, Gender, Sexuality Studies
  • Anthrozoology Integrated Pathway

Degrees

  • Ph.D., U of California, Berkeley
  • M.A., U of California, Berkeley
  • B.A., Indiana University

Selected Courses:

I love all the courses I teach but my favorites are Contemporary Social Thought and Women, Gender and Sexuality. I love Contemporary because I get to watch students gain confidence in their abilities to read, think and discuss complicated ideas. I love Women, Gender and Sexuality because the material connects with student's lives in personal ways. The time I get to spend with these students both in class and outside of class as they explore the significance of this material constantly challenges me to rethink my own views of the world.

Over the last 20 years I have conducted research on social movements questioning the need for unity. Based on ethnographic research in Mexico and Spain, I argue unity renders movements less adaptable to change. My current research explores interactions between humans and non-human animals.

Books:

Tepoztlán and the Transformation of the Mexican State:  The Politics of Loose Connections.  University of Arizona Press, 2005.

The Paths to Domination Resistance and Terror Co Edited with Carolyn Nordstrom. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.

Articles:  (All publications are refereed unless otherwise noted)

“Emiliano Zapata:  National Hero/Bloodthirsty Criminal:  Reporting Crime During the Mexican Revolution.”  Crime’s Power:  Anthropologists and the Ethnography of Crime. Philip Parnell and Stephane Kane,eds.  Palgrave/st. Martins pp. 173-195, 2003.

“Fragments from the Past: The Politics of Storytelling in Morelos Mexico.” In Traditional Storytelling Today. Margaret Read McDonald, ed. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers pp. 498-501, 1999.  (not refereed)

“From Revolution to Modernization: Discursive Disruptions in State/Peasant Relation in Morelos, Mexico.” Socialist Review: Reimagining Capitalism: Explorations in Postmodern Marxism (3&4):83 112,1995.

“The Chasm of the Political in Postmodern Theory.” with Cynthia Kaufman Rethinking  Marxism Volume 7(4):86 102. 1994.

“The Antagonisms of Class and Community in Women's Politics in Morelos, Mexico.”  Women of the Mexican Countryside. 1850 1990 Heather Fowler Salamini and Mary Kay  Vaughan, eds. Arizona University Press, 1994. pp. 225-242.

“Contesting Authenticity: Battles over the Representation of History in Morelos, Mexico.”  Ethnohistory Vol 40 (3):438 458, 1993: An earlier version of this paper is also published as  Working Paper #194 for the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame.

“When the People were Strong and United: Stories of the Past and the Transformation of Politics in a Mexican Community.” The Paths to Domination Resistance and Terror.  Nordstrom, Carolyn and JoAnn Martin, eds. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.

“Domination, Resistance and Terror.” (with C. Nordstrom) The Paths to Domination Resistançe and Terror. Nordstrom, Carolyn and JoAnn Martin, eds. Los Angeles: University of California  Press, 1992.

“Motherhood and Power: The Production of a Women's Culture of Politics in a Mexican Community.” American Ethnologist 17:470 490, 1990.

Reviews:

A Review of 'Waging War, Making Peace: Reparations and Human Rights'. By Slyomovics, Susan and Barbara Rose Johnson.  Peace Review, Oct-Dec2010, Vol. 22 Issue 4, p465-469.

Review of Spirit and system: media, intellectuals, and the dialectic in modern German culture By Dominic Boyer. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Mar2009, Vol. 15 Issue 1:202-203.

Review of Social Stratification and Mobility in Central Veracruz. Hugo G. Nutini. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13:497-498, 2007.

Review of Women and Social Movements in Latin America Power from Below. Stephen, Lynn. American Ethnologist 26(2):482, 1999.

Review of More Than Class Studying Power in U.S Workplaces Kingsolver, Ann, eds. American Anthropologists 101(3):680, 1999.

Review of The Meanings of Macho Being a Man in Mexico City by Matthew Gutmann. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3(4):817, 1997.

Review of Autonomy and Power The Dynamics of Class and Culture in Rural Bolivia by Maria L. Lagos. American Anthropologists 97(4):837 838, 1995.

Review of Toward an Anthropology of Law in Complex Societies: An Analysis of  Critical Concepts by Rene Gadacz. Anthropologic 26(1):66 67, 1987.       

Papers Presented at Meetings:

Cynicism:  A Gateway to Political Activism. Paper presented 109th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropology Association, November 17-21, 2010. New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Migration of the Living Dead: Bodies, The Exhibition. Paper presented at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropology Association, November, 2008, San Francisco California.    Betrayal, Agency and Integrity in Women's Politics:  Rethinking Agency.  Paper presented at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropology Association.  November 15-19, 2006.  San Jose, California.

Specters of the Revolutionary Subject:  From Marx to Derrida.  Paper presented at the Rethinking Marxism Conference:  Marxism on the Global State, November, 2003, University of Massachusetts: Amherst, Massachusetts.

From Revolution to Modernization: Discursive Disruptions of State/Peasant Relations in Morelos, Mexico. Paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association Meetings, Washington, D.C. September 28 30, 1995.

Communal Land and Political Passion on the Eve of Privatization: A View from Morelos, Mexico. Paper presented at the American Anthropology Meetings in San Francisco, CA. December 2 5, 1992.

American Anthropology Association
Society for Cultural Anthropology
American Ethnology Association

I teach at Earlham because the students are great.  Our students love to be challenged, so I get to teach courses that I wouldn't be able to teach anywhere else.

Earlham students are here to grow intellectually and personally; not to beat out the person sitting next to them. They embrace intellectual rigor but within a communal learning environment. They appreciate the time faculty give them and they are interesting people who you really want to get to know. Each one is slightly different but they share a sense of the importance of the place and what we are doing academically and in the community.

I am currently working with students on a study of hunters and their Mountain Cur hunting dogs in Tennessee.  I am fascinated by the differences between the relationships hunters establish with their hunting dogs and the understanding of dogs that most of us glean from our connection to the dog as a family pet.  Questions my students and I are examining include how:

  • dogs mediate human relations with the natural world,
  • hunters learn to read dog signals (especially sounds),
  • hunters understand dog training as allowing natural instincts to flourish, and
  • hunters interpret the establishment of the United States as a settler colony as a dog-human accomplishment.

I teach spinning and ballet classes, and I love to spend time running with my German Shepherd puppy, Atty. I, also, love to hang out with my Earlham friends.

Earlham College, an independent, residential college, aspires to provide the highest-quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences, shaped by the distinctive perspectives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

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