Robin Shoaps
Robin A Shoaps, Associate Professor with joint appointment in Linguistics
PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004.
Phone: 907-474-6884
Office: Bunnell Building 312
Lab: Digital Ethnography Lab Bunnell Building 309
Email: rashoaps@alaska.edu
Interests:
Linguistic anthropology, ritual language, discourse, power, semiotics, ethnography of morality, stance, human-animal relations, political media; Mesoamerica and the United States
Research and Teaching Interests:
As a linguistic and cultural anthropologist I am animated by thinking about language as a cultural resource. I liken my training and outlook to a 鈥渢oolbox鈥 that allows me to investigate cultural formations in a way that extends and enrichens what can be unearthed by interviews and participant observation. Using language structures as a lens鈥攁nd discourse analysis as a tool鈥攊lluminates how the form of an utterance or speech event can 鈥渟ay鈥 and 鈥渄o鈥 in ways that are meaningful beyond its content. I also believe that Peircian semiotics, one of the frameworks in my arsenal, has much to offer cultural anthropologists and archaeologists. I am enthusiastic about working with students whose interests are not only firmly centered in linguistic anthropology, but also those who seek advising on research design, field methods and analyzing meaning-making and semiotic processes in communicative resources ranging from grammatical structures, narratives and interviews to the semiotic use of space and material culture.
In my own research I investigate topics of enduring anthropological and ethnographic
interest: personhood, gender, subjectivity, kinship, ritual, religion and morality.
I engage these topics in a longstanding and active research program in Guatemala,
where I have done extensive research with two ethnolinguistic groups, the K'iche'
and Tujaal (Sakapultek) Maya. I have also chased language use in North America: with
Assemblies of God congregations and I have an ongoing research program on stance-taking
in conservative political media. Since coming to 蜜桃影像 in 2012, I have conducated ethnographic
fieldwork among 蜜桃影像 dog mushers, done some Gwich鈥檌n language study and a bit of
archival, linguistic and ethnohistorical research on the arrival of Protestant Christianity
in the Copper River Valley.
I direct the Digital Ethnography Lab, which is used by Anthropology students who seek
to collect ethnographic multimedia data. The newly launched workshop/colloquium series,
Discourse and Digital Ethnography Roundtable course provides an interdisciplinary
venue for faculty and students to 鈥渨orkshop鈥 discourse data.
Recent Course Offerings:
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Individual, Society and Culture (ANTH 100X)
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Fundamentals of Linguistic Anthropology (ANTH 260)
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Language, Thought and Action (ANTH F631)
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Discourse in Society: Analyzing Language in Social Context (ANTH 435/635)
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Language and Power (ANTH 492/ LING 411)
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Virtual Ethnographic Field School (ANTH 370, with Dr. Platter)
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Language and Gender (ANTH 308)
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Human-Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North (ANTH 492/692, with Dr. Plattet)
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Discourse and Digital Ethnography Roundtable (ANTH 492/692)