SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of Anthropology
Distinguished Service Professor Emerita Patricia J. Higgins is a cultural anthropologist
specializing in education and culture, women and gender, and Iranian culture. She
holds a B.A. in Social Science, an M.A. in Anthropology, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology,
all from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Higgins conducted field research in a suburb of Tehran, Iran, from 1969 to 1971
where she focused on the interface between home and school in the education and socialization
of elementary school-age children. She returned to Iran as a Fulbright Lecturer in
1977–78, teaching anthropology at Tehran University and extending her research into
the middle school educational program. Her third major research project involved the
acculturation and adaptation of Iranian-origin high school students in Santa Clara
County, California, in 1990. Her publications based on anthropological research have
appeared in Iranian Studies, Signs, Human Organization, and Journal of Research and Development in Education and as book chapters and encyclopedia articles.
Since retiring in 2011, Dr. Higgins has become a translator of literary works from
Persian to English. Her publications in this area include Island of Bewilderment: A Novel of Modern Iran by Simin Daneshvar (Syracuse University Press, forthcoming), Hafez in Love: A Novel by Iraj Pezeshkzad (Syracuse University Press, 2021), and The Thousand Families: Commentary on Leading Political Figures of Nineteenth Century
Iran by Ali Shabani (Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2018). All these translations are with
Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi. Their joint translation of Hafez in Love, a light-hearted historical novel set in fourteenth century Shiraz, Iran, has been
awarded the Lois Roth Prize for Literary Translation by the American Institute of
Iranian Studies.
Forthcoming Island of Bewilderment: A Novel of Modern Iran, by Simin Daneshvar. Translated with Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi.
2021 Hafez in Love: A Novel, by Iraj Pezeshkzad. Translated with Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi. Syracuse University Press.
2018 The Thousand Families: Commentary on Leading Political Figures of Nineteenth Century
Iran, by Ali Shabani. Translated with Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi. From Antiquity to Modernity:
Studies on Middle Eastern Society Series. Peter Lang Publishing Inc. N.Y.
Edited Works (Selected)
Forthcoming The Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation. Edited with Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi and Michelle Quay.
2000 Classics of Practicing Anthropology: 1978–1998. Edited with J. Anthony Paredes. Oklahoma City: Society for Applied Anthropology.
1986 Anthropology and Precollege Education. Edited with Ruth O. Selig. Special Section of Practicing Anthropology Vol. 8, Nos. 3–4.
Refereed Articles
2004 Interviewing Iranian Immigrant Parents and Adolescents. Iranian Studies 33(4):695–706.
1991 Sex Role Socialization in Iranian Textbooks. (With Pirouz Shoar Ghaffari.) NWSA Journal 3(2):213–32.
1985 Women in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Legal, Social, and Ideological Changes.
Signs 10(3):477–94.
1984 Anthropologists and Issues of Public Concern: The Iran Crisis. Human Organization 43(2)132–45.
1984 Minority-State Relations in Contemporary Iran. Iranian Studies 17(1):37–71.
1976 The Conflict of Acculturation and Enculturation in Suburban Elementary Schools
of Tehran. Journal of Research and Development in Education 9(4):102–12.
Book Chapters
1997 Intergenerational Stress: Parents and Adolescents in Iranian immigrant Families.
In Beyond Boundaries: Selected Papers on Refugees and Immigrants. Volume V. Edited by Diane Baxter and Ruth Krulfeld. Pp. 189–213. Arlington, VA:
American Anthropological Association.
1995 Changing Perceptions of Iranian Identity in Elementary Textbooks. (With Pirouz
Shoar Ghaffari.) In Children in the Muslim Middle East. Edited by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. Pp. 337–93. Austin: University of Texas Press.
1994 Women’s Education in the Islamic Republic of Iran. (With Pirouz Shoar Ghaffari.)
In In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran. Edited by Mahnaz Afkhami and Erika Friedl. Pp. 19-43. Syracuse University Press
and I.B. Tauris Publishers.
1988 Anthropological Studies of Women’s Status Revisited: 1977–1987. (With Carol C.
Mukhopadhyay.) Annual Review of Anthropology 17:461-95.
1986 Minority-State Relations in Contemporary Iran. In The State, Religion and Ethnic Politics. Ali Banuazizi and Myron Weiner, eds. Pp. 176–97. Syracuse University Press. (Revised
version of 1984 article by the same name.)
Encyclopedia Entries
2007 Iran, Education: (Early through Late) Modern. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Vol. IV, Economics, Education, Mobility, and Space. Edited by Suad Joseph. Pp. 304–6.
1994 Anthropological Programs in Education. In The International Encyclopedia of Education, Second Edition. Pp. 277–80. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Other Articles (Selected)
2006 Growing Up Iranian, American, and Female (Summary). DANESH Bulletin: 10–11
2000 Introduction: Context and Vision for Practicing Anthropology. (With J. Anthony Paredes.) In Classics of Practicing Anthropology: 1978–1998. Edited by Patricia J. Higgins and J. Anthony Paredes. Pp. 1–9. Oklahoma City: Society
for Applied Anthropology.
1998 Adaptation of Second-Generation Iranians: Academic Performance. CIRA Bulletin 14(4):44–50.
1997 Disability and Inclusion: A Summer Practicum for Undergraduates. (With Roy T.
Scheller.) Practicing Anthropology 19(4):5–9.
1988 Family History for Middle School Age Youth: A Multidisciplinary Enrichment Program.
Practicing Anthropology 8(3–4):22–23,27.
1986 Special Programs in anthropology for Precollege Teachers. Practicing Anthropology 8(3–4)7–8,29.
1981 Limits to Change: Getting Anthropology into Secondary Social Studies Classrooms.
In Teaching Anthropology to Students and Teachers: Reaching a Wider Audience. Patricia J. Higgins and Ruth O. Selig, eds. Pp. 27-–1. Athens: University of Georgia,
Anthropology Curriculum Project, Publication 82–1.
2021 — Lois Roth Prize for Literary Translation from Persian, presented by the American
Institute of Iranian Studies for the translation, Hafez in Love.
2014 — Distinguished Service Award, presented by SUNY Plattsburgh’s College Foundation.
1990 — Immigrant Minorities, Education, and Ethnicity. National Science Foundation.
1986 — Family History in the North Country. National Endowment for the Humanities,
Youth Project Grant.
1985 — Family History in the North Country. National Endowment for the Humanities,
Youth Project Grant.
1981 — Muslim Ethnic Minorities in the Middle East and the U.S.S.R. National Endowment
for the Humanities Summer Seminar.
1979 — Anthropology in Asian and African Cultures Courses. National Science Foundation
Pre-College Teacher Development in Science Program.
1977 — Anthropology in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms. National Science Foundation
Pre-College Teacher Development in Science Program.
1977 — Fulbright Lectureship Grant.
1969 — Dissertation Research, National Institute for Mental Health