Dr. Amy Mountcastle

I’m a cultural anthropologist who has done fieldwork in a variety of places. My doctoral work at Rutgers University (1997) was done in Tibetan communities in India and I have a long-standing interest in issues surrounding refugees. This has led me to a focus on human rights as a framework for seeking justice by marginalized groups and I’ve taught the anthropology of human rights for many years.

I’ve also conducted research in Croatia on community groups working toward ethnic reconciliation. In the United States, my current work takes me to the northern border, where I am working on a project about asylum seekers migrating through the local community to Canada. I also have a project (dormant at the moment) on small-scale dairy farmers and what motivates them — an interest in “dairy culture,” if you will.

I like to involve my students in my projects and to encourage them to work on their own. I am interested in sharing my passion for anthropological work and in showing students how to use the anthropological perspective in their daily lives and their careers-to-be.