Dr. Keri Brondo Assistant Professor E-mail: kbrondo@memphis.edu Phone: (901) 678-3289 Office: Manning Hall 304

Research Focus

Community development, identity politics and social mobilization,  gender, social justice, work practice and the global economy, organizational anthropology (NGOs and business), applied qualitative methods; participatory action research; Central America, US.

Academic Summary

Dr. Brondo received her PhD from Michigan State University in 2006.  She is an applied anthropologist engaged in teaching and research in the areas of gender, development and social justice, organizational anthropology (NGOs and business), and applied participatory action research and assessment.  She has over ten years of research experience in both urban and rural communities in Central America and the United States.  Dr. Brondo is active in leadership in anthropology and is currently serving as Chair (2006-2007) of the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association.  She is involved in two major surveys assessing the gender and work climate of academic and practicing anthropologists; both are sponsored by American Anthropological Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology.  In 2003, she was honored by the National Association of Student Anthropologists for her commitment to public anthropology and service to the profession.

In her research in Central America, Dr. Brondo has explored the organizational mobilization of Mayan domestic workers in Guatemala, identity politics and indigenous mobilization, tourism development, and the gendered impacts of neoliberal agrarian reform in Honduras.  Her research with the afro-indigenous Garifuna community of Honduras focuses on the intersection of gender, development, indigenous rights, and natural resource management.  She spent two years serving as the Senior Social Scientist for Operation Wallacea, a private scientific research expedition organization, in the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Honduras.  In that role she was responsible for the design and implementation of a multi-year project to assess the socioeconomic impacts of regulations on natural resource extraction, as well as expectations and potential for ecotourism development within five Garifuna communities.

In the US, Dr. Brondo spent four years training in organizational and business anthropology, culminating in a post-doctoral research position at Michigan State University with the “Future of Work Project.”  In that role, Dr. Brondo explored sociotechnical systems in a variety of corporate settings.  She spent four years studying lean manufacturing and work culture in a General Motors’ automotive assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan. 
In addition to her other projects, Dr. Brondo is beginning to carve out a new research and outreach agenda in Memphis, TN, with a focus on community development and corporate social responsibility.  She inspires to develop strategic partnerships between local business and communities that will serve as service-learning sites for participatory action research leading toward community development and socioeconomic vitality in the mid-South region. 

She is currently collaborating with the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation (UNDC), Jacob’s Ladder, and St. Luke’s on engaged service learning research opportunities.  Through collaboration with these organizations, students in her Urban Anthropology are involved in a series of projects including: 1) interviewing residents of the Belt Line community to identify a shared vision of the Belt Line area identity and visions for the future that would be translated into art, creating a sense of community among residents; 2) curriculum development for children’s programs at the Belt Line Children’s Center, including educational opportunities about urban gardening; 3) the production of a DVD documentary on the Belt Line’s Community Action Group’s efforts to clean the community of crime, drugs, violence, and truancy; 4) a map and survey of international residents, their assets and felt needs in the University District; 5) the production of a business and organizational asset directory for the University District; and, 6) working with youth at St. Luke’s to identify the attributes of healthy communities and assets of the University District neighborhoods.

Recent Publications

Brondo, Keri Vacanti. 2007. Garifuna Women’s Land Loss and Activism in Honduras. Journal of International Women’s Studies. [Online] 9(1):99-116.  Available: http://www.bridgew.edu/SoAS/jiws/Nov07/Garifuna.pdf.

Brondo, Keri Vacanti and Laura Woods.  “Garifuna Land Rights and Ecotourism as Economic Development in Honduras’ Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area.”  Ecological and Environmental Anthropology.  3:1, 2007.  http://eea.anthro.uga.edu/index.php/eea/article/view/25.

Brondo, Keri and Marietta L. Baba.  “Ethnography of Women in US Business.”  Society for the Anthropology of Work, Anthropology News, April 2006.

Brondo, Keri, Marietta Baba, Sengun Yeniyurt, and Janell Townsend.   “Fertile Ground: Homegrown Loyalty Makes for Globally Competitive Industry.”  In EPIC 2005. American Anthropological Association.  University of California Press.  2005:158-166.

Recent Technical Applied Reports

Brondo, Keri and Laura Woods.  “Operation Wallacea Social Science Field Report 2006.”  In Marine Field Research Summary: Cayos Cochinos Marine Site, June-September 2006.  UK: Operation Wallacea LTD, 2007: 7-10. [Available: http://www.opwall.com/Library/Honduras/Honduras%20Marine/Cayos%20Cochinos%20-%20Season%20science%20summary%202006.pdf]

Brondo, Keri Vacanti and Natalie Bown.  “Economic Structure and Attitudes Towards Conservation in Honduran Coastal Villages.” In Operation Wallaca Science Programme Annual Report, edited by UK: Edited by Timothy Coles, D. Smith, and R. Field. UK: Operation Wallacea. 2007: 98-101. [Available: http://www.opwall.com/Library/Operation%20Wallacea%20Science%20Programme%202007.pdf]

Awards and Fellowships

Carrie Hunter Tate Award.   National Student Association of Student, American Anthropological Association, 2006.

Fulbright-IIE, Fulbright Foundation, 2002

U.S. Department of Education Title IV Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships (for Spanish and Garifuna), 2002/2002.

Tinker Field Research Grant, Tinker Foundation, 2001.

National Science Foundation Ethnographic Research Training Grant, 2001.

Leadership Positions

Chair, Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, 2006-Present

Undesignated Seat #4, Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, 2004-2006

Courses Taught at The University of Memphis