Erik Lind Harms

Erik Harms (PhD Cornell University) will begin his appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology on July 1, 2008. Dr. Harms is a socio-cultural anthropologist with research interests in the study of urban and peri-urban life, rural-urban transitions, the use and misuse of "culture" as a disciplinary apparatus, and resurgent ideologies of "civilization" used to legitimize social stratification in rapidly urbanizing contexts. He specializes in the political, economic, and social transformations engulfing the post-colonial "megacities" of Southeast Asia and has carried out extensive fieldwork in and around Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Dr. Harms will teach a mix of graduate and undergraduate courses and seminars, including a lecture course this fall on "The Politics of Culture in Southeast Asia," as well as courses on Postwar Vietnam, and urban anthropology.

Publications:

Saigon's Edge: Space, Time, and Power on Ho Chi Minh City's Rural-Urban Margin. University of Minnesota Press, Under Contract.

"Vietnam's Civilizing Process and the Retreat from the Street: A Turtle's Eye View From Ho Chi Minh City. Submitted to City and Society, Part of a special issue on "Street Life" edited by Joshua Barker and Ato Quason. (Expected 2008).

"Something's Funny in Saigon: Mister Westerner, Mis-recognition, and the Missed Joke," Southeast Asia Program Bulletin. Spring 2004. http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/Southeastasia/outreach/bulletin_archive/2003_Fall-2005_Spring_SEAP_Bulletin.pdf