ALISSA JORDAN

Email:alissa.jordan@gmail.com website:alissajordan.com phone: 909289-6212

2340 SW 32nd Place Apt 13 Gainesville, FL, 32608

RESEARCH INTEREST
Regions:
America

Haiti, West & Central Africa & Diaspora, Afro-Creole & Latin

Topics:
Material culture; Diaspora Ritual Practice; Infants,
Subjectivity, Hope

LANGUAGES
Haitian
Creole:
French:
Swahili:
English:

High Advanced S/R (ACTFL OPI Score April 2013)

Intermediate Fluency R
Basic S/R;
Native Speaker.

HIGHER EDUCATION
2015 In progress. PhD Anthropology with Certificates in Latin American
Studies. Admitted to Candidacy May 18, 2013.
2009 MA Social Sciences. University of Chicago. Cum Laude. Masters Title:
Greeting Teotwawki With Assault Rifles: Narratives of Tyranny and a
Chronotope of the Post-Apocalypse in the Southeast Michigan
Volunteer Militia
2007 BA in Anthropology. Indiana University. Summa Cum Laude. Honors
Thesis Title: Salt for the Living, Salt for the Dead: salt use in rites of
transition and socio-economic correlates.

MUSEUM & EXHIBITS WORK

2016 (Forthcoming) Organizer & Co-Curator. The Aesthetics of the Field
Turlington Hall Permanent Photography Exhibit presented by the
Department of Anthropology.

2015 Curatorial Intern for Dr. Susan Cooksey Elusive Spirits: African
Masquerades Samuel P. Harn Museum
2014 Organizer & Co-Curator. The Visual Art of Anthropology Turlington
Hall Permanent Photography Exhibit presented by the Department of
Anthropology
2013 Co-curator with Natlia Marques Da Silva. Mother of the Sea: Tracing
Yemaja in Africa and the Americas. Grinter Exhibit Hall
2013 Forthcoming. Curator. Spirit Bodies: Kongo Inspirations in Afro-Creole
Sacred Objects. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. 2013.
2011 Artist. No Room for Fate. American Anthropological Association
Photography Exhibit. November 2011. Montreal, Canada.
2009 Tour Author. Powerful Nature: History of Animal, Human and
Environmental Representations in the Ancient Near East. Oriental
Institute Museum. University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois.
2009 Curatorial Intern. The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient
Egypt. Oriental Institute Museum. University of Chicago. Chicago,
Illinois.
2004 Collections Intern. The Greist Collection of Inupiat Artifacts from Point
Barrow, Alaska. Mathers Museum of World Cultures. Indiana University.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

2016

Forthcoming. Director Nanm Experimental Documentary on Petwo

Vodou Sensory Worlds, produced in concert with research participants
in Arcahaie, Haiti.

2015

Jordan, A.M. The Ethical Aesthetics of Recycling Your Body Parts:

Zonbi Practices in Petwo Vodou Invited speaker at Duke Universitys
Zombie: The Haitian and American Realities behind the Myth,
presented by the Center for African and African American Studies at
Duke University. Including forthcoming publication

2014

Organizer for Invited Lecture at the University of Florida by Pierre

Michel Saint-Phard: Why You Need Us: An Ethnographic Informant's
Perspective on Anthropology & Development Practices in Haiti,
presented by the Department of Anthropology, CLAS, and LUECI

2013 Jordan, A.M Kongo Memory in the Afro Atlantic. In: Kongo Across the
Waters edited by S. Cooksey, R. Poynor, H. Vanhee. Gainesville:
University of Florida

2012 Jordan, A.M & Kulstad, T. Emergent Movements during States of

Emergency in Post-Quake Haiti. Panel Organizers. SECOLAS
Conference. March.
2012 Jordan, A.M. Werewolves and Infrastructure, With Vigilante Justice In
Between: Lougawou in Post- Quake Haiti and the Night Time Roads that
Carry Them. SECOLAS Conference Paper Presentation. March.
2012 Jordan, A.M. We Refuse to Become Animals: Border zones in disaster &
risk mediation in a post-earthquake Haitian IDP Camp. University of
Florida Center for Latin American Studies Poster Session February
2012 Jordan, A.M. Border Agents of the Beyond in Haiti. Multimedia Essay.
February 2012. Anthropology News.
2011 Jordan, A.M. No Room for Fate. Photograph, Caption. January 2011.
Anthropology News.
2011 Jordan, A.M. Joy trumps Misery in Haiti. Print Article, Photograph.
Gainesville Sun.
2011 Jordan, A.M. Dream-walking through disaster worlds: Making future
resistance, and the architecture of catastrophe in a contemporary US
militia. Paper Presentation. In Violence, Security and the State. Society
for Urban, National and Transnational _ Anthropology. San Juan, Puerto
Rico.
2010 Jordan, A.M. Snowing in Haiti. Online Essay. United Sikhs. 2 February
2010.
2010 Jordan, A.M. In Transit. Online Essay. United Sikhs. 11 February 2010.
2010 Jordan, A.M. Infrastructure. Online Essay. United Sikhs. 18 February
2010.
2007 Jordan, A.M. & Bradely, D. Incidence of Osteomata in the Bab edh Dhra
Skeletal Collection from Charnal House A22. Paper Presentation.
Indiana Academy of Science. Indianapolis.
2006 Jordan, A.M. Salt Use in Rites of Transition and Its Subsistence
Correlates. Paper Presentation and Session Chair. Society for American
Archaeology. In: Theory and Method in the Study of Diet and Human
Adaptation. San Juan, Puerto Rico.

CURRENT AND PREVIOUS ACADEMIC POSITIONS

2015

Course Designer Global Humankind for Department of Anthropology

and UF Online.

2014 Teaching Associate & Course Designer. Race and Racism Department
of Anthropology, University of Florida.
2013 Assistant. Course activities and course design for class on
commodities, objects, materiality. Dr. Susan Gillespie. Department of
Anthropology.
2012 Teaching Associate. Course: Human Sexuality. Department of
Anthropology. University of Florida.
2012 Teaching Associate. Course: Sex Roles Cross Culturally. Department
of Anthropology. University of Florida.
2011 Guest Lecture. Nou Renmen Blan, Isit! The politics of skin color in Haiti
and her religions. Course: Race and Racism. Department of
Anthropology. University of Florida.TO: Tess Kulstad.
2011 Guest Lecture. Greeting Teotwawki with Assault Rifles: Approaches to
Studying Social Movements. Course: Political Anthropology.
Department of Anthropology. Univ of Florida. Prof: Dr. Chalfin
2011 Teaching Assistant. Department of Anthropology. Course: Political
Anthropology University of Florida. Dr. Brenda Chalfin.

INTERNSHIPS
2015

Curatorial Intern. Samuel P. Harn Museum. University of Florida.

Gainesville, Florida. Supervisor: Dr. Susan Cooksey

2009 Curatorial Intern. Oriental Institute Museum. University of Chicago.

Chicago, Illinois. Supervisor: Dr. Emily Teeter
2008

Visitor Services. Indianapolis Childrens Museum. Indianapolis, Indiana.

2004 Collections Intern. Mathers Museum of World Cultures. Indiana

University. Indianapolis, Indiana. Supervisor: Dr. Ellen Sieber.

RESEARCH
2014

Research Assistant to Dr. Brenda Chalfin, coding, cataloging,

researching Ghana ethnographic photographs & documents on

material culture of Ghanaian toilets & hygiene, fish smoking, oil rigs,
sanitation
2012 Follow-up Research. Barbancourt, Haiti.
2011 Principal Investigator. We Refuse to Become Animals: Social
Strategies for Disaster & Risk Mediation in a post-earthquake Haitian
IDP Camp. 2 months exploratory fieldwork in Barbancourt, Haiti.
2011 Research Assistant. Department of Anthropology. University of Florida.
Dr. Brenda Chalfin Assisted in archival research on theories of
infrastructure, urban infrastructure, architecture. Edited working
papers.
2010 Teaching Assistant. Department of Anthropology. University of Florida.
Dr. Brenda Chalfin Political Anthropology
2006 Research Assistant. Mathers Museum of World Cultures. Indiana
University. Dr. Ellen Sieber. Digital Cataloging, Archival Research,
Accessioning
2007 NSF REU Fellow. Department of Anthropology. University of Notre
Dame. Dr. Susan Sheridan. Osteological and biocultural research on
Bab Ed Dhra Collection.
2005 Assistant Research Director. Semliki Chimpanzee Project. Semliki
National Forest, Uganda.Indiana University Project headed by Dr. Kevin
Hunt.

SELECTED GRANTS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS

2014 LUCEI, CLAS, Department of Anthropology Grant for
2012 Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship for Haitian Creole. Center for
Latin American and Caribbean Studies. University of Florida.
2010 Alumni Fellow. Department of Anthropology. University of Florida.
2011 A. Curtis Wilgus Fellowship for Field Research. Center for Latin
American and Caribbean Studies. University of Florida.
2009 Graduate Student Award. Graduate School. University of Chicago.
2007 National Science Foundation REU Fellow. Bioarchaeology of Bab edh
Dhra. University of Notre Dame.

2007 (Declined for above) National Science Foundation REU Fellowship.

Geophysical Methods and the Archaeology of Late Prehistoric Indiana.
Purdue University
2006 Distinguished Alumni Association Fellowship for Undergraduates.
College of Arts and Sciences. Indiana University.
2006 Hutton Honors College Grant (2). Hutton Honors College. Indiana
University.
2003 Twenty-First Century Scholarship. Indiana University.

SERVICE POSITIONS
2011 Volunteer Teacher. Subjects: English, Art. Camp Mahanaim,
Barbancourt, Haiti.
2011 Volunteer Aid Worker. Community Organizing, Breastfeeding Program.
Global DIRT. Cite Soleil, Haiti.
2010 Volunteer Psychological First Aid Worker. Haiti Post-Earthquake Team.
United Sikhs.Throughout Haiti.
2010 Volunteer Family & Child Worker. Medicines du Monde, Greek Chapter.
Port Au Prince
2005 International Project Organizer. Rwenzori Regional District Community
Association. Kasese, Uganda. Indiana, USA. Gainesville, USA
2002 General Volunteer. St. Vincents Hospice. Indianapolis, Indiana
2001 General Volunteer. San Miguel Hospital. Fresnillo, Zacatecas.

SCHOLARLY COLLABORATIONS
2015 Collaborative research with J. Vadala on Yucatec Maya memory.
2012 Preliminary collaborative research with J. Vadala, Carmen Alondra Diaz,
UF Archaeologists. Field visit Barbancourt, Haiti.
2010 Active Participant in Haiti Working Group at University of Florida.
[Venue for sharing information, discussing current trends and
facilitating learning and work done by UF facultyand graduate students
in Haiti.]