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Michelle Bigenho

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mbigenho

Michelle Bigenho

Charles A. Dana Professor of Anthropology and Africana & Latin American Studies

Department/Office Information

Sociology and Anthropology, Africana and Latin American Studies, Native American Studies
427 Alumni Hall
  • T 4:15pm - 5:15pm (427 Alumni Hall)
  • R 9:00am - 11:00am (427 Alumni Hall)

I am a socio-cultural anthropologist whose specializations include indigeneity, law, music, and performance studies in the Andean region. My work engages indigeneity at its intersections with alternative and participatory methodologies, cultural and intellectual property, heritage politics, racialization, performance politics, and nationalism. My research鈥攃urrently published in two monographs and multiple articles and chapters--has involved ethnography in Bolivia since 1993, each project engaging local communities in distinct ways. Music performance on the violin has formed an integral part of my ethnographic approach. 

My current work, in collaboration with Henry Stobart (Music, Royal Holloway U. of London), began in 2012 with a National Science Foundation-funded workshop on indigeneity, cultural property, and heritage within the context of Bolivia鈥檚 pro-indigenous 鈥減rocess of change鈥 and the implementation of the country鈥檚 recently minted Constitution (2009). The workshop conversations, methodologies and resources can be seen in the Spanish-English bilingual website, Following the Workshop experience, Stobart and I began a related inquiry titled 鈥淏eyond Indigenous Heritage Paradoxes in Evo Morales鈥 Bolivia,鈥 a project for which we received an .

To download some of my publications, please see my .

I enjoy bringing my general research questions and practices into my teaching. In 2017 and 2019, I taught  a course on performing Bolivian music (ALST 204). Taught in conjunction with a residency of Bolivian musicians, this course was featured in The 黑料网 Scene and in this video:

A course called 鈥淲ho Owns Culture?鈥 (ANTH 244) goes to the heart of debates that motivate my most current research on cultural heritage. Other courses I teach include: ANTH 102 Culture, Diversity, Inequality; ANTH 211 Investigating Contemporary Cultures; ANTH/ALST 357 Indigenous Politics of Latin America; ANTH/ALST 365 Andean Lives; Core 199C Bolivia; and UNST/ALST 350 Interdisciplinary Methods Seminar.

Books

2023 (co-author H. Stobart) Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 

2022 "'隆Qu茅 me entierran con poncho y sombrero!': Canto, g茅nero, y la constituci贸n moderna," 2: 224-248. 

2022 (co-author H. Stobart) International Journal of Heritage Studies 28 (10): 1121-1135.

2018 (with H. Stobart and Richard M煤jica Angulo) Trans-Revista Transcultural de M煤sica/Transcultural Music Review21-22: 1-21.

2018 (with H. Stobart and Richard M煤jica Angulo) Trans-Revista Transcultural de M煤sica/Transcultural Music Review21-22: 1-21.

2018 (co-author, H. Stobart) Trans-Revista Transcultural de M煤sica/Transcultural Music Review21-22: 1-13.

2018 (co-author H. Stobart)Trans-Revista Transcultural de M煤sica/Transcultural Music Review21-22: 1-13.

2018 "Grasping Cacophony in Bolivian Heritage Otherwise," (co-author H. Stobart) Anthropological Quarterly 91(4):1329-1364. 

2016 鈥淟ove, Protest Dance, Remix,鈥 In Global Latin America, Matthew Gutmann and Jeffrey Lesser, eds., Pp. 114-127. Berkeley: University of California Press.

2016 鈥淭he Devil in Nationalism: Indigenous Heritage and the Challenges of Decolonization,鈥 (co-author H. Stobart) International Journal of Cultural Property 23 (2):141-166.

2015 鈥淧laying Piano without a Piano in Bolivia,鈥 In A World of Work: Imagined Manuals for Real Jobs, Ilana Gershon, ed. Pp. 102-113. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

2015 鈥淟a propiedad intelectual y las ambiguedades del dominio p煤blico: casos de la producci贸n musical y la patrimonializaci贸n,鈥 team-authored with Juan Carlos Cordero, Richard M煤jica, Bernardo Rozo, and Henry Stobart) In Lo p煤blico en la pluralidad: Ensayos desde Bolivia y Am茅rica Latina, Gonzalo Rojas Ortuste, coord. Pp. 131-161. La Paz, Bolivia: CIDES-UMSA.

2015 鈥淐reativity, Recognition, and Indigenous Heritage: New Resource for Rethinking Intellectual Property,鈥 Anthropology News, October.

2014 鈥淭he Problems of Controlling Arts and Cultures in Bolivia: An Ethnographic Report,鈥 (co-authored with Henry Stobart) LASA Forum XLV (2): 22-25.

2012 鈥淟a m煤sica boliviana en la circulaci贸n global: nexos con el Jap贸n,鈥 Anales de la Reuni贸n Anual de Etnolog铆a, 2009. Pp. 201-206. La Paz: MUSEF.

2011 鈥淥utside the Music Box: A Manifesto,鈥 Anthropology News, January, 12.

2010 鈥淣ote from the Editors: Performance, Revolution, Pedagogy: Theatre and its Objects,鈥 (with Alberto Guevara), InTensions 4 (fall): 1-12.

2009 鈥淧ara repensar el mestizaje boliviano a trav茅s del folklore boliviano: la reorganizaci贸n del espacio urbano compartido en la Revoluci贸n de 1952,鈥 In Estudios urbanos: En la encrucijada de la interdisciplinaridad, Fernanda Wanderley, Coordinadora. Pp. 243-268. La Paz CIDES-UMSA.

2009 鈥淭o Sell or Not to Sell the Pomade: Andean Music Boom Stories and Bolivian Nationalism,鈥 Diagonal: Journal of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music (on-line, UC Riverside). 2:  1-18.

2008 鈥淲hy I鈥檓 not an Ethnomusicologist: A View from Anthropology,鈥 In The New (Ethno)musicologies, Henry Stobart, ed. Pp. 28-39. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press (Europea: Ethnomusicologies and Modernities, No. 8).

2007 鈥淏olivian Indigeneity in Japan: Folklorized Music Performance,鈥 In Indigenous Experience Today, Marisol de la Cadena, Orin Starn, eds. Pp. 247-272. Oxford: Berg. 

2006 鈥淓mbodied Matters: Bolivian Fantasy and Indigenismo,鈥 Journal of Latin American Anthropology 11 (2): 267-293.  
2006 鈥淚nter-area Ethnography: A Latin Americanist in Japan,鈥 Anthropological Quarterly 79 (4): 667-690.

2006 鈥淟aboring in the Transnational Culture Mines: the Work of Bolivian Music in Japan,鈥 In Culture and Development in a Globalizing World: Geographies, Actors, and Paradigms, Sarah Radcliffe, ed. Pp. 107-125. London and New York: Routledge.

2005 鈥淢aking Music Safe for the Nation: Folklore Pioneers in Bolivian Indigenism,鈥 In Natives Making Nation: Gender, Indigeneity and the State in the Andes, Andrew Canessa, ed. Pp. 60-80.Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

2004 鈥淲hy They don鈥檛 All Wax Nostalgic: Comparing Modernities Through Songs from the Bolivian Andes,鈥 In Quechua Verbal Artistry: The Inscription of Andean Voices/ Arte expresivo quechua: la inscripci贸n de voces andinas, Guillermo Delgado and John Schechter, eds. Pp. 263-297. Bonn, Germany: Bonn Americanist Studies-BAS/Shaker Verlag.

2001 "Political Economy of Pleasure," co-authored with Bethany Ogdon, Political and Legal Anthropology Review 24 (1): 155-161.

2001 "Propiedad ind铆gena, patrimonio, y la nueva tasa?"  In Anales de la Reuni贸n Anual de Etnolog铆a, 2000. Pp. 127-131. La Paz: MUSEF.

2001 "驴Por qu茅 no todos sienten nostalgia? Letras de canciones e interpretaciones en Yura y Toropalca (Potos铆, Bolivia)," In Identidades representadas: performance, experiencia y memoria en los andes, Gisela Canepa Koch, ed. Pp. 61-92. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Cat贸lica del Per煤.

1999 "Sensing Locality in Yura: Rituals of Carnival and of the Bolivian State,鈥 American Ethnologist 26 (4): 957-980.

1998 "Coca as a Musical Trope of Bolivian Nation-ness," Political and Legal Anthropology Review 21 (1): 114-122.

1996 "Imaginando lo imaginado: las narrativas de las naciones bolivianas," Revista andina, A帽o 14 (2): 471-507.

1996 "Participaci贸n popular en el centro y sudeste de Potos铆: una visi贸n panor谩mica de las organizaciones territoriales de base, 'OTB's," (con Hu谩scar Jos茅 Caj铆as) Anales de la Reuni贸n Anual de Etnolog铆a, 1995 (tomo II). Pp. 198-206. La Paz: MUSEF.

1993 "El baile de los negritos y la danza de las tijeras: Un manejo de contradicciones," In M煤sica, danzas y m谩scaras en los Andes. Ra煤l Romero, editor. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Cat贸lica del Per煤-Instituto Riva Ag眉ero/Proyecto Preservaci贸n de la M煤sica Tradicional Andina, Pp. 219-251 (2nd ed. 1997).

2018 Dossier especial: M煤sica y patrimonio cultural en Am茅rica Latina, (co-edited with Henry Stobart and Richard M煤jica Angulo ) Trans-Revista Transcultural de M煤sica/Transcultural Music Review 21-22. 

2010 , co-edited with Alberto Guevara, on-line journal InTensions 4 (fall).

2014 bilingual (English/Spanish) website about workshop held in Coroico, Bolivia (2012) (curated with Henry Stobart), funded by National Science Foundation.

  • American Council of Learned Societies Collaborative Research Fellowship (with H. Stobart) 2015-16 
  • National Science Foundation grant (Co-PI H. Stobart)(Law and Social Sciences), 2012 
  • Writing Prize for Intimate Distance: Andean Music in Japan. Asia and the Americas Section of the Latin American Studies Association, 2012 
  • Humanities Institute External Residential Fellowship, University of Connecticut, 2006-07 
  • Whiting Fellowship, 2003 
  • University of Cambridge Centre of Latin American Studies Visiting Fellowship, 1998 
  • Fulbright Hays 12-month Doctoral Dissertation grant, 1994 
  • Fulbright IIE fixed-sum 10-month grant, 1993 
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (American Anthropological Association): appointed board member (mentoring committee) 2022-23; appointed board member 2011-2013; elected board member 2009-2011; elected board member 2001-2003
  • Latin American Studies Association, appointed track co-chair for "Otros Saberes and Alternative Methods," 2017
  • Latin American Studies Association, appointed track co-chair for "Culture, Power and Political Subjectivities," 2010
  • Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Editorial board member, 1998-2018
  • InTensions e-journal, Member, editorial collective member of 2009-present
A musical performance groups plays instruments in matching black hats

My ethnographic work has involved music performance on the violin with a Bolivian music ensemble called  (Rolando Encinas, founder and director). Musicians from this group co-teach with me 鈥淧erforming Bolivian Music,鈥 a course featured in the video on this site (ALST 204). Since 1993, I have participated in performances, tours and compact disc recordings with this orchestra, giving concerts throughout Bolivia and also in Colombia, France, and Japan. During a visit in October 2022鈥攎y first to Bolivia since the pandemic started鈥擨 rejoined the group for a concert in the Teatro Nuna and then for a noche de cuecas in the Hotel Torino.

 

 

  • 黑料网, 2014鈥損resent
  • Hampshire College, 1998鈥2013
  • BA (Political Science and Latin American Studies), University of California Los Angeles 1988
  • "Magister" (Antropolog铆a) Pontificia Universidad Cat贸lica del Per煤 1991
  • MA and PhD (Anthropology) Cornell University 1993 & 1998