OSEA, The Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology

Founding Director, Administration

Other Affiliations: Indiana University Bloomington, Department of Anthropology
Indiana University Bloomington, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Visiting Lecturer

Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Indiana University

About

Quetzil E. Castañeda is Founding Director and Associate Professor of OSEA, The Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology.

Castañeda founded and directed the independent Field School in Experimental Ethnography (1997-2000) as a way for undergraduate and graduate students to get on-site, hands-on training in ethnography. The Field School gave student researcher-participants the opportunity to conduct collaborative team research in three areas: the transcultural dynamics of teaching English to Maya children, the community history of Pisté in relation to 100 plus years of anthropological presence, and the contemporary Maya art of Chichén Itzá. The Field School was supported in part by a major grant from the Fideicomiso Mexico-USA, a bi-national organization formed by the Rockefellar Foundation, Bancomer Cultural Foundation and the Mexican Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA).

Following his Fulbright Garcia Robles Scholar in Merida at the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan (2002-2003),  Castañeda founded the Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology as an independent, non-degree training program that offers an array of anthropological training programs, reseach activities and community service projects. Through OSEA, Castañeda has designed and directed quarter study abroad, summer field study programs, short course workshop on visual ethnography, ethnography writing workshops, and winter break short courses in anthropology. In addition to providing anthropological training programs, OSEA also develops and sponsors research conferences and publishing projects.

Before founding OSEA, Castañeda taught at the University of Houston (1991-1999), Lake Forest College (1999-2000), University of Hawaii (2000-2001), Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan (2002-2003), and Princeton (1995). 

Since 2006, Castañeda has been a Research Associate in the Anthropology Department of Indiana University and a Visiting Faculty in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS). At Indiana University, Castañeda teaches Yucatec Maya language and culture content courses for CLACS and has taught in Latino Studies (2006), History (2009) and Anthropology (2010).

Following the success of his spring 2010 course, he will again teach "2012: End of the World, the Maya, and New Age Spiritualism" in the fall at IU. In spring semester 2011, Castañeda teaches a "Heritage, Archaeology, Tourism in Latin America."

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