Mara's+Page

Here is my very low-tech page on me, my research, etc. If you want any more information please feel free to contact me via email at emaragreen AT berkeley DOT edu.

Academic Background: Fall 2005 - present UC Berkeley, Dept of Anthropology Linguistic & Sociocultural Anthro Fall 1998 - Spring 2003 [with a lovely year off in the middle] Amherst College, Major in Anthropology Undergraduate thesis: a comparative overview of deaf communities in USA & Nepal Fall 2002 Pitzer in Nepal [study abroad program run out of Pitzer College in California; based in Kathmandu]

Current Research My dissertation plan is to focus on deaf Nepalis in rural villages and their participation in Nepali Sign Language outreach programs run by urban deaf activists. Key words: home sign, standard sign languages, NSL [Nepali Sign Language], rural imaginary, translocal deaf networks, structural inequalities, history, memory, social belonging and embedding, isolation, everyday politics, texture/rhythm, intimacy, difference, caste, class, language, Nepal, semiotics

I'm constructing extensive bibliographies on the following and will eventually post them (I'm listing them roughly in decreasing order of linguistic-ness): 1. Contemporary sign language research on iconicity and convention 2. Home sign research (sociological, psycholinguistic, linguistic) 3. Gesture in relation to sign/home sign 4. International Sign, sign language contact 5. Sign language typologies (esp. in South Asia) 6. Notions of code and context in linguistic anthropology 7. Anthropology of Nepal 8. 'Difference' as an object & analytic in anthropology with an emphasis on post-colonialism

Other academic and semi-academic type interests: feminist & queer theory, visuality & recognition, space & place, neurocognition (Oliver Sacks style), evolutionary biology & ecology, interpretation,& translation, childhood development, utopian movements, Cuba, novels, memoirs, travelogues, modern dance, classical music (part of my pre-college life), the NYTimes, Central Asia, Latin America, the senses, time

Other blessedly non-academic-type interests: dogs, my dogs, cats, my cat, urban gardening, canoe trips, the Mediterranean, heat & humidity, junk TV and junk magazines, citrus, tropical fruits, yoga [it's my yuppy side], Portland, houseplants, Judaism, East Africa, rivers & streams, mud, massage, kids