Curriculum Vitae

ELISE BERMAN

Department of Comparative Human Development
University of Chicago
5730 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
eberman@uchicago.edu

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RESEARCH INTERESTS

Truth and deception, children, giving and exchange, semiotics and language, anthropology of education, age, kinship studies, power and status, personhood and emotion, morality, Oceania, Marshall Islands

EDUCATION

University of Chicago

Ph.D.	2012 (expected)	Department of Comparative Human Development
		Specialization in socio-cultural and linguistic anthropology How Do I Say No? Childhood, Deception, and Avoiding Giving in the Marshall Islands Committee: John Lucy (chair), Jennifer Cole, Don Kulick
M.A.	2008	Department of Comparative Human Development
		Thesis: It’s a Heart Biter: K’iche’ Maya Children as Buffers of Malicious Adult Interactions

Dartmouth College

	B.A.	2003	Department of Anthropology
			Graduated with honors Thesis: Why Try to Change Others? Missionizing as an Act of Identity Formation Phi Betta Kappa

PUBLICATIONS

Berman, Elise

2011. The Irony of Immaturity: K’iche’ Children as Mediators and Buffers in Adult Social Interactions. Childhood 18(2): 274-288. (PDF)

Berman, Elise

2009. Voices of Outreach: The Construction of Identity and Maintenance of Social Ties Among Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48(1): 69-85. (PDF)

EXTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDING

2009-2010	Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
2009-2010	National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
2009-2010	Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Research Abroad Grant (declined)
2008	Lemelson Fellowship for Travel and Research, Society for Psychological Anthropology

SELECTED GRANTS AND AWARDS

2011-2012	Provost Dissertation-Year Fellowship, University of Chicago (top Markovitz candidate)
2011-2012	Honorary Michael and Ling Markovitz Fellow, University of Chicago
2011	Bernice Neugarten Prize Lectureship, University of Chicago
2011	Bernice Neugarten Prize (Research), University of Chicago
2011	Research Travel Grant (Orin Williams Fund), University of Chicago
2006	Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, University of Chicago
2005-2009	Century Fellowship, University of Chicago
2002	Claire Garber Goodman Grant for Anthropological Research, Dartmouth College

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Spring 2011	Anthropology of Childhood and Immaturity (Instructor)
	Neugarten Prize Lectureship
	University of Chicago

Winter 2009	Self, Culture, and Society II: Culture (Instructor)
	University of Chicago

2007-2008	Self, Culture, and Society (Teaching intern)
	University of Chicago

2004-2005	Anthropology and Ancient Civilizations (Full-time middle school teacher)
	Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

2003-2004	English and Math (Full-time elementary school teacher)
	Kili Elementary School, Kili Island, Marshall Islands

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

They Don’t Know How To Lie: The Power of Age-Differentiated Speech in the Marshall Islands
(American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Montreal, November 2011)

I Hate You: Marshallese Children’s Transparent Speech
(‘Michicagoan’ Linguistic Anthropology Conference, University of Michigan, May 2011)

It’s Okay To Be Greedy: Avoiding Giving between Children and Adults in the Marshall Islands
(Society for Psychological Anthropology biennial meeting, Santa Monica, April 2011)

Avoiding Giving: The Linguistic Construction of Goods
(Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania annual meeting, Honolulu, February 2011)

Marshallese Children: Alienable Goods
(American Anthropological Association annual meeting, New Orleans, November 2010)

The Social Efficacy of Immaturity: Implications for our Understanding of Religion
(Society for Psychological Anthropology and the Society for the Anthropology of Religion joint conference, Asilomar, CA, March 2009)

Ideologies of Truth and Deception: Interactive Life Among the K’iche’ Maya
(‘Michicagoan’ Linguistic Anthropology Conference, University of Chicago, May 2008)

How to Avoid a ‘Bitten Heart’: K’iche’ Maya Children as Buffers of Malicious Adult Interactions
(Society for Anthropological Sciences and the Society for Cross-Cultural Research joint conference, New Orleans, February 2008)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

2009-2010	Ethnographic fieldwork for dissertation on deception, childhood, and giving
	Arno Atoll, Marshall Islands

Summer 2008	Preliminary fieldwork for dissertation
	Arno Atoll, Marshall Islands

Summer 2006	Ethnographic fieldwork for M.A. thesis on deception, childhood, and emotion
	Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan de Nueva, Guatemala

Summer 2002	Ethnographic fieldwork for B.A. honors thesis on missionaries
	United Kingdom

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

2011	Session organizer, Constructing Age Differences: Language Ideology and Language Socialization, American Anthropological Association annual meeting

2011	Session organizer, Children and the Semiotics of Giving, Society for Psychological Anthropology biennial meeting

2011	Session organizer, Avoiding Giving in Oceania, Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania annual meeting

2005-2008

Human Development Student Association (HDSA), University of Chicago

2006-2007

Member of Annual Allocations Committee, University of Chicago

2006	Member of organizing committee, ‘Michicagoan’ Linguistic Anthropology Conference, University of Chicago

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Anthropological Association
Society for Psychological Anthropology
Society for Linguistic Anthropology
Anthropology of Children and Childhood (AAA Interest Group)
Society for Cultural Anthropology
Council on Anthropology and Education
Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania

LANGUAGES

Marshallese, Spanish, K’iche’ Maya, English