Sachetti-Dufresne Adjunct Nomination
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Anthropology (807) 3438743 (807) 7667117 [email protected] Dear Dean Andrew Dean, The Department of Anthropology would like to nominate Dr Clara Sachetti- Dufresne as an Adjunct of the Department of Anthropology at Lakehead University. She has been a sessional lecturer for the department for many years and is still currently teaching courses for anthropology. She is a socio-cultural anthropologist with very strong theoretical understanding of her discipline. She has supervised honours students in the past and has always been the strongest supporter for the department. The department has voted to support this nomination and feel that her current and future involvement and contributions in the department would be beneficial to the various anthropology programs at Lakehead University. Sincerely, Carney Matheson Department of Anthropology Lakehead University To: Dr. Carney Matheson, Chair, Anthropology Department Lakehead University 955 Oliver Road Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5E1 Re: Adjunct Status in your Department Dear Dr. Matheson: I enclose, along with this cover letter, a current CV; contact information for five referees; a few student letters of recommendation; and a sample of my teaching evaluations (separate file) for your consideration for my application for Adjunct Status in your Department. Samples of my publications are available upon request. I am currently a Sessional Instructor for the Departments of Anthropology, Philosophy, and Women’s Studies (LU); the Treasurer and Executive Committee member of ICAP (see icap.ca); an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy (LU), and; a Research Fellow, a founding member, and the Treasurer-Secretary for Lakehead University’s aig+c. I hold Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics (1989 Western) and Anthropology (1993 York), a Master of Arts in Symbolic Anthropology (1995 Western), and a doctorate in Social Anthropology (2007 York). I was, in addition, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Frank Iacobucci Centre at University of Toronto in 2011-2012. I have been unusually active since graduating with my PhD in Social Anthropology at York University, Toronto in 2007. Although my doctoral studies were in Anthropology, I am an exceptionally strong interdisciplinary research, teacher, and community activist. I co-edited, for example, two books of relevance to contemporary, interdisciplinary social and cultural theory, Superior Art: Local Art, Global Context (Definitely Superior Art Gallery and Agency Books, 2012) and The Economy as Cultural System (Bloomsbury, London, UK); spent one year as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto working on a book manuscript; was a successful co-applicant of a major SSHRC grant; was a founding member of a research institute, The Advanced Institute for Globalization and Culture (aig+c); published three chapters in edited collections; published over ten articles in reputable journals, such as Diskurs and Italian Canadiana; organized four national workshops centred on the goal of establishing an archive of Italian immigrant stories across Canada; and am a very active Executive Committee member and the Treasurer of ICAP, an international and national network of academics and non-academic individuals, federal and provincial institutions (e.g., Pier 21, The Museum of Civilization -- now the Canadian Museum of History, the Ontario Historical Society, The Elia Chair, etc) and community groups tasked with archiving the Italian immigrant experience across the country. In addition, I have another co-edited collection under contract with Wilfrid University Press and have completed a book manuscript on the discursive construction of gender and Italian-Canadian-ness in Thunder Bay, which I intend to send out for publication consideration in 2014. In summary, I have published over 300 manuscript pages in scholarly journals; 200 manuscript pages in chapters; 25 manuscript pages in book reviews; and 100 manuscript pages in conference proceedings. These manuscript pages, moreover, do not include diagrams, charts, or tables, as my work is primarily based on narrative and thick description. I have, in addition, published over 150 pages in reports and documents; over 125 pages in conference papers (not posters); and presented over 120 pages for invited lectures. I have edited and/or reviewed over 1000 pages with an additional 1000 pages currently in process for my co-edited book with Wilfrid Laurier University press. I note as well that these page counts refer only to original content and do not include any re-printed materials, second editions, or the re-use of any parts or sections of previously published materials. This constitutes an above average publication record for a sessional instructor who has not had the institutional supports, privileges, and advantages provided by a full time tenure-track or tenured position. I must also point out that I have not paid any monies for my publications, as all costs, i.e. reviewing, editing, printing, design work, and marketing expenses, have been borne by the publishers. The dominant themes of my work focus on multiculturalism, ethnicity, and gender identity, and extends to include issues of globalization, cultural studies, cultural sociology, and feminist post-structuralism. At bottom, I consider myself a feminist anthropological social and cultural theorist willing to cross disciplines, both intellectually (by training) and professionally (as a teacher), and long committed to publishing academic work, reviews and editorials in popular venues, and community-based reports. My commitments are captured by a decades-long history of publishing (work that began when I was still a Master’s student) in such diverse venues as BORDERLINES, Fuse Magazine, The Boston Book Review, Topia, and The Semiotic Review of Books. As for my teaching experience, it is deep and highly varied. I have taught undergraduates in numerous disciplines for over a decade, including Anthropology, Women’s Studies and History, Philosophy, and Political Science. I have also taught Aboriginal students, sometimes from highly challenging backgrounds, in the Aboriginal Law and Advocacy Program at Negahneewin College of Academic and Community Development, Confederation College (Thunder Bay). I can assure you that I like students, and consider teaching to be important to my professional life; it really is, in Weber’s sense, one of my ‘callings’. And so, I can report that I enjoy uniformly high student evaluations while maintaining academic standards. A sampling of courses I have taught (and almost always designed) include Social Organization (Anthropology), Socio-Cultural Anthropology (Anthropology), Culture and Place (Anthropology), Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Women’s Studies & Anthropology), Development of Feminist Thought (Women’s Studies), Special Topic on Foucault (Political Science), Aboriginal Law and Advocacy (at Confederation College), Gender and Philosophy (Philosophy), Feminist Philosophy (Philosophy), and many more. The rotation of courses can be exhausting, but it is rewarding work: I have had numerous excellent students who have gone on to graduate work in Canada and abroad, sometimes with full funding. Furthermore, I have valuable experience in writing, and assisting in the writing of, grants and grant reports, e.g., SSHRC doctoral, OGS, SSHRC Postdoctoral, SSHRC RDI, SSHRC ASU, SSHRC Standard Grants, Trillium Foundation, Writers’ Reserves Grants, and community cultural funding grants. I have also reviewed municipal cultural-community and Writers’ Reserves grant applications as a past member of the City of Thunder Bay Grant Review Team and FUSE’s Editorial Collective, respectively. In my work with Lakehead University’s aig+c I was involved with organizing, assisting with the creation of, and/or spearheading several group grants, including an ASU grant on globalization and culture, an ASU grant on music in the creative economy, and a RDI group grant on photovoice. More recently, I participated in shaping an EU scholarly grant entitled “Digitelling” (as part of my involvement with ICAP). I am also currently writing and coordinating a team IDG SSHRC grant on the notion of the Italian immigrant experience in western Canada. In regards to my applied anthropological work, I have been involved in a large community based project, i.e., the Italian-Canadian Archives Project, and have been involved in an EU cultural (non-academic, community-based) grant on the migrations of Italians in Canada (“PERFORMIGRATIONS”); I am also spearheading a local Trillium grant, entitled “Glogstering Nonna’s Story,” as part and parcel of my applied anthropological/community work with ICAP. I have substantial experience working in university, community, and corporate settings which points to my organizational and leadership skills. But it also points to my abilities to work collaboratively as part of a team with many different stakeholders. For example, in my past career as a public accountant and internal auditor, I worked as an intermediate, senior, and internal auditor, supervised junior staff, and helped clients to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. I have participated in the planning and execution of team audits for municipal governments, charities, cultural organizations, hospitals, and various corporations. I have also planned and carried out internal team audits for the Ministry of Treasury and Economics and the Ministry of Energy (Government of Ontario). Moreover, I have used this learning in my volunteer work with the Advisory Council for the Aboriginal