Patricia Mathews
Professor
Chairperson
Ethnic and Race Studies
EMAIL: pmathews@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: S-623C
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00AM to 1:00PM
Phone: +1 (212) 220-1221
Professor Patricia Mathews obtained her BA in Law with a minor in Anthropology from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Thanks to a Fellowship from PUCP in Consortium with the Indiana-California program and a Fulbright Travel Grant she came to the US to pursue graduate studies. She completed her PhD in Anthropology at Yale University in 1997.
Professor Mathews has taught various courses in Anthropology, Human Geography and Women Studies. She las also offered seminars in Anthropology and Human Rights and on Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Anthropology Program at the Graduate Center, where she is member of the doctoral faculty.
Mathews has participated in various initiatives that address issues of Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice at BMCC and at CUNY. One of them is the Balancing the Curriculum Across Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Class…, a semester long Seminar for faculty and staff housed in Ethnic Studies with the support of Academic Affairs. Professor Mathews was Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies since 2008. On 1/29/2021 she became chair of the new department of Ethnic and Race Studies at BMCC.
Expertise
Anthropology/ Ethnic and Race Studies/ Indigeneity/ Indigenous women, migration and citizenship.
My research topics are on indigenous women and cultural heritage, citizenship and social exclusion. I am also interested in changing notions of indigeneity in the Peruvian Andes (outskirts of the city of Cuzco)and also in northwest Argentina (Calchaquí Valley of Tucumán province).
Degrees
- B.A. Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Law,1984
- M.A. Indiana University , Anthropology,1988
- M.S. Yale University, Anthropology,1992
- Ph.D. Yale University, Anthropology,1997
Courses Taught
- 3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.ANT 200 (Peoples & Cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean (Same as LAT 200))
- This course examines the diverse peoples and cultures that have populated Latin American and the Caribbean region since pre-Columbian times. It discusses the legacy of European colonization and the subsequent struggles for independence, formation of national identities and the quest for modernization today. The course will place particular emphasis on the production of social movements that respond to social inequality, and conflicting ideologies around ethnicity, race and gender among other factors. The readings illustrate case studies that examine a wide range of topics - ecological adaptation, food production, kinship and local politics, medical and religious beliefs and artistic expressions - from small-scale rural society to large complex urban centers throughout the continent. It will also explore how globalization, intense migration, and transnationalism have generated new notions of identity in the US today.
- This course analyzes the status and roles of women in cross-cultural perspective. Particular emphasis is given to the socio-cultural forces underlying the women's rights movements in the 19th century and the present resurgence of feminism.
Research and Projects
- Indigenous Women and Living Heritage in the communities inside the archaeological park of Sacsahuaman, Cusco, Peru
- Faculty Mentor in NEH Project: Bridging Historias through Latino History and Culture
An NEH Bridging Cultures at Community Colleges Project:
BRIDGING HISTORIAS through Latino History and Culture: An NEH Bridging Cultures at Community Colleges–
Bridging Historias is a faculty development program directed by the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning in partnership with Queensborough Community College. The program addresses the increasingly influential body of scholarship on the importance of Latino/a culture in American history and is designed to expand the teaching of this topic across the humanities disciplines.Websitehttp://bridginghistorias.gc.cuny.edu/
Publications
- Una Mirada a la Antropología de los derechos humanos. An Anthropology of Human Rights. Book Review. 7(2):502-510., A Contracorriente. A Journal of social History and Lieterature in Latin America.
- Patrimonio y Exclusión. Debates sobre Identidad y Cultura desde las comunidades del Parque Arqueológico de Sacsahuamán.IN: Crónicas Urbanas. Análisis y Perspectivas Urbano-Regionales. , Centro Guamán Poma de Ayala. Cuzco 12(13):125-136.
- “Becoming All Indian: Gauchos, Pachamama Queens, and Tourists in the Remaking of an Andean Festival Between the Andes and Buenos Aires.” IN: David Picard and Mike Robinson (eds.) Remaking Worlds: Festivals, Tourism and Change., Channel View , Clevedon, UK
- “Jose María Arguedas. Reconsiderations for Latin American Cultural Studies.” by Ciro Sandoval and Sandra Boschetto-Sandoval. Book Review, American Anthropologist 106(4)
- Patrimonio de Todos? Orgullo inca, identidad indígena y exclusión social desde las comunidades del Parque Arqueológico de Sacsahuamán, Cuzco, Perú. In: Luis Nieto Degregori. El Ombligo Usa Piercing. Identidad, Patrimonio y Cambios en el Cuzco. , Centro Guamán Poma de Ayala. Cuzco, Perú.
- A Well-Tempered Human Rights Approach. Reflections on Mark Goodale’s “Surrendering to Utopia: An Anthropology of Human rights.”, Humanities and social Sciences Online Net Reviews. human Rights.
- Identidad, Patrimonio y Desigualdad Social. Políticas Culturales, Mujeres Indígenas, y Diversidad en un Parque Arqueológico en Cuzco, Peru. IN: IDENTIDAD Y PATRIMONIO CULTURAL EN AMERICA LATINA. , México D.F., Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
PSC-CUNY 43
Geographic Information Systems–NSF grant to fund a new cross-disciplinary program between Social Sciences and Computer Information Systems at BMCC; Co-PI
PSC-CUNY 40 GLORIFYING THE INCAS, NEGLECTING THEIR HEIRS: Indigenous Women, Cultural Heritage and the Dilemmas of Indian Identity in Cuzco, Peru
PSC-CUNY 39 Glorifying the Incas, Neglecting their Heir: Indigenous Women in Two Communities in Cusco, Peru. 2007PSC
CUNY 37 AwardWomen and Healthcare in Cusco, PeruBridging Historias through Latino History and Culture
NEH Bridging Cultures Project in Community Colleges. Faculty Mentor
Additional Information
My dissertation focused on ethnic and gender identity among indigenous people in the region of Tucuman, northwest Argentina. After that I have conducted research on indigenous women, social exclusion and cultural heritage in the surroundings of Cuzco, Peru. I teach courses in Women’s Studies, Peoples and Cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean and coordinate faculty development initiatives on various topics like Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Gender, etc.
