Leela Tanikella
Professional Title: Assistant Professor of Social Anthropology and Global Studies
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
Globalization and transnational migration; media and expressive culture; critical race theory; race, nation, and gender; cultural anthropology; Caribbean studies; and South Asian diaspora studies.
Area of Work and Concentration at Lesley: Anthropology and Global Studies
Representative List of Recent Courses Taught:
Global Issues and Challenges; Cultural Anthropology; Research Methods in Social Sciences; Anthropology of the Caribbean; Globalization and Transnational Cultures; Anthropology of Media
Education: BA, Haverford College; MA, PhD,University of Texas, Austin
Representative List of Recent Publications / Exhibitions:
- Tanikella, Leela. 2009. Fieldwork Performances: Producing Culture in the Indo-Caribbean Diaspora. In Fieldwork Identities in the Caribbean, Erin B. Taylor (ed), pp. 241-265. Coconut Creek, FL: Caribbean Studies Press.
- Tanikella, Leela. 2009. Voices from Home and Abroad: New York City’s Indo-Caribbean Media. International Journal of Cultural Studies vol. 12, no. 2 (March): 167-185.
- Tanikella, Leela. 2003. The Politics of Hybridity: Race, Gender and Nationalism in Trinidad. Cultural Dynamics vol. 15, no. 2 (July): 153-181.
I conducted two years of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork research with Caribbean South Asian communities in Trinidad and in Queens, New York where I took introductory dance classes in chutney and khatak.