Laurie Frederik Meer

Assistant Professor

301.405.6682
2816 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
fredmeer@umd.edu

 

Education/Training: Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, University of Chicago, 2006; B.A. Honors, Social Anthropology, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 1993; B.A., Anthropology, University of Virginia, 1990; School for International Training, Kenya/Tanzania, 1990

Areas of Specialization/Interest: Cuba, Latin America, African Diaspora, anthropology of performance and performance studies (ritual, theatre, storytelling, spoken word, music, dance), ethnography, cultural politics, nationalism, subversive culture

Professional Affiliations: Affiliate Faculty member of University of Maryland's Department of Anthropology, Latin American Studies Center, and Women's Studies Department; Performance Studies International (PSi), Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Society for Cultural Anthropology (SCA), American Anthropology Association (AAA)

Representative Productions:

Consultant and investigator for: Guajiro a los Cuatro Vientos, Laboratorio de Teatro Comunitario, Guantánamo, Cuba; Ten mi nombre como un sueño, Teatro de los Elementos, Cumanayagua, Cuba; and the South African adaptation of Hair, CAPAB, Nico Malan Theatre, Cape Town. Performing dancer in The Ash Girl at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Performing actor in La Muerte Juega el Escondido, La Cruzada Teatral, Guantánamo, Cuba, and in community and university theatre productions of Li'l Abner, 110 in the Shade, Once Upon a Mattress, and Hair. Professional dancer in Ballet Folklórico de America Latina.

Representative Publications/Research Activities:

Currently working on book manuscript entitled: Pure Cuba: Performance, Playmaking and Politics in the Rural Zones of Silence. Published articles include:"La Batalla for Cuban Identity: Option Zero Theater," in The Special Period: Cuban Culture and Ideology in the 1990's (Palgrave 2008); "Playback Theatre in Cuba: the Politics of Improvisation and Free Expression" (The Drama Review 2007); "Cuba's National Characters: Setting the Stage for the Hombre Novísimo" (Journal of Latin American Anthropology 2005); "Competition Ballroom Dancing, Anthropology and the Field: The Native's Point of View" (Anthropology News 2005); and "The Contestation of Cuba's Public Sphere in National Theater and the Transformation from Teatro Bufo to Teatro Nuevo"(Gestos 2001). Articles also published in Spanish in Cuban theatre journals Conjunto and Tablas.

Honors and Awards: General Research Board Grant, University of Maryland, Notre Dame Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Fulbright-Hayes Doctoral Research Fellowship, Wenner-Gren Anthropological Foundation Fellowship, Spencer Foundation Research Grant, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant, Rotary International Graduate Ambassadorial Scholarship