Robert T. O'Brien
Assistant Instructor
Department of Anthropology
Rutgers University
131 George Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1414

Rob conducted his dissertation research on gentrification and structural violence in Kensington, a working class section of Philadelphia. His research has thus far been concerned with the impact of economic restructuring and development on the social networks of poor people in the United States.

Rob’s research and teaching interests are in the intersection of material and ideal phenomena that four-fields anthropology is well-suited to explore. He is interested in the exploration of how, as embodied subjects, we create and experience the physical and ideological aspects of things like illness and disease; poverty and development; gender, race, and sexuality; and power and privilege. As an “engaged-”, “public-”, and/or “activist-” anthropologist, Rob’s concern is that academics, students, and universities use their time and resources to address social inequalities and not simply research them.

Courses Taught:

• Introduction to Anthropology: A Four-field Approach to the Study of Human Diversity and the “Race” Concept
• Human Past: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology
• Introduction to Sociology
• American Culture
• Anthropology of Sexuality and Eroticism
• Fundamentals of Cultural Anthropology
• Service Learning and Social Change
• Classical Social Theory
• Race and Ethnic Relations
• Worldviews: Science, Magic, and Religion
• Anthropology of Social Policy
• Medical Anthropology
• Anthropology of Gender
• Anthropological Perspectives on Violence
• Anthropology of Development
• Diaspora, Multiculturalism, and Ethnicity in the US
• Field Methods in Ethnography
• Research Methods

Honors and Awards:

2006               Carrie Hunter-Tate Award (for academic and professional achievement), National Association of Student Anthropologists

2004               Temple Society of Fellows in the Humanities Graduate Associateship

2003               Dissertation Research Improvement Grant - National Science Foundation

2000 - 2003   University Fellow - Temple University

Publications:

2006   Unemployment and Disposable Workers in Philadelphia: Just How Far Have the Bastards Gone? Ethnos, 71:2.

2006   Whose Social Capital? How Economic Development Projects Disrupt Local Social Relations. With Judith Goode in Social Capital in the City: Community and Civic Life in Philadelphia. Richardson Dilworth, Editor. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Academic Service and Service to the Profession:

2007-2009                 Elected Member, Committee for Human Rights, American Anthropological Association

2005-2009                 Appointed Member, Labor Relations Commission, American Anthropological Association

2004-Present            Student At-Large Representative, Executive Board, Society for the Anthropology of Work