Department of Anthropology

Education:

PhD 1972 Catholic University of America
MA 1968 Catholic University of America
BA 1966 University of Houston

Areas of Reseach/Interest:

History of Anthropology, magic and religion, narrative ethnography, neoliberalism and the global economy; Mexico, Appalachia, India, Nepal

Teaching:

Magic-Witchcraft-Religion, Nature, Culture and Capitalism, Disaster Capitalism, Ethnographic Writing, the History of Anthropology, over fifteen other courses

Background:

Dr. Reck has conducted ethnographic field work in rural Mexico, India, Nepal and Appalachia. His field research has focused on various impacts of global processes on small communities. His other professional interests focus on ethnographic writing strategies, the history of ethnographic theory, and U.S. foreign policy. Dr. Reck's most recent research and writing have focused on a critical examination of the empire of global capital and how natural and human-made disasters are exploited to expand the reach of that empire.

He served as Chair of the Department of Anthropology from 1979-83 and again from  2002-2011. He was also the first Associate Dean for Research and Grants in the Cratis Williams Graduate School at ASU from 1994 - 2002.

Dr. Reck has received grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education for over $700,000 in funding and a Fulbright Fellowship for teaching and research in India.

Representative Publications:

2017 “The Rise of Nationalist Capitalism and the Future of Imperialism,” Human Geography, 10 (2) (with Dinesh Paudel).

2016 “Brewing Disasters in Rural Nepal, Anthropology News, the American Anthropological Association (with Dinesh Paudel).

2015 American Soccer: History, Culture, Class, Mc Farland Publishers (with Bruce Allen Dick).

2006 "Out of the Cold and Into the Darkness: Shadows of Friendship in Mexico" In Bridges to Humanity, Grindal and Salamone (eds.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

2004 "The War in Iraq and the Project for a New American Century" In War, Terror and the Uncanny: A Post 9/11 Archive. Ucsd.edu: University of California-San Diego.

1989 "Ethnicity and its Political Consequences in a Southern Appalachian High School" In Negotiating Ethnicity: The Impact of Anthropological Theory and Practice, Susan Keefe (ed.). NAPA Bulletin 8, Washington, DC: AAA. (with Susan Keefe and Mae Reck).

1986 "Celistino and His Discontents: A Metalogue with Civilization and Its Discontents" .In The Burden of Being Civilized: An Anthropological Perspective on the Discontents of Civilization, Richardson and Webb (eds.). Athens: University of Georgia Press.

1978 In the Shadow of Tlaloc: Life in a Mexican Village. New York: Penguin Books, 1978 (reissued by Waveland Press 1986)..

Dr. Reck is the author of more than 25 professional articles and almost 50 professional meeting presentations.