Peter Wogan

History and Interests

Interests: Dreams, movies, literacy, good writing on any topic, Mexico, Ecuador

I am currently working on two books: a narrative account of the life and dreams of a Mexican video-store owner in Salem, Oregon; and an analysis of the cultural significance of American blockbuster movies (to be published by Berg, Fall 2009).

Based on my earlier research, I also maintain interests in literacy practices, especially among Quichua speakers in the Andes

Publications

Books

Magical Writing in Salasaca: Literacy and Power in Highland Ecuador. Boulder: Westview Press, 2004.

Articles

"Compliment Topics and Gender." Women and Language 29: 21-28, 2006 (with Christopher Parisi).

"Audience Reception and Ethnographic Film: Laughing at First Contact." Visual Anthropology Review 22:14-33, 2006.

"Deep Hanging Out: Reflections on Fieldwork and Multi-sited Andean Ethnography." Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 11: 129-139, 2004.

"The Gun, the Pen, and the Cannoli: Orality and Writing in The Godfather, Part I." Anthropology and Humanism 28:155-167, 2003 (with David Sutton).

"Imagined Communities Reconsidered: Is Print-Capitalism What We Think It Is?" Anthropological Theory 1:403-418, 2001.

"Magical Literacy: Encountering a Witch's Book in Ecuador." Anthropological Quarterly 71:186-202, 1998. Reprinted in Sacred Realms: Essays in Religion, Belief, and Society. Richard Warms, James Garber, Jon McGee, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

"Perceptions of European Literacy in Early Contact Situations." Ethnohistory 41:407-29, 1994.

Book Reviews

Review of Remembering the Hacienda: Religion, Authority and Social Change in Highland Ecuador, by Barry Lyons. American Ethnologist 35:2005-2007, 2008.

Review of Travels with Ernest: Crossing the Literary/Sociological Divide, by Laurel Richardson and Ernest Lockridge. American Ethnologist 34:2043-2045, 2007.

Review of American Cinema's Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices, edited by Charlie Keil and Shelley Stamp. Visual Anthropology Review 22:90-91, 2006.

Review of After Spanish Rule: Postcolonial Predicaments of the Americas, edited by Mark Thurner and Andrés Guerrero. Journal of Anthropological Research 60:460-61, 2004.

Review of Creating Context in Andean Cultures, edited by Rosaleen Howard-Malverde. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 7:230-231, 1998.

Awards and Fellowships

Mortar Board Professor of the Year, Willamette University, 2007.
Faculty Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence, Willamette University, 2003.
Robert Manners Prize for Best Specialist Essay, Brandeis University, 1994.

Degrees Held

Ph.D., Brandeis University (Anthropology), 1997
M.A., University of Chicago (Anthropology), 1987
B.A., Vassar College (Political Science), 1984