Dr. Naomi Leite

Ph.D. Anthropology, University of California-Berkeley, 2011

Assistant Professor of Anthropology (adjunct appointment)

Research Fellow, Harris Center for Judaic Studies

Office: 932 Oldfather Hall
Email: nleite2@unl.edu
Phone: (402) 472-7848
Fax: 402-472-9642

Subfield:

Cultural Anthropology

Major Research Interests:

Cultural globalization and global interconnection; social identities; anthropology of tourism; mobility; heritage; kinship and relatedness; language and thought; material culture and and materiality; museums

Recent and Representative Publications:

Leite, Naomi and Nelson Graburn. (2010) “L'anthropologie pour étudier le tourisme.” Mondes du Tourisme 1(1): 17-29.

Leite, Naomi and Nelson Graburn. (2009) “Anthropological Interventions in Tourism Studies,” in The Sage Handbook of Tourism Studies, ed. Mike Robinson and Tazim Jamal. London: Sage, pp. 35-64.

Leite, Naomi. (2007) “Materializing Absence: Tourists, Surrogates, and the Making of Jewish Portugal,” in Things That Move: Material Worlds of Tourism and Travel, ed. Mike Robinson. Conference proceedings. Leeds, UK: Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change.

Leite, Naomi. (2005) “Travels to an Ancestral Past: On Diasporic Tourism, Embodied Memory, and Identity.” Antropológicas (Porto, Portugal) 9:273-302.

Graburn, Nelson and Naomi Leite. (2004) Comment on James Clifford, “Looking Several Ways: Anthropology and Native Heritage in Alaska.” Current Anthropology 45(1):24-25.

 

Invited Lectures and Conference Presentations:

2011   "Our Heritage, Our Kin: Portugal’s Urban Marranos, Their Jewish Visitors, and the Creative Alchemy of Ethnic Kinship." Invited lecture, Program in Judaic Studies and Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma

2011  "Speaking of Heritage, Thinking Through Kinship: Preservation, Ownership, and Questions of Commensurability." Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Montreal, Quebec

2011   “Marrano Identity and the Logic of Genealogical Causality.” Guest lecture, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

2011   Chair, “Personal and Institutional Articulations of Tourism Imaginaries.” “Tourism Imaginaries/Imaginaires Touristiques,” international conference organized by the Tourism Studies Working Group, University of California, Berkeley and Institut de Recherche et d'Études Supérieures du Tourisme, Paris I – Sorbonne

2010   “Heritage, Embodied: Portugal's Marranos, Their Jewish Visitors, and the Pervasive Past.” Cultural Heritage Working Group, University of Toronto

2008   “From Portuguese Ancestral Identity to Global Ethnic Identification: Marranos and/as Jews.” Symposium on “Anthropologies of Identity in the Portuguese-Speaking World,” organized by the Portuguese Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley

2008   “Local Identity, Global Identification: Portugal’s New Marranos and Their Ashkenazi Jewish ‘Kin’ Abroad.” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, CA

2008   “Blurring the Researcher/Research Subject Distinction: ‘The Field’ as a State of Mind.” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, CA

2007   “Materializing Absence: Tourists, Surrogates, and the Making of ‘Jewish Portugal.’” Conference on “Things That Move: The Material Worlds of Tourism and Travel,” Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K.

2007   “Bodies, Spaces, Memories: Historical Tourism, Imagination, and the Materialization of Absence.” Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Colloquium Series, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley

2006   “Heritage Tourism as Social Practice: History, Ancestry, Emotion.” Guest lecture, Department of Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz

2005   “Rethinking Heritage Tourism: Reflections on “Heritage”, Experience, and Identity.” At “New Theoretical Paradigms in Tourism Research,” Biennial Seminar of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Tourism (RC-50), Wageningen, Holland

2004   “Anusim (Crypto-Jews) in Porto, Portugal: A Report from the Field.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, Portland, Oregon

2003   “Heritage Tourism and Portuguese-Jewish Ethnic Revival.” Paper presented in the Tourism Studies Working Group Colloquium Series, University of California, Berkeley

2003   “‘The Most Jewish Country in the World’: Hidden Heritage, Tourism, and the Re-Creation of Portuguese Jewishness.” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago

Research Networks & Advisory Committees:

2010- present Cultural Mobilities International Research Network

2009 - present Tourism-Contact-Culture International Research Network (Academic Advisory Board Member, 2009-present)

2009-10 Cultural Heritage Interest Group (based at University of Toronto, Canada)

2003 - present Tourism Studies Working Group (based at University of California, Berkeley; Co-Founder, Co-Chair 2003-04, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2010-11)

Professional Memberships:

American Anthropological Association
Portuguese Anthropological Association
Council for the Anthropology of Jews and Judaism
Society for the Anthropology of Europe
Society for Psychological Anthropology

Courses Taught:

Advanced Current Topics in Anthropology – Globalization, Religion, and Identity, ANTH 498/898