Sherry Ortner

Abstract

A photograph of Franz Boas posing in a Kwakiutl Ceremonial Dance and a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights greets visitors in Sherry Beth Ortner’s office in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Professor Sherry Ortner received her Ph.D. from University of Chicago, and began her extensive field work with the Sherpas in Nepal. In 1972, her article “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture” became one of the seminal works in feminist anthropology. Ortner is currently a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, where she teaches courses on Critical Social Theory and Ethnographic Imagination. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. In this interview we discuss Ortner’s academic and personal life, from her initial field work experiences to her current research on the Hollywood industry, including her interests in feminist anthropology and her work on capitalism and social change. We had the opportunity to meet both a brilliant anthropologist and a joyful person.