Laurah E. Klepinger, Ph.D.
Biography
Laurah Klepinger is a cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Utica College since 2016. She holds a Ph.D. and MA in Anthropology from Syracuse University, a Master of Arts in Dance (Performance and Culture), and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance (Choreography) from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. She also completed a Bachelor of Dance Arts from the University of Michigan, with a minor in Religion.
Supported by a Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, Klepinger’s doctoral research was a study of workers in the South Indian branches of a transnational yoga institution whose mission is “to spread peace, health and joy through yoga.” With additional support from the American Institute of Indian Studies and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (Syracuse University), she conducted more than four years of ethnographic research and language study in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, India and in North America to understand the life experiences and perspectives of both Indian and international volunteers as well as paid workers in the organization. Klepinger continues to write about this work (a book project is forthcoming), and it also informs her teaching on issues of inequality, cultural appropriation, religion, gender, and globalization.
Her latest work explores ayurveda and ayurvedic massage practice and training in India and North America. She is also engaged in research with the Intermountain Covid-19 Impact Consortium on vulnerable communities in the Central New York region, facing the Covid-19 pandemic. A collaborative project in development with UC faculty Dr. Patrice Hallock and Dr. Nicole Scienza, under the newly formed Utica College Institute for the Study of Integrative Healthcare, focuses on “Children, Families, and Integrative Healthcare.”
Education
- M.A., Ph. D. in Anthropology, Syracuse University
- MA and MFA in Dance, University of California, Los Angeles
- BA in Dance, University of Michigan
Courses Taught
- Introduction to Anthropology (ANT 101)
- Cultures, Health, and Healing (ANT 415)
- Food and Culture (ANT 367)
- Introduction to Gender and Sexuality (ANT 257)
- Sociology and Anthropology Theory (ANT/SOC 405)
- Special Topics (ANT 300) - Inside Globalization
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