Associate Professor of Anthropology and Academic Unit Head
Year Started at JMU: 2026
jwydfw@jmu.edu
Contact Info
Education
B.A., Miami University
Ph.D., The University of Oklahoma
Research
My ethnographic research focuses on Indigenous communities in Oklahoma, with particular attention to contemporary issues surrounding gender, kinship, identity, and social change. More recently, I have worked the descendants of families displaced to create Shenandoah National Park. Within the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, I study the impact of experiential, immersive, and community-engaged learning practices in higher education, as well as ways to meaningfully integrate career preparation into the liberal arts. My newest research explores generative AI from both a teaching and learning perspective and through its broader sociocultural implications.
Selected Publications
2021.“The Pandemic Pivot: Change and Adaptability during Quarantines, Social Distancing, and Anthropology in the Virtual Classroom,” co-authored with Toni Copeland. Teaching and Learning Anthropology 4 (1): 67-86.
2019. “Diversity, Difference, and Safety: Student Perspectives on Community
Engagement.” Teaching and Learning in Anthropology 2 (2): 7-24.
2015. “Disappointing Indigeneity: Powwow and Participation among the
Plains Apache.” Ethnology 51(1): 55-74.
