SHERRY B. ORTNER
SEMSCHC 2013 Keynote Lecturer
ART AND POLITICS, ETHNOGRAPHY AND TEXTS:
THE CASE OF AMERICAN CINEMA
Abstract
The anthropology of film and media has been growing exponentially in recent years,
creating potential new synergies between anthropology and ethnomusicology. Drawing on
my recent research in the world of independent film, I address the general issue of art and
politics. Specifically, this talk explores the question of the erasure of politics in American
cinema, including both independent film and Hollywood movies. Reflecting on
methodological issues, I also take up the question of the interpretation of texts within an
ethnographic project, including the concept of “ethnography of the text.”
Sherry B. Ortner is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. She received her A.B.
from Bryn Mawr College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Before
UCLA (2004-present), she taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Michigan, the
University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. She has received numerous grants
and fellowships, including awards from the National Science Foundation, the Guggenheim
Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation. She has done extensive fieldwork with the Sherpas of Nepal, on
religion, politics, and the Sherpas’ involvement in Himalayan mountaineering. Her final book on
the Sherpas, Life and Death on Mt. Everest, was awarded the J.I. Staley prize for the best
anthropology book of 2004.
In the early ‘90s, Ortner switched her research to the United States. Her first project was on the
meanings and workings of social class in the United States, using the members of her own high
school graduating class as her ethnographic subjects. Her second American project looks at the
world of independent filmmaking, and the dark view of American society that emerges through
the lens of independent film. She also publishes regularly in the areas of cultural theory and
feminist theory. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has
been awarded the Retzius Medal of the Society of Anthropology and Geography of Sweden. The
Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California and Hawai’i Chapter is honored to welcome
Dr. Sherry B. Ortner as the Keynote Lecturer of our 47th Annual Meeting.