Ms Amy L Porter

Narrative

BA Anthropology, International Studies, & English, Macalester College; Master of Business Administration, Southern Methodist U. For my dissertation project, "Money, Morality and the Value of Self-Worth: Community and economic transformation in Havana, Cuba," I conducted 15 months of fieldwork in Havana, Cuba, funded jointly by the MacArthur Program and a David L. Boren Graduate Fellowship from the Academy for Education Development. This research attends to the interconnections between culture and economy, and the role that labor practices and community values play in the formation of local and national identities. Specifically, I address the ways that Cubans are experiencing the economic transformations occurring in their nation through an analysis of household based businesses, consumption practices, and gender roles. My work highlights the power disparities that are at play in economic change, while also showing the particular focus on community that Cubans give to their economic practices. As an examination of a society and economy firmly differentiating itself from global capitalism, this research offers a counterpoint to theories of homogenized global economies and provides insight into the otherwise taken for granted capitalist system. My research and teaching interests encompass theories of globalization, gender and economic transformations, post-socialist theory, consumption and culture, urban anthropology, and the anthropology of work.