Deborah A. Thomas
Deborah Ann Thomas | |
|---|---|
Thomas in 2019 | |
| Born | 1966 (age 58–59) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Brown University (BA) New York University (MA, PhD) |
| Occupation(s) | Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for Experimental Ethnography |
| Organization | University of Pennsylvania |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cultural anthropology Dance Ethnic studies |
| Thesis | “Tradition's not an intelligence thing”: Jamaican cultural politics and the ascendence of modern blackness (2000) |
Deborah Ann Thomas (born 1966) is an American anthropologist and filmmaker. She is the R. Jean Brownlee Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published books and articles on the history, culture, and politics of Jamaica; and on human rights, sexuality, and globalization in the Caribbean arena. She has co-produced and co-directed two experimental films, and has co-curated a multimedia exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2016, she began a four-year term as editor-in-chief of the journal American Anthropologist.
Before pursuing her career as an anthropologist, Thomas performed as a professional dancer with Urban Bush Women, a New York dance company that used art to promote social equity by illuminating the experiences of disenfranchised people.