Ellen Schnepel
ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIELD SITES
The Co-Principality of Andorra (summer 1983) -- Study of the social, economic, political, and cultural implications of undocumented migrant labor from Portugal, Spain, and North Africa in a plural society in the Catalan-speaking Pyrenees. Columbia University Field Project in Andorran Studies.
Guadeloupe, French Antilles (Summer 1981) -- Study of traditional and emerging attitudes towards French-lexicon Creole and the effect of changing language ideologies on language behavior and practices. Sponsors: Masters Learning Fellowship in Social Change, The Inter-American Foundation, and the Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies, Columbia University.
Guadeloupe (1984-1986, 1996, 2000) -- Language politics in the movement to promote and develop the Creole language on the island of Guadeloupe; comparative analysis with promotional efforts in Haiti, Martinique, Dominica, and St. Lucia in the Caribbean, and Réunion island in the Indian Ocean. Sponsors: Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program, National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation in Dissertation Research Related to Education.
Mauritius, Indian Ocean (1992-93) -- Examination of the ethnic ideologies of indianité, creolité, and africanité and their influence on Hindu, Muslim and Creole relations. Sponsor: Ruth Landes Fellowship, The Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM), New York.
Belize, Central America (summer 1998) -- A community assessment project to determine educational needs and barriers to primary school success among the indigenous Maya, Garifuna, and immigrants in the Toledo District in southern Belize; the analysis of a local quantitative survey of women’s cooperatives in order to build women’s institutional capacity and contribute to women’s empowerment, sustainable economic development, and poverty alleviation. Volunteer consultant, Teachers For a Better Belize (TFBB).
St. Lucia (December 1983-January 1984) -- Research on the local promotion of French-lexicon Creole and analysis of governmental response to its usage in education, health care projects, community development, and the media. Sponsors: Organization of American States, Washington, DC; Buffington Fellowship, Vassar College.
New York City -- “Signs of Language and the Diaspora of Signs in the City” -- the study of signage in ethnic communities so as to capture changes in vernacular practices and ethnic settlement, mobility, decline, and renewal (select sites: Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn). Independent research project.
Martinique and Guadeloupe, French Antilles (February 1999, October 1999, April - May 2000) -- Study of changing patterns in food consumption as a consequence of political
assimilation and integration in the European Union. Independent Project.
Haiti (January/February 2008) -- 10-day fact-finding tour to Jacmel to meet with NGOS, community leaders, and activists to learn about the current situation in the country, visit projects of coffee and cacao cultivation, participate in community environmental projects, such as tree-planting for reforestation, and volunteer at an orphanage of children infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis in the country. Delegate, Konbit Pou Ayiti’s Mission to Haiti.
