Rosaria A. Pisa
Lecturer
Sociology
Ph.D., Northeastern University
Political Sociology, Development, Culture, Inequality, Latin America
Professor Pisa originates from Naples, Italy from where she emigrated with her family to the U.S. as a child. In the U.S., Prof. Pisa has lived in Pennsylvania, Texas and Massachusetts before settling in Rhode Island with her family. As a child, Prof. Pisa dreamed of seeing the world, connecting with people from different cultures, and communicating with them in their own language whenever possible.
Prof. Pisa is multilingual, has traveled extensively and has lived in Germany and Mexico for a time. It was on one of her sojourns abroad that she came to know and love Mexico. Her passion for Mexico ultimately shaped the direction of her graduate studies in political science (M.A. 1992) and sociology (Ph.D. 2001). Realizing her childhood dream of intimately connecting with other cultures, Prof. Pisa has conducted in-depth fieldwork in rural and urban Mexico since 1993. Her research has evolved from studying the impact of the privatization of communal land on community life to her current focus on the gender dynamics of local and organic farming.
Prof. Pisa regularly teaches SOC 100 General Sociology and courses in the area of social inequality such as SOC 240 Race and Ethnic Relations. She also teaches two interdisciplinary courses cross listed with anthropology, SOC/APG 329 Contemporary Mexican Society and SOC/APG 416 Migration in the Americas.
Prof. Pisa research on the Mexican Agrarian Reform and land privatization has been published in Urban Anthropology and Habitat International as well as several edited volumes here and in Mexico. She has presented her research at numerous international conferences, in Mexico, and the World Bank.
News & Announcements
Anthropology Honor Society
URI Anthropology students have been chartered as the Alpha Rhode Island Chapter of Lamda Alpha, the national anthropology honor society. This is a tribute to the hard work of several students and to the academic excellence of our majors and our faculty. Right now, the recruitment of charter members is underway. If you're interested in being one of the first Lamda Alphas, shoot off an email to Ashley Waggoner for all the details.
The URI Anthropology Society is also up and running. Check out their page too.
Department contacts
Department Chair
C. B. Peters, cbp@uri.edu
Justice, Law & Society Minor Coordinator
Professor Leo Carroll, lcarroll@uri.edu
Administrative Assistant
Theresa Nobile, nobile@uri.edu
