Professor Anderson has research interests in comparative human development; folklore; self and identity; new ethnic group formation; refugees; diaspora and displacement; multiraciality; new Asian Americans; Asian ethnonationalism; Southeast Asia; Arctic; and Asian America.

My current research "Shee: A Historical Ethnography of Selawik" aims for a book, co-authored with Douglas D. Anderson. It is based on several visits to Selawik viilage in northwest Alaska, including a full-year ethnographic study in 1970-71. The historical discussion derives from Douglas Anderson's archeology of four sites on the Selawik River, reports of school teachers/missionaries before Alaska became the 49th state of America, the establishment of a village trading post, and the federal introduction of reindeer herding into the area. Amidst Inupiaq self-determination movement, television, cell phone, and electircity, it will bring the readers up to date to what this arctic village has evolved to in the millenium.  

National Endowment for Humanities grant, to integrate Eskimo folk tales into the high school curriculum of the Northwest Arctic Borough School District and to increase students' literacy in their native Inupiaq language, creative writing skills, and critical skills. 2001-03. ($25,000)

Faculty Seminar Grants (with Robert Lee), the Francis Wayland Collegium and the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, Brown University, to organize at Brown the meeting "Diaspora and Displacement: Teaching and Researching the Asian Diaspora." 1999. ($30,000)

Research grant, Thailand National Research Council (with Douglas D. Anderson and Paiboon Pramojani), for joint archaeology, ethnography, and geomorphology project in Krabi,Thailand. 1998-99. ($20,000)

Northwest Arctic Borough's publication grant for the book, Folktales of the Riverine and CoastalInupiat , Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska. 1998. ($10,000)

UTRA Grant, Brown University, for undergraduate teaching assistant for AN25 (UC56): Growing Up Ethnic and Multicultural. 1996 ($5,000)

National Science Foundation research grant for field research in Northwest Alaska, jointly with Douglas D. Anderson, on "Human Substance Practices in Response to Environmental Fluctuations in Northwest Alaska" 1991-96. ($225,000)

Research grant to study Laotian refugees in Rhode Island, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Brown University. 1991. ($300)

Wayland Collegium Grant for course preparation, "Growing Up Ethnic and Multicultural." 1989-90. ($2,500)

Odyssey Grant of Ford Foundation to Brown University, for the preparation of a new course, "Growing Up As An Ethnic Ethnicity." Summer 1988. ($1,000)

National Research Service Award, National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, for postdoctoral training in cross-cultural studies and adolescent development, Peabody Museum Harvard University, Cambridge. 1982-83. ($30,000)

National Research Service Award, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, for postdoctoral training in human learning and behavior at the Laboratory of Human Development, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge. 1981-82. ($15,000)

Professional Associate Award in cross-cultural research, Culture-Learning Institute, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. 1978 ($3,000)

Ford Foundation Travel Grant for visiting professorship to Silpakorn University and Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. 1976. ($1,000)

2010 Mapping Thai Muslims: Community Dynamics and Change on the Andaman Coast. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books

In Two Worlds: Thai-American Trajectory. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn U. Social Research Institute

The Dall Sheep Dinner Guest: Inupiaq Narratives of Northwest Alaska. U. of Alaska Press, 2005.

Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas. Wanni W. Anderson and Robert G. Lee, eds. Rutgers University Press, 2005.

Book review: Luiza Del Guidice and Gerald Porter, eds. Imagined States: Nationalism, Utopia, and Longing in Oral Literature. For American Anthropologist, March 2003, pp 184-186, vol. 105(1).

Folktales of the Riverine and Coastal Inupiat. Northwest Arctic Borough and National Endowment for the Humanities, 2003.

Kuuvanmiut Subsistence: Traditional Eskimo Life in the 20th Century. (with Douglas D. Anderson et al.), National Park Service, Department of Interior, 1998

"Ethnicity in Action: Thai Muslim Ethnicization in the Thai Nation-State." Accepted for publication in Journal of the Siam Society, Bangkok.

National Endowment for Humanities grant, to integrate Eskimo folk tales into the high school curriculum of the Northwest Arctic Borough School District and to increase students' literacy in their native Inupiaq language, creative writing skills, and critical skills (2001-03)

Faculty Seminar Grants (with Robert Lee), the Francis Wayland Collegium and the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, Brown University, to organize at Brown the meeting "Diaspora and Displacement: Teaching and Researching the Asian Diasporas" (1999)

Research grant, Thailand National Research Council (with Douglas D. Anderson and Paiboon Pramojani) for joint archaeology, ethnography, and geomorphology project in Krabi, Thailand (1998-99)

Northwest Arctic Borough's publication grant for the book, Folktales of the Riverine and Coastal Inupiat , Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska (1998)

UTRA Grant, Brown University, for undergraduate teaching assistant for AN25 (UC56): Growing Up Ethnic and Multicultural (1996)

National Science Foundation research grant for field research in Northwest Alaska, jointly with Douglas D. Anderson, on "Human Substance Practices in Response to Environmental Fluctuations in Northwest Alaska" (1991-96)

Professional Associate Awards of the East-West Center and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (August 1994)

Research grant to study Laotian Refugees in Rhode Island, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Brown University (1991)

Wayland Collegium Grant for course preparation of "Growing Up Ethnic and Multicultural," Brown University (1989-90)

Odyssey Grant of Ford Foundation to Brown University, for the preparation of a new course, "Growing Up As An Ethnic Minority" (Summer 1988)

Professional Associate Award in cross-cultural research, "Cross-Cultural Views of Children's Day Care." Culture Learning Institute, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii (January 1984)

Professional Associate Award for the workshop on Family Relations in Asia, Population Institute, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii (July 1983)

National Research Service Award, National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, for postdoctoral training in cross-cultural studies and adolescent development, Peabody Museum Harvard University, Cambridge (1982-83)

National Research Service Award, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, for postdoctoral training in human learning and behavior at the Laboratory of Human Development, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge (1981-82)

Professional Associate Award in cross-cultural research, Culture-Learning Institute, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii (1978)

Ford Foundation Travel Grant for visiting professorship to Silpakorn University and Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (1976)

Chicago Folklore Prize 1974, third prize, International Folklore Association, for "Children's Play and Games in Rural Thailand: A Study in Enculturation and Socialization" (1974)

American Association of University Women Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant, "Children's Play and Games in Rural Thailand: A Study in Enculturation and Socialization" (1969-70)

Brown University Special Scholarship, Providence, R.I. (1961-62)

Smith/Mundt Fulbright Scholarship to Brown University (1960-61)

Chulalongkorn University Rector's Award in Student Administration as president of Women Students, Chulalongkorn University Students Council, Bangkok, Thailand (1958-59)

Chandarabhod Award as the top student in English in the graduating class of 1959, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (1959)

American Anthropological Association

AN25, ET26 "Growing Up Ethnic and Multicultural". This course explores the complex issues of growing up as an ethnic, bicultural, or a multicultural person and how these dual or multiple identities affect or interact with individual behavior, priorities, the sense of self, and how individual identity is formulated and defined. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches combining anthropology, comparative human development, interethnic communication, life history, and literary works are used


AN125, ET121 "The American Experience: The Southeast Asian Refugees/Americans" This course explores the diaspora of the Cambodian, the Hmong, the Lao, and the Vietnamese American from their initial exodus from their war-torn countries to their strategies for reconstructing new lives. Topics include socioeconomic changes, changing family life, gender roles, life choices, and the growing American generation. Materials used include films, songs, and autobiographies written by the refugees/Americans themselves.

AN120, EA0019 "Ethnonationalism: The Asian Areana". Three Asian countries--China, Thailand, and Myanmar--are unique national arenas to examine and compare specific definitions, representations, and contentions among nationalistic discourse, ethnic legitimization, and ethnonationalism as they are played out in response to cultural politics, national ideology, European colonial expansion, religious identity, and ethnic identity. Nationalistic movements, ethnic nationalism, and transnational politics are explored.


AN122, ET122 "Ethnic American Folklore: Continuity and the Creative Process". This course investigates the dynamics of cultural continuity and the creative process involved in ethnic American folklore from oral narratives, life history, to foodways, sports and songs. How do these cultural forms intersect with ethnicity, gender, group activism, and transnational contacts and exchanges? What are the new cultural forms, communication milieus, and venues negotiated or contested in contemporary America?