People

Karla L. Davis-Salazar

Dr. Karla Davis-Salazar

Associate Professor

Contact

Office: SOC 156C
Email: karladavis@usf.edu

Education

  • Ph.D., Anthropology, Harvard University
  • A.M., Anthropology, Harvard University
  • B.A., French Language and Literature, University of Michigan

Teaching

Introduction to Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Teaching Anthropology, Anthropology and Higher Education.

Research

After serving as an associate dean in USF's Office of Undergraduate Studies for four years, I find universities to be fascinating social and cultural systems. Academia and administration truly are different worlds, and learning to “do” administration is a transformative process. My research on higher education therefore applies anthropological methods and theories to problems in higher education as a means of building bridges between faculty and administrators. To this end, I am currently engaged in research projects investigating: 1) the structures and lived experience of “academic middle management” roles, such as associate deans; 2) the experiences of university stakeholders with structural and organizational changes in higher education institutions, particularly how faculty and administrators make sense of such disruptions to their lives and livelihoods; and 3) academic motherhood, which is a joint project with a USF colleague investigating the gendered experiences and array of personal, professional, and institutional challenges facing mothers in academia.

Recent Publications

Graduate Students

Emma Abell-Selby, and Clara Buie.