People

Kiran Jayaram

Assistant Professor

• Curriculum Vitae
• Website

Contact

Office: SOC 118
Email: kjayaram@usf.edu 

bio

My life has been a study in border crossing. I was born in Kansas City, Missouri but brought home and raised in Kansas. A child of rural elite migrants, I learned to appreciate eating rice and yogurt (a South Indian dish) as much as riding go-carts (a rural Kansan wish). At different stages, I attended both private and public elementary schools, Jesuit and public high schools, and Ivy League and public universities. I have conducted research in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as Cuba and the United States.

Education

• 2014 Ph.D., Applied Anthropology, Columbia University/Teachers College
• 2011 M. Phil., Applied Anthropology, Columbia University/Teachers College
• 2002 M.A., Latin American studies, University of Kansas
• 1998 B.A., Mathematics, University of Kansas
• 1995 A.A., General Studies, Johnson County Community College

Professional Experience

• 2017-present Assistant Professor, Anthropology. University of South Florida
• 2015-2017 Assistant Professor, Anthropology and Black Studies. York College (CUNY)
• 2014-2017 Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculté d'Ethnologie. Université d'Etat d'Haïti
• 2014-2015 Lecturer, African and African-American Studies. University of Kansas
• 2011-2015 Adjunct Associate Professor, Anthropology. Johnson County Community College

Teaching

Graduate Courses

Global Migration and Mobility, and Urban Situations and Education.

Undergraduate Courses

Cultural Anthropology, Exploring Cross Cultural Diversity, Transnational Hispaniola; a Social Science Approach, and Various Haitian Creole Language courses.

Graduate Courses Co-Taught

Peopling of the Americas, Biological Anthropology, Political Anthropology, Research Design and Methodology, and Historia Universal.

Research

I see the overall arc of my research as being designed to counter dominant narratives by providing insight into marginalized knowledges, or knowledges among marginalized populations. Inspired by Faye Harrison's assertion that Black experiences speak to the universal human condition just as much as anyone else's does, similarly, we should take migrants seriously. Within Latin American and Caribbean Studies, my research lies at the intersection of the political economy, mobility/migration, and education. I have conducted fieldwork on Haitian educational and labor migrants to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and human rights for Haitian migrants. I also worked on a series of applied research projects in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. This included: schooling issues in Haiti (World Bank), land tenure in post-earthquake Haiti (Earth Institute), baseline data for development projects in post-earthquake Haiti (Earth Institute), living wages among free trade zone workers (Workers Rights Consortium).

Graduate Students

Chelsey Ramirez.