Tom Boellstorff is an

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...

based at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

. In his career to date, his interests have included the anthropology of sexuality, the anthropology of globalization,

digital anthropology Digital anthropology is the anthropological study of the relationship between humans and digital-era technology. The field is new, and thus has a variety of names with a variety of emphases. These include techno-anthropology, digital ethnograp ...

, Southeast Asian studies, the anthropology of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

, and linguistic anthropology.

Career

Tom Boellstorff earned his Ph.D. in

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

in 2000. He joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine in 2002, receiving tenure in 2006. He is the winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize given by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists. From 2007–2012 he was Editor-in-Chief of ''

American Anthropologist ''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), published quarterly by Wiley. The "New Series" began in 1899 under an editorial board that included Franz Boas, Daniel G. Brinton, and John ...

'', the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association, and coedits the Princeton University Press book series "Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology." He has been Co-chair of the Association for Queer Anthropology (formerly the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists). He has received a fellowship from the

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

and research support from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. In 2016 he was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has conducted research on LGBT sexualities in Indonesia and on culture in virtual worlds, including disability experience in Second Life (see the documentary ''Our Digital Selves: My Avatar Is Me'').

Biography

Raised in

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

, Boellstorff moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to obtain bachelor's degrees in linguistics and music from Stanford University. He engaged in HIV/AIDS and LGBT activism in the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Russia, at times with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now Outright International) and the Institute for Community Health Outreach, where he worked as Regional Coordinator before entering graduate school in anthropology. His husband,

Bill Maurer William M. Maurer (born March 31, 1968) is an American academic scholar of legal and economic anthropology. He currently serves as the dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He has conducted research on mo ...

, is Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Publications

*''Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 2008, Second Edition 2015) *''Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method'' (Princeton University Press, 2012; coauthored with Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce, and T.L. Taylor) *''A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia'' (

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...

, 2007) *''The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia'' (

, 2005) He is also the co-editor of
Data, Now Bigger and Better!
' (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2015) and ''Speaking in Queer Tongues: Globalization and Gay Language'' (

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic proje ...

, 2004). His work has been published in ''

; American Ethnologist; Annual Review of Anthropology,

Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

; Current Anthropology, Environment and Planning D; Ethnos, Games and Culture, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies; Information, Communication, and Society; International Journal of Communication; Journal of Linguistic Anthropology; Journal of Asian Studies;'' and ''Media, Culture, and Society.''

References

External links

Tom Boellstorff's webpage
*Wisconsin Public Radio Show – To the Best of Our Knowledge – Science & the Search for Meaning: 5 Questions Part One: WHAT IS LIFE? Segment 3 ..."And anthropologist Tom Boellstorff takes us on a tour through the virtual world of Second Life.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boellstorff, Tom 1969 births Living people American anthropologists LGBT anthropologists American gay writers University of California, Irvine faculty LGBT scientists from the United States LGBT people from Nebraska Gay academics Gay scientists American Anthropologist editors

Career

Biography

Publications

See also

References

External links