Dr. Jane Lynch

Biography

Jane Lynch is a Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University. She specializes in economic anthropology with regional expertise in South Asia. Her research interests encompass social analysis of corporations, corporate social responsibility projects, political economy, artisanal manufacture, studies of materiality, and ethical commerce. Lynch's current book project, entitled 'Goods Goodness: Ethical Practices in India’s Artisanal Textile Industry,' is based on long-term ethnographic research that examines the tensions and contradictions within the social institutional organization of India's artisanal textile industry. She has conducted fieldwork that focuses on negotiating ethical values within the context of commercial relationships and transactions at multiple sites, including textile markets, warehouses, bureaucratic offices, corporate shareholder meetings, and historic weaving towns. Her research has received support from fellowships from the Fulbright and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. In addition to her research, Lynch teaches classes on ethnographic research writing, the relationships between corporations and communities, and the political economy of consumer culture. Before joining Yale, she taught at the University of Michigan, where she was head of the Social Theory & Practice program.

Research Interests