Dr. Kathryn Dudley

Biography

Kathryn Dudley is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University, with a focus on American Studies. Her teaching and scholarly work centers on the role of ethnography as an aesthetic genre, political practice, and the construction of interpersonal field knowledge. With training in anthropology, Dudley adopts a transdisciplinary approach that incorporates queer theory, Black, Indigenous, and ethnic studies, environmental studies, and public humanities into her work. Her courses often include writing workshops that address social problematics at the intersection of anthropology and cultural studies, employing historical, literary, and psychoanalytic styles of analysis. She currently teaches seminars on ethnographic writing, affect, materiality, and inequality in America, as well as multispecies worlds. Dudley's publications explore the production of embodied knowledge amidst social trauma, labor regimes, and the transformations of global capitalism. Notable works include 'End Line: Lost Jobs, New Lives in Postindustrial America,' 'Debt and Dispossession: Farm Loss in Rural America,' and 'Guitar Makers: Endurance of Artisanal Values in North America.' Her current research focuses on the impacts of federal policy and climate change, particularly related to industrial resource extraction affecting wild horses in America's public lands. Additionally, Dudley is recognized for her contributions to the field, having received the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Research Interests