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Faculty Profile: Joshua Hotaka Roth

Associate Professor of Anthropology

"I believe that anthropological research should be directed towards assisting society in solving social problems, because it is through such a focus that it can become more relevant to the needs of those who are the immediate objects of the research, as well as to the wider society."

Contact:
Merrill House, Room 203
413-538-2954
jroth@mtholyoke.edu

Joined MHC: 1998

Education:

• Cornell University, Ph.D., M.A.
• Columbia University, B.A.

Specialization: Migration and ethnic minorities; political, legal, and economic anthropology. Area specialization includes Japan, Brazil, the United States, and Asian Americas.

No one could accuse Joshua Roth of doing research for its own sake or his own advancement. Anthropological research should be relevant to society, Roth says, and it can be relevant, he insists, if it assists society in solving social problems, such as racism, crime, or ethnic stereotyping. In researching and writing Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan (Cornell University, 2002), for example, Roth aimed to expose the economic, political, and legal structures that keep Japan's immigrant workers from fair, safe working conditions and prevent Japan from becoming a truly multicultural community. "While commitment to an ideal of a better society may dispense with 'scientific objectivity,' " says Roth, "it can often allow the access crucial to generate the best data and interpretation."

In the classroom, Roth makes anthropology relevant to students from a broad range of majors and backgrounds by choosing readings in many subject areas and encouraging students to connect those readings with their own cultural experiences. Whether it's an economics major from Romania describing her country's transition from communism to capitalism, or an Asian American student exploring cultural constructions of childhood and definitions of abuse, Roth enjoys the ways that Mount Holyoke's diverse population strengthens a comparative cultural perspective in all his classes, from Economic Anthropology, to Anthropology of Modern Japan, to Research Methods.

Web Resources:

• Department of Sociology and Anthropology
• Department of Sociology and Anthropology Profile
• "New Faculty: Joshua Roth Tells Stories of Contemporary Human Migration" College Street Journal, December 4, 1998