Contact: pattyagray@tutamail.com
Education & Career
2019- | Freelance Writer and Editor, Sole Proprietor of Rutabaga Writer |
2016-19 | Lecturer and Director, Pacific Garden Program (), University of the Pacific, Stockton, California |
2015-16 | Coordinator of the MA in Anthropology & Development, Maynooth University of Ireland |
2014-15 | On Sabbatical / Honorary Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin Madison |
2012-14 | Director of Postgraduate Studies in the Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University of Ireland |
2008-2016 | Lecturer (full-time, permanent), Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University of Ireland |
2007 | Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure at University of Alaska Fairbanks |
2004-14 | Associate Editor of the journal Sibirica: Interdisciplinary Journal of Siberian Studies, Berghahn Journals (unpaid part-time position) |
2003-06 | Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks |
2000-02 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany; Coordinator of the Siberia Project Group 2001-02. |
1999 | Adjunct Instructor of Anthropology, Central Missouri State University |
1998 | PhD in Anthropology, University of Wisconsin Madison, with Graduate Certificate in Russian and East European Studies; PhD Advisor: Anatoly Khazanov |
1995-96 | Fourteen months fieldwork in Russia, supported by Fulbright and IREX fellowships |
1993 Summer | Field Archaeologist, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, WI |
1992-93 | Archivist’s Assistant, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, WI |
1992-98 | PhD Candidate/Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin Madison |
1991 & 1992 | Field Archaeologist, Eldorado National Forest, California (two summers) |
1990-92 | MA Student/Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
1987-89 | Assistant Film Editor, Cutters, Inc., Chicago, IL |
1986-87 | Assistant Film Editor, Image Express, Southfield, MI |
1982-86 | Freelance work in filmmaking, film editing, photography and theater |
1982 | BA in Communication (Journalism), University of Michigan Ann Arbor |
1978-82 | Undergraduate study at University of Michigan Ann Arbor |
Grants and Fellowships
2015 | Visiting Scholar, College of the Liberal Arts & Schreyer Honors College, Penn State University (January 2015) |
2014-15 | Honorary Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin Madison |
2014-16 | Scientist-in-Charge of a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship for the postdoctoral project “The Second World in the Third: Polish Aid to Sudan and Nigeria from COMECON to European Accession,” Researcher Elżbieta Drążkiewicz-Grodicka. |
2011 | Maynooth University Centre for Teaching and learning Teaching Fellowship (with Mark Maguire and Thomas Strong) for the project “Reflexive Large-Group Evaluation for Anthropology.” |
2010-11 | Co-Investigator on the project “The ‘non-DAC donors’ and the role of public perspectives in shaping the future of aid,” funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Principle Investigator Emma Mawdsley (U. Cambridge, Geography). Total shared budget: £49,763. |
2008-10 | Principle Investigator, Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) Research Development Initiatives Programme, 2-year grant for the project “Changing Vectors of Development: Locating Russia in Development Discourse and Practice,” €96,163. |
2009 | Co-Principle Investigator, Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) Ulysses Research Visits, with Virginie Vaté, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), for collaborative writing project “Documenting two decades of change in Russia’s far northeast region of Chukotka: Two ethnographers sharing perspectives,” €2,444. |
2006-09 | Project Leader, European Science Foundation Project NEWREL: New Religious Movements in the Russian North: Competing Uses of Religiosity After Socialism. Part of the ESF EUROCORES Programme “BOREAS – Histories from the North: Environments, Movements, Narratives.” Project comprised 9 PIs from 6 countries: Estonia, Finland, France, Switzerland, Russia, USA. Total collaborative project funds over €2 million. |
2006-09 | Principle Investigator: National Science Foundation Individual Project “Missionaries, Humanitarian Aid, and Accompanying Ideologies in the Russian Far East.” Part of NEWREL project, $545,985 awarded jointly with co-PI David Koester at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, NSF Arctic Social Science award No. ARC-0631419. |
2000-02 | Postdoctoral fellowship, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. |
2000 | Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Richard Carley Hunt Fellowship, to aid research and writing for the book The Predicament of Chukotka’s Indigenous Movement: Post-Soviet Activism in the Russian Far North, $5,363. |
1998 | Co-Principle Investigator, National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program, “Regional Problems and Local Solutions in the Post-Soviet Transition: A Pilot Study to Assess the Problems Faced by Reindeer Herding Communities in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug,” award no. OPP-9726308, PI Peter Schweitzer, Co-PIs Patty A. Gray and Michael Koskey, $50,001. |
1997-98 | Research Fellowship to support dissertation writing, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, administered by the Global Studies Program of the International Institute, University of Wisconsin Madison. |
1995-96 | Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, $23,170. |
1995-96 | International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) 12-month Research Residency for study in Asian Russia, $12,368. |
1995 | Selected participant, Social Science Research Council (U.S.) Summer Workshop in Post-Soviet Sociology and Anthropology, June 24-July 1, University of Michigan Ann Arbor. |
1993-95 | MacArthur Scholar, Program on the Third World’s Relationship to International Peace and Cooperation, Global Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison (tuition and stipend paid). |
Ethnographic Fieldwork
2013 | Moscow, Russia, brief follow-up field trip to investigate public perceptions of Russia’s donor role. |
2011 | Moscow, Russia, funded by UK DFID, two weeks focused field research to investigate public perceptions of Russia’s donor role. |
2009 | St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, funded by Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences, one month exploratory field research on the topic of Russia’s re-emergence as a donor of international development assistance. |
2007 | Magadan, Russia, funded by the National Science Foundation, two months field work to investigate American missionary activity in Magadan. |
2001 | Republic of Marii El, Russia, funded by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, two weeks of comparative research to investigate changing property relations and the experiences of smallholder farmers. |
2001 | Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, funded by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, three months to investigate the development of rodovye obshchiny (ancestral communities) of indigenous people. |
2000 | Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, funded by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, three months to investigate changing property relations in reindeer herding communities. |
1998 | Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, funded by the National Science Foundation, four months to investigate the impact of state farm reorganization on rural residents, especially reindeer herders. |
1995-96 | Russia, funded by Fulbright-Hayes and IREX, fourteen months (five months in St. Petersburg and Moscow, nine months in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) to investigate the rise of indigenous activism in Chukotka. |
Professional Activities & Service
2015-16 | Coordinator of the MA Programme in Anthropology & Development, Maynooth University of Ireland. |
2014-17 | Member of Advisory Board of the journal Sibirica: Interdisciplinary Journal of Siberian Studies, published by Berghahn. |
2013-16 | Co-Convenor (with Hugo Valenzuela Garcia of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) of the Anthropology of Economy Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists |
2012-14 | Director of Graduate Studies and PhD Coordinator, Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University of Ireland |
2011-13 | Member of Advisory Board, Eastern Europe Aid and Development Network (a network of Irish charities); collaborated with the network’s Convener, Frances Haworth, to conduct interviews and provide editorial expertise in the publication of the book Going Forward Looking Back: Reflections on two decades of Irish charity work in Central and Eastern Europe (Dublin: Eastern Europe Aid and Development Network, 2011). |
2010-11 | Director of the Centre for the Study of Wider Europe, Maynooth University of Ireland. |
2009-12 | Chair, Social Research Ethics Sub-Committee (analogous to IRB), Maynooth University of Ireland. |
2009-10 | Member of the organizing committee for the biennial conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, held at Maynooth Univeristy, Ireland, 24-27 August 2010. |
2008-13 | Second Year Coordinator in the Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University of Ireland. |
2008-09 | Ordinary Member of the Organizational Committee of the Anthropological Association of Ireland. |
2008-09 | Provided lectures on culture for the Irish Defence Forces United Nations Training School (preparing officers for deployment on peacekeeping missions in Chad). |
2006-08 | Secretary of Soyuz, The Research Network for Postsocialist Cultural Studies; elected to 2-year term. |
2006-07 | Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). |
2004-14 | Associate Editor and joint owner of the journal Sibirica: Interdisciplinary Journal of Siberian Studies, published by Berghahn. |
2004-06 | Elected Representative to the UAF Faculty Senate for College of Liberal Arts. |
1999 | Served as Russian-English interpreter during an exchange on St. Paul Island, The Pribilofs, between the Russian ecological NGO Kaira Club and the Pribilof Islands Stewardship program, funded by WWF, 9-19 August. |
1996-2001 | Consultant to Alaska Friends of Chukotka, a Nome-based voluntary organization that facilitated direct family-to-family humanitarian aid packages to Chukotka (Russian Far East) and supported community and educational programs in the region. |
Grant proposals reviewed for the National Science Foundation and Czech Science Foundation; book manuscript reviewed for University of Nebraska Press; articles reviewed for Alaska Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Culture and Agriculture, Irish Journal of Anthropology, Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics, Nationalities Papers, Polar Record; tenure reviews performed for University of North Carolina Charlotte and Stonehill College; External Examiner for PhD viva at University of Aberdeen.
Languages
English (mother tongue)
Russian (fluent)
German (conversational speaking ability, basic reading and writing)
French, (reading knowledge, basic speaking)
Spanish, Irish, Chukchi (beginner’s knowledge)