Dr. Christine Eber
Ph.D., State University of New York, 1991; Associate Professor
Dr. Eber is a cultural anthropologist whose areas of research include art, drugs, gender, religion, women's studies, writing about culture, and indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica.
Office: Breland Hall 314
Telephone: (575) 646-2448
E-Mail: ceber@nmsu.edu
Current Research
Dr. Christine Eber is an Associate Professor of Anthropology. She has been conducting research on indigenous women's experiences with social change in highland Chiapas, Mexico since 1984. In particular she has focused on women's experiences in the Zapatista movement, the weaving cooperative movement, and the Liberation Theology movement of the Catholic Church in Chiapas. She is author of Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow (1995) and co-editor with Christine Kovic of Women of Chiapas: Making History in Times of Struggle and Hope (2003). She is currently researching the experiences of women in weaving cooperatives as they forge connections across national boundaries to sell their work through fair trade and to defend their human rights. Part of this work is a book-in-progress, Restless Spirits: A Tzotzil-Maya Woman and Her Expanding World, with Flor de Margarita Pérez Pérez of San Pedro Chenalhó and Heather Sinclair of El Paso. Dr. Eber is also working on a book of short stories based on her research in Chiapas.
In addition to research and writing, Dr. Eber is involved in applied work with women's weaving cooperatives in Chiapas. She coordinates Las Cruces-Chiapas Connection, an organization that assists women's cooperatives to sell their weavings and that educates consumers about the effects of globalization on indigenous artisans. In collaboration with Las Cruces Chiapas Connection and NMSU's Center for Latin American and Border Studies, Dr. Eber has helped organize many visits over the years of weavers and human rights defenders from Chiapas to NMSU and to communities throughout New Mexico.
Dr. Eber teaches courses on the graduate and undergraduate level focusing on art, drugs, gender, religion, and Mesoamerican peoples. She also teaches the Practicum Course in the Women's Studies Program.
In 2005 Dr. Eber received NMSU's Dennis Darnall Faculty Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to research, service, and teaching. In 2002 she was recipient of the Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women.
Recent Publications
2008 “Border Crossings, From Theory to Practice: Looking for Floriberto” (with Sally Meisenhelder). Practicing Anthropology, December/January issue.
2008 Agua de esperanza, agua de pesar: Mujeres y alcohol en un pueblo Maya de los altos de Chiapas. Spanish translation of Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow. Guatemala City: CIRMA (Centro de Investigaciones de Mesomerica) and Plumsock Mesoamerican Studies.
2007 "Women and Gender in Mesoamerica." (with Brenda Rosenbaum). In The Legacy of Mesoamerica: History and Culture of a Native American Civilization (revised and updated edition). Robert Carmack, Janine Gasco, Gary Gossen, editors. Pp. 810-875. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.