David Lancy
Anthropology
Professor Emeritus
Educational Background
Ph.D. 1975, International and Development Education, minor in Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh
M.A. 1969, in Psychology, University of California, Irvine
B.A. 1967, in Psychology and a minor in Art History, Yale University
NIMH Fellow 1980, Developmental Psychology University of California, Los AngelesEmphasis
His current research interests center on the anthropology of childhood, in particular, the study of delayed personhood, the chore curriculum, children as a reserve labor force, children growing up in a Neontocracy, how children acquire their culture, socio-historical analyses of schooling, and the culture of street kids.
Lancy began college teaching at Cuttington College in the interior of Liberia in 1968 and subsequently taught at a Community College and at three universities. These included the University of Toledo, Arizona State University, and Utah State University. He held shorter assignments at the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of the West Indies (Trinidad), and Jönköping University. In 2001, David was honored by the Carnegie Foundation as Utah’s Professor of the Year.
Biography
David Lancy has done fieldwork with children as the focus: for extended periods in Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Mormon Utah; for shorter periods in Trinidad (Fullbright Fellow), Sweden (Fullbright Fellow), Uganda, Madagascar and; in urban schools in the U.S. The Anthropology of Childhood draws on this previous work and also on his experience reviewing and synthesizing the work of others as reflected in a book-length survey of qualitative research methods published in 1993. In total, Lancy has authored five books and edited three. Publishers have included Academic Press, Cambridge, Longman, Praeger, and Guilford. He has also authored over seventy articles and book chapters. In 2011, he was given Utah State University’s Thorne award as the premier scholar.
His current research interests center on the anthropology of childhood, in particular, the study of delayed personhood, the chore curriculum, children as a reserve labor force, children growing up in a Neontocracy, how children acquire their culture, socio-historical analyses of schooling, and the culture of street kids.
Lancy began college teaching at Cuttington College in the interior of Liberia in 1968 and subsequently taught at a Community College and at three universities. These included the University of Toledo, Arizona State University, and Utah State University. He held shorter assignments at the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of the West Indies (Trinidad), and Jönköping University. In 2001, David was honored by the Carnegie Foundation as Utah’s Professor of the Year.