Wendi Haugh

Wendi Haugh (Associate Professor, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania) is a cultural anthropologist with a joint appointment in African Studies. She spent her junior year abroad in Kenya and a year teaching English in Namibia after graduation.  Her first major research project examined how people in northern Namibia construct a sense of national identity in songs, speeches, talk radio shows, celebrations, and conversations. She is currently studying the working lives of professional bird guides in east Africa, focusing on how they develop and deploy knowledge, skills, and networks in the course of their careers. She teaches Cultural Anthropology, Humans and Other Animals, Peoples and Cultures of Africa, Social Movements, and Environmental Conservation in Africa. She enjoys reading, birding, and hiking in her spare time.

“I love introducing students to the concepts and methods of cultural anthropology - besides preparing them to take further courses in the discipline, the course prepares students to get the most out of their cross-cultural experiences, whether at home or abroad. I’m biased, of course, but I think everyone needs at least a little anthropology in their lives. And I’m very excited to be teaching courses about Africa here at SLU, where students have such interest in learning about life on the continent and so many opportunities to study in Africa for a semester or a summer.”