Open gallery
Pilapa Esara Carroll, PHD
(she/her, they/them)
- Associate Professor + Chair
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(585) 395-5345
pesara@brockport.edu
Office: Fannie Barrier Williams Bldg 124
Education
- PhD in Anthropology, Brown University
- A.M. in Anthropology, Brown University
Areas of Specialty
Issues related to familial well-being and the provision of love and care; topics of displacement and refugee resettlement; ethnographic documentary production; gender inequality and social difference; social practices of marriage and intimacy; processes of migration and identity negotiations; economic development and globalization; Asia and its diasporas
Courses Taught
- ANT 101 The Human Condition
- ANT 201 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- ANT 220 Ethnographic Experience
- ANT 305 Sex, Gender & Power
- ANT 315 The Migration Experience
- ANT 321 (formerly) Culture Change and Globalization
- ANT 368 Forced from Home: Refugees, IDPs & Asylees
- ANT 383 Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology
- ANT 416/516 Exiled to America: Refugee Resettlement Experiences
- ANT 470 Anthropology as a Profession
- ANT 471 Anthropology Theory
- HON 380 Life in Zones of Abandonment
Research Interests
Survivors of violence and persecution have few places to shelter outside of insecure refugee camps. A lucky minority are resettled to third-party countries of asylum like the U.S. through federally funded resettlement programs. New York State has historically ranked third in the nation as a destination for newly-resettled refugees.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge for us all, but particularly for recent and former refugees as English-limited essential workers. I worked with a local nonprofit to examine the needs of local refugee communities during and after the recent public-health crisis. Our study entitled the “COVID-19 & Refugee Families” project (2020-2023) was funded by the ESL Charitable Foundation. The forthcoming results of this project should yield insights for future community development, improved human services provision and better public health outcomes.
In the past, my research has focused on social change and economic development in Thailand. My ethnographic documentary entitled, “Day In, Day Out: Selling Food in Bangkok” offers a window into Thailand’s urban foodscape. I have also explored changing notions of marriage and family in contemporary Thai society.