Phyllis Passariello
W. George Matton Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus
Education
BA: Barnard College
MA and PhD: Cultural Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley
Expertise
Ecotourism and cross-cultural tourism issues — Cross-cultural gender issues — Sustainable development — Cultural survival; Extensive research on tourism as the basis for sustainable development for indigenous cultures. Related topics: impact of tourism on native people, the recreation of ethnicity as a marketing strategy, and the religious pilgrimage as a factor in tourism; Field work on these topics with the Maya people of Mexico and the Otavalo group in Ecuador. Has investigated Marian pilgrimage sites throughout the world; Strong advocate of research and field work for undergraduate students. Leader of overseas study programs in Ecuador.
Biography
Phyllis Passariello retired as professor of anthropology at Centre College in 2017, where she had taught since 1988. She has been Matton Professor of Anthropology since 2007.
She started Centre’s anthropology and sociology program. Equally energetic at teaching, research, and field work, she holds membership in Phi Beta Kappa and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow during her graduate work at the University of California-Berkeley.
A veteran of extensive field experience with the Maya and other peoples of Mexico, as well as several other areas of Latin America including Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, and Belize, Passariello has developed a strong interest in the anthropology of tourism. She has studied tourism as the basis for sustainable development for indigenous cultures, as well as related topics, including the impact of tourism on native people, the re-creation of ethnicity as a marketing strategy, and the religious pilgrimage as a factor in regional tourism. Currently, she is interested in the anthropology of development and indigenous development issues. She lead a trip to Ecuador in CentreTerm of 2005 to focus on these issues.
Passariello seeks to involve students in field work and advanced research. Since 1990, Passariello has developed and led study-trips all over the world, beginning with the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. By 1997, with colleagues Professor Brownlee and others, Passariello helped to develop Centre’s Mexico and Ecuador semester-abroad residential programs. Passariello led a year-long program in London for Centre, as well as a semester-abroad program in Quito, Ecuador, and the Amazon rainforest. She also has traveled and led field-study trips with students to several locations in The Old World including most of Western and Central Europe, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, and, most recently, several sites in Polynesia and Melanesia.
The quality of Passariello’s teaching is reflected in the fact that Centre students have won top awards for student research from the Central States Anthropological Society where they have presented formal papers consistently for the last 10 years, building Centre’s reputation for excellence in undergraduate anthropology.
Passariello earned a B.A. with high honors from Barnard College at Columbia University. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining the Centre faculty, she taught at several branches of the University of Maine and at Bowdoin College, and worked in museums in Maine, Connecticut, and California.