This individual is not a direct affiliate of the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. They have contributed to one or more of our events, publications, or projects. Please contact the individual at their home institution.

Nancy Lutkehaus is professor of anthropology, gender studies and political science at the University of Southern California. She is author or editor of five books, including Margaret Mead: The Making of an American Icon (Princeton University Press, 2009) and Zaria’s Fire: Engendered Moments in Manam (Carolina Academic Press, 1995), which received the 1996 Choice award as Outstanding Academic Publication. Professor Lutkehaus researches Melanesian gender and social organization, political and economic anthropology, religion and symbolic anthropology. Recent research involves the study of women, children, gendered missions, and the maternal behavior of Catholic nuns in Papua New Guinea. In addition to her regional interest in Oceania, she has also begun research on the role of community-based organizations in Kenya concerned with adolescent girls and HIV/AIDS. She is also interested in visual studies, especially in Western representations of Pacific Island peoples and in the display of non-Western art in Western fine art museums.