Angela Castaneda

Edward Myers Dolan Professor and Associate Professor of Anthropology

Angela Castañeda is Associate Professor and Edward Myers Dolan Professor of Anthropology at DePauw University. Her research in Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S. explores questions on religion, ritual, expressive culture and the anthropology of reproduction. She has published on the performance of Afro-Caribbean identity, the commercialization of Brazilian religious traditions, and mothering in a neoliberal world. Dr. Castañeda uses examples from her research in her courses, which include: introductory cultural anthropology, religions of the African diaspora, anthropology of food, performing cultures in the Americas, ethnographic methods, history of anthropology, and ethnographies of reproduction.

Dr. Castañeda's current work focuses on the cultural politics of reproduction, birth and motherhood. Her project focuses on the role of doulas in birth culture. Dr. Castañeda's most recent publication includes the edited volume Doulas and Intimate Labour: Boundaries, Bodies and Birth (Demeter Press, 2015). In addition to her work as a practicing birth and postpartum doula, she also volunteers as a Spanish childbirth educator in Bloomington, Indiana, and she has served on the Board of Directors for Bloomington Area Birth Services (BABS) and the Advisory Council for the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization (IMBCO), as well as on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Mother Studies.