Name: Susan Osborne
Title: Adjunct Instructor of Anthropology
Education: M.A., Anthropology, Wake Forest University
B.A., Anthropology, University of North Carolina-Charlotte
B.A. (Honors), English, University of North Carolina-Charlotte
Office: 340 Kinard Hall
Phone: 803/323-2524
E-mail: osbornes@winthrop.edu
Web:
Area(s): Cultural Anthropology (Culture Change and Mechanisms for Maintaining Cultural Traditions),
Supernatural Belief Systems/Cross Cultural Religious Expression, Religious Syncretism,
Cultures of Mesoamerica (Historic and Modern-Day Peasant Societies of Southern Mexico),
Human Cultural History (including Pre-Historic Origins)
Following the completion of her first undergraduate degree, professor Osborne served
several years in social work; subsequently, she worked in student financial aid at
Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) and Queens College in Charlotte, N.C. Traveling
in Mexico and South America ignited her interest in anthropology.
Osborne has conducted anthropological fieldwork in Honduras and in Mexico, specifically
the highlands of the southern state of Chiapas and northern Yucatan. On Roatan Island,
Honduras, she was part of a team studying culture change. In Mexico she studied the
effects of tourism on modern Maya arts and crafts.
Her teaching has included "College Study Skills," English, and general anthropology
classes at CPCC. At Winthrop she has focused on cultural anthropology. Recently, she
developed a new course in supernatural belief systems and ritual titled "Anthropology
of Religion." In teaching students about societies with lifeways are so different
from modern-day American culture, she considers it important to emphasize the common
humanity that links us all.
Last updated by rayj 05/31/2019