Dr. Julia Cassaniti
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Assistant Professor
Cultural Anthropology: Psychological/Medical Anthropology
Current Research - Courses - Publications
Research Interests
Psychological anthropology, medical anthropology, cognitive psychology, Theravāda Buddhism, mental health, religion and ritual, gender, agency, contemporary social issues in Thailand, Southeast Asia.
My research is on the cultural constructions of psychological mechanisms, specifically on the relationships between ontology and psychology and their expression in everyday practice in Southeast Asia. I study spirituality in Thailand both from within and from without formal monastery settings, in clinical and everyday practice. I investigate the ways that beliefs and ideals involving Buddhist philosophy, Christian theology, spirits, magic and the supernatural are psychologically embodied in everyday life.
I encourage prospective students to contact me via email or phone about these and related topics.
Current Research
For the past ten years I have been engaged in a research project about the Buddhist concept of impermanence (Pali language: anicca). My dissertation, “Control in a World of Change: Emotion and Morality in a Northern Thai Town,”(2009) argued for local constructions of personal agency that involve positive effects of affective calm and the letting go of emotional attachments. The project compares everyday affective and moral practices in a small Theravādan Buddhist community to those of a neighboring Baptist Christian community. It suggests the importance of culture in psychological domains of cognitive biases, attachment theory, and agency. The project continues to grow as it expands into the effects of a cultural emphasis on change in the realms of physical and mental health, political activism, and religious practice.
Dr. Cassaniti interviewing a local man about his encounter with the spirit of a brother-in-law
Currently, I am collaborating with Dr. Tanya Luhrmann at Stanford University on a second project about the phenomenology of spiritual experience. I have been interviewing laypeople, spirit mediums, monks, witch doctors, and others in Thailand about their profound encounters with religiosity. We are at present conducting a four-community comparison of the feelings of spirituality among groups of Buddhists in Thailand, Evangelical Christians in California, Hebrew newly Jewish congregants in New Mexico, and Evangelical Christians in Southern India. Research from the project has been published in the Journal of Religion and Society (2011) and the Finnish Journal of Anthropology (2011). Emerging findings from this research has implications for anthropological Theory of Mind, social contagion, and cultural phenomenology.
My latest research project is about mindfulness (Pali: sati), a Buddhist concept involving non-judgmental attention to the present moment. Mindfulness is increasingly invoked as a trainable cognitive construct in the United States, and has been shown to have a number of clinically therapeutic implications. The project examines the ways that mindfulness is understood in Thailand, both in contrast to and in cohort with Western psychological models. It involves ongoing research with both urban, Bangkok-based Thais and rural Buddhists, and traces discourses of “modernity” and “magic” that are understood to emanate from mindful practice.
My main research site is a small rural community in the far Northwest of Thailand, where I have been conducting field visits twice yearly since 2002. Small-scale, long-term participant-centered fieldwork is complemented with work in the larger urban setting of Chiang Mai, where many villagers go regularly for economic, educational, medical, and spiritual services.
Courses
Graduate- ANTH 591 - Special Topic: Culture and Mind
- ANTH 302 - Childhood and Culture
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ANTH 390 - History of Anthropological Thought
Representative Publications
under review. “The Moral Emotions: A Buddhist and Christian comparison.” Part of a special issue on The Anthropology of Morality in Anthropological Theory (organized with Jacob Hickman, Brigham Young).
under review. “Return to Baseline: A woman with chronic acute onset, non-affective remitting psychosis in Thailand” Chapter in an edited volume of case studies, Schizophrenia and Culture.
under review “The Rural Radio DJ” in a series on Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity. University of Hawaii Press.
2012. “Agency and the Other: The Role of Agency for the Importance of Belief in Buddhist and Christian Traditions.” Ethos: The Journal of Psychological Anthropology. 40(3): 297–316.
2011. The constitution of mind: what’s in a mind? Interiority and boundedness: Calling in the souls: The kor khwan ritual in Thai spiritual encounters.” Co-authored with Joel Robbins (UCSD) and Tanya Luhrmann (Stanford U). In a special issue organized as part of a Stanford Conference on “Anthropological Theories of Mind.” Suomen Antropologi, The Finnish Anthropological Society, 36 (4): 15-20.
2011. Encountering the Supernatural: A Phenomenological Account of Mind.” Co-authored with Tanya Luhrmann (Stanford U). Religion and Society, 2: 37-53.
2009. Control in a World of Change: Emotion and Morality in a Northern Thai Town. PhD dissertation, Department of Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago.
2006. “Toward a cultural psychology of Impermanence in Thailand. Ethos: The Journal of Psychological Anthropology. The Condon Prize for Best Graduate Essay in Psychological Anthropology. 34(1), 58-88
2002. Meditation at the Mall. Seeds of Peace: Journal of Engaged Buddhism and Asian Issues. Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation. 18(2), 25-26.
Dr. Cassaniti being welcomed into a Poy Luang festival parade celebrating the construction of a new temple building.
Contact Information
College
Hall 252
509.335.8224
julia.cassaniti@wsu.edu
WSU Graduate Program in Cultural Anthropology
WSU Research and Training in Psychological/Medical Anthropology
AAA Society for Psychological Anthropology
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