David A. Kideckel is Professor at the Anthropology Department at Central Connecticut State University. Kideckel has been active in cultural anthropological research in Eastern Europe (mainly Romania) for about 25 years. Most recently Kideckel has begun a research project in Kerala state (S.W. India) examining the relationship of political demonstrations and egalitarian social relationships.  This work began in summer 2004 and will continue through 2005 and beyond.

• Kideckel's recently completed research examined the relationship of labor activism, agency, and perceptions of the body and health-related behavior among active and unemployed chemical workers from the Fagaras region, Brasov County, and active and unemployed miners from the Jiu Valley, Hunedoara County.  This research has resulted in a manuscript entitled Getting-By in  Post-Socialist Romania: Labor, the Body, and Working Class Culture, to be published by Indiana University Press in Spring 2007. Click here to read the Preface.

• As part of that project Kideckel produced a video documentary about the history , life and social and political circumstances of Romania's Jiu Valley Miners.  The video, Days of the Miners: Life and Death of a Working Class Culture," was produced in collaboration with Alin Rus, doctoral candidate in anthropology at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Click here to read a description of the film. 

• In 2000 Penn State University Press published the volume co-edited with Joel M. Halpern entitled: Neighbors at War: Anthropological Perspectives on Yugoslav Ethnicity, Culture, and History. Click here to review the Table of Contents.

• A project focusses on the rule and end of the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania. This work is part of a group endeavor exploring the end of patriarchal regimes in general.  The essay written for this project is entitled "Dead Again?: Nicolae Ceauşescu and Patriarchal Politics in Romanian Society and Culture. " More information about this project can be found on the Death of the Father homepage.

I have recently begun work in South Asia and am in the first stages of a project entitled "Globalization, Protest, and Performance in Kerala, India" in which I analyze how the organization, language, and symbolism of political demonstrations and labor actions are changing in response to globalization and related transformations in hierarchy and ownership.

      Women Clerics on a Sit-Down                Still Red                Temple Performance

This research will also pair with related comparative research in which I have and will continue to engage in Romania, where the nature of strike and protest in a globalizing society is highly differentiated.

• Anthropology 339: Work and Culture

  Anthropology 374: Field Research Methods

   Anthropology 426: Peoples and Cultures of Eastern Europe