Undergraduate: SUNY, Cortland
Graduate (MA): Texas State University-San Marcos
My name is Crystal Sheedy, and I am currently pursuing a PhD in anthropology at the University at Albany. My subfield is cultural anthropology. My work mostly concentrates on Mayas of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. I received my BA in anthropology from SUNY Cortland in 2004. While an undergraduate at SUNY Cortland, I worked with Dr. John Sosa, who taught me the basics to the Maya (Yucatec) language. Then, I moved to Texas to pursue my Master's degree at Texas State University-San Marcos. While enrolled in my MA program, I completed three summers of the Yucatec Maya Language Program offered through UNC. I also conducted my Master's thesis research in a small Maya community just Southeast of Valladolid. I chose to do my fieldwork in Maya because I feel that it is the ethnographer's obligation to learn a culture's indigenous language in order to converse with their participants in their native language. To me, this not only strengthens the bond between the ethnographer and their participants, but also furthers the validity of the ethnographer's research. My past research focused on migration and its affects on the community's economy and gender roles.