Charles Thompson
Professor of the Practice of Cultural Anthropology
My research is centered on critical food studies at the nexus where food justice and immigration meet, with particular linkages to Latin America and the U.S. South. I am a filmmaker, photographer, oral historian, and writer. My projects (both completed and current) address such topics as immigration, farmworkers, the US/Mexico border, the US South and its agricultural history, farm foreclosures, and food access. For more about my work, please see my website: cdthomps.com.
My latest book, Border Odyssey: Travels Along the US/Mexico Divide (Texas, 2015) is an ethnography and memoir about my travel along the 2,000-mile line that marks the division between the two countries. My photographs and recent film work and an interactive map that accompany the book are here: borderodyssey.com
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor of the Practice of Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013
Contact Information
- 1317 W Pettigrew St, Durham, NC 27705
- Box 90802, Durham, NC 27708-0802
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cdthomps@duke.edu
(919) 660-3657
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http://cds.aas.duke.edu/
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 1998
- M.A., University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 1994
- M.S., North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University 1984
- B.A., Emory & Henry College 1979
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Lecturer, University, Cultural Anthropology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008 - 2013
- Recognition
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In the News
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NOV 8, 2021 -
JUL 19, 2021 -
MAY 26, 2021 -
FEB 1, 2021 Duke Medium Page -
SEP 17, 2019 Kenan Institute for Ethics -
DEC 17, 2018 Duke Arts -
MAY 17, 2016 UNC-TV’s “North Carolina Bookwatch -
MAR 23, 2016 Pacific Standard -
JUN 23, 2015 -
JUN 22, 2015 The News & Observer -
OCT 9, 2014 WUNC -
JAN 17, 2014 The News & Observer -
JAN 17, 2014 the News & Observer -
OCT 28, 2013 Durham Herald-Sun -
APR 9, 2013
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- Expertise
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Global Scholarship
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Expertise
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- Research
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Selected Grants
- Curriculum and Education Director awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2011 - 2012
- "Brother Town/Pueblos Hermanos", A Documentary awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2008 - 2009
- Pueblos Hermanos/Brother Towns awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2007 - 2008
- Embarq and Student of the World Partnership awarded by Mary Duke Biddle Foundation 2006 - 2007
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Charles D Thompson, Jr. Border Odyssey Travels Along the U.S./Mexico Divide. University of Texas Press, 2015.
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Thompson, C. Spirits of Just Men. University of Illinois Press, 2011.
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Thompson, C., and Melinda F. Wiggins. The Human Cost of Food. University of Texas Press, 2009.
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Thompson, C. The Old German Baptist Brethren. University of Illinois Press, 2006.
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Thompson, C., and G. Harvey. Indigenous Diasporas and Dislocations: Unsettling Western Fixations. Aldersgate: Ashgate press, 2005.
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Thompson, Charles. Maya Identities and the Violence of Place. Ashgate Pub Limited, 2001.
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Academic Articles
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Thompson, C. “Harder than hardscrabble: Oral recollections of the farming life from the edge of the Texas Hill Country.” Labor History 46, no. 2 (May 1, 2005): 258–59.Link to Item
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Thompson, C. “Raising Citizens: The Old German Baptist Brethren and Community-Based Farming in the Virginia Blue Ridge.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 11 (2005).
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Thompson, C. “Review of Faces from the Flood: Hurricane Floyd Remembered by Richard Moore an Jay Barnes.” The Oral History Review 32, no. 2 (Summer/Fall) (2005): 119–22.
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Thompson, C. “Dream or Déjà Vu? The debate surrounding George W. Bush’s proposed immigration reform.” Hemisphere, October 2004.
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Thompson, C. “Tom and Betsy’s Story: Tobacco People, Memory, and Vernacular History.” North Carolina Literary Review, August 2004.
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Thompson, C. “They Go Quietly.” The Journal of the Western Virginia Historical Society 16, no. 1 (2004).
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Thompson, C. “Going Quietly: The Making of a Documentary Project among the Old German Baptist Brethren in the Virginia Blue Ridge.” Crossorads: A Souther Culture Annual, 2004.
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Thompson, C. “Who is my Neighbor? Parables of Survival from the Floyd Flood of 1999.” North Carolina Literary Review 11 (2002): 87–98.
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Thompson, C. “The Great Deluge as told to Charles D. Thompson, Jr.” Southern Cultures 7, no. 3 (2001).
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Thompson, Charles Dillard, and Rob Amberg. “The Great Deluge: A Chronicle of the Aftermath of Hurricane Floyd.” Southern Cultures 7, no. 3 (2001): 65–82. https://doi.org/10.1353/scu.2001.0042.Full Text
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Book Sections
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Thompson, C. “Guestworkers: Farmworkers, filmmakers, and their obligations in the field.” In Project Muse 4, 9780292793675:181–97. DUMMY PUBID, 2013.
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Thompson, C. “Guestworkers: Farmworkers, filmmakers, and their obligations in the field.” In Viewpoints: Visual Anthropologists at Work, 9780292793675:181–97, 2013.
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Thompson, C. “Natives of Bleeding Land: The Case of the Jacalteco Maya.” In Indigenous Diasporas. Aldersgate: Ashgate, 2005.
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- CULANTH 302: Fieldwork Methods: Cultural Analysis and Interpretation 2023
- CULANTH 790S: Special Topics in Cultural Anthropology 2023
- I&E 302: Fieldwork Methods: Cultural Analysis and Interpretation 2023
- RACESOC 395T: Bass Connections Race & Society Research Team 2023
- RACESOC 795T: Bass Connections Race & Society Research Team 2023
- CULANTH 236S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2022
- CULANTH 291: Independent Study 2022
- CULANTH 293: Research Independent Study 2022
- CULANTH 302: Fieldwork Methods: Cultural Analysis and Interpretation 2022
- CULANTH 791: Special Readings 2022
- CULANTH 793: Individual Research in Cultural Anthropology 2022
- DOCST 332S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2022
- I&E 302: Fieldwork Methods: Cultural Analysis and Interpretation 2022
- LSGS 332S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2022
- RIGHTS 332S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2022
- VMS 341S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2022
- CULANTH 236S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2021
- CULANTH 291: Independent Study 2021
- CULANTH 293: Research Independent Study 2021
- CULANTH 327S: Migrations 2021
- CULANTH 791: Special Readings 2021
- CULANTH 793: Individual Research in Cultural Anthropology 2021
- DOCST 327S: Migrations 2021
- DOCST 332S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2021
- LS 780: Selected Topics 2021
- LSGS 332S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2021
- RIGHTS 332S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2021
- VMS 341S: Farmworkers in North Carolina: Roots of Poverty, Roots of Change 2021
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
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