Anthropology Professor Featured in Inaugural Professor Lecture Series

Bonnie Glass-Coffin, a professor in the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology, was recently featured in the university’s Inaugural Professor Lecture Series.

When Glass-Coffin spoke Jan. 11, her subject reflected what many of her colleagues had previously covered in the series — life in academe and what brought them to this point in their careers.

The Inaugural Professor Lecture Series features faculty who have been promoted to the rank of full professor in the previous academic year. The lecture highlights their research, creative activity and teaching at the university. The series is coordinated by the provost’s office and is hosted by President Stan Albrecht and First Lady Joyce Albrecht.

“Who am I Really?” was the topic of Glass-Coffin’s presentation, with a footnoted annotation that followed — “With more than you ever wanted to know about who I am, how I became a professor of anthropology and what I believe about pretty much everything from the meaning of life to the nature and purpose of engaged scholarship and education.”

With that, Glass-Coffin launched into her presentation, told through pictures and words. What emerged was her life story, as she focused on the ideas, events and other influences that led to her career.

More about Glass-Coffin and her presentation will be featured in a future edition of Utah State Today.

Glass-Coffin is on sabbatical leave this year, but she is pursuing further research in shamanic traditions based in Peru. To that end she is privately sponsoring a seminar at Sherwood Hills Jan. 26-28. Titled “Navigating the Spirit World,” the event features Matthew Magee, a gifted healer and long-time apprentice to Oscar Micro-Quesada, whose Pachakuti Mesa tradition has ancient roots in north Peruvian and high-Andean legacies of healing, Glass-Coffin said. For information on the seminar, contact Glass-Coffin through the sponsor: One-World Consulting, LLC, 435-757-6817, bglasscoffin@gmail.com.