Sociology & Anthropology

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

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Melissa Schrift

Professor of Anthropology and Director of Culture and Health Program

Dr. Melissa Schrift is a Professor of Anthropology at East Tennessee State University, teaching in the areas of cultural, medical and applied anthropology. She is Director of the Culture and Health minor, created to offer students an interdisciplinary approach to issues in diversity, cultural competence and health. Her most recent research focuses on cultural perceptions of the body and the social history of medicine. She has authored two books and multiple articles. She was awarded an American Fellowship for her work on Melungeons. 

Course Level Course Name

Undergrad

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (ANTH 1240)

Undergrad

  Medical Anthropology (ANTH 3070)

Undergrad

  Popular and Consumer Culture (SOAA 4357)

Undergrad

  Ethnographic Field Techniques (SOAA 4627)

Undergrad

  Practicing Anthropology (ANTH 4070)

Undergrad

  Cultural Applications to Rural Health (PSYC 7500)
Services
  • Director, Culture and Health Program
  • Pre-Health Academic Community Outreach Coordinator
Selected Publications 

BOOKS:

biography of a chairman mao badge
becoming melungeon
 
 
  • Schrift, Melissa, ed. 2019. Criminal Bodies in the West: Iconography and Life After Death. NY: Routledge.
  • Schrift, Melissa. 2013. Becoming Melungeon: Making an Ethnic Identity . Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Schrift, Melissa. 2001. Biography of a Chairman Mao Badge: The Creation and Mass Consumption of a Personality Cult . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

 

ARTICLES:

  • Schrift, Melissa.  2016.  "Life After Death: Introduction to the Criminal Body in the West."  Mortality 21(3): 191-197.
  • Schrift, Melissa.  2016.  "Osama's Body: Death of a Political Criminal and (Re)birth of a Nation."  Mortality 21(3): 279-294.
  • Schrift, Melissa, Anthony Cavender, and Sarah Hoover.  2013.  "Mental Illness, Institutionalization and Oral History in Appalachia: Voices of Psychiatric Attendants."  Journal of Appalachian Studies 19(1/2): 82-107.