Notar, Beth E. 1963-

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Notar, Beth E. 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born June 5, 1963. Education: Wellesley College, B.A. (cum laude), 1985; University of Michigan, M.A. (Chinese studies), 1992, M.A. (anthropology), 1993, Ph.D., 1999; studied at Beijing University and Johns Hopkins—Nanjing University Chinese-American Cultural Center.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Anthropology Department, Trinity College, 300 Summit St., Hartford, CT 06106. E-mail—beth.notar@trincoll.edu.

CAREER:

Academic and anthropologist. National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, translator, 1986-87; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Institute for Social Research interviewer, 1989, teaching assistant, 1990-92, instructor in anthropology, 1997; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, teaching assistant in Asian studies, 1997; University of Washington, Seattle, lecturer in anthropology, 1998; Smith College, Northampton, MA, lecturer in Asian studies, 1999; Trinity College, Hartford, CT, assistant professor, 2000-07, associate professor of anthropology, 2007—. Fulbright-Hays doctoral dissertation research fellow, 1994; visiting assistant professor of anthropology, Mount Holyoke College, 1998-2000.

MEMBER:

American Anthropological Association, Association for Asian Studies, Society for Cultural Anthropology, Society for Economic Anthropology (member of executive committee, 2004-07).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Recipient of numerous research grants; Foreign Language Area Studies scholarship, 1988-90.

WRITINGS:

Displacing Desire: Travel and Popular Culture in China, University of Hawaii Press (Honolulu, HI), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals and academic journals, including Asian Cinema, Visual Anthropology Review, Twentieth-Century China, American Ethnologist, Journal of Asian Studies, and Modern China. Editor for the Journal of the International Institute, 1995-97.

Book and article manuscript reviewer for American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Modern China, Pacific Affairs, Research in Economic Anthropology, and publishing houses, including University of California Press, University of Hawaii Press, University of Washington Press, and Palgrave-Macmillan; grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation.

SIDELIGHTS:

Beth E. Notar is an academic and anthropologist. Born on June 5, 1963, Notar took an early interest in Chinese culture. Notar graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in 1985 with a bachelor of arts degree in Chinese studies. She studied Chinese language at Beijing University and continued her Chinese economic studies at the Johns Hopkins—Nanjing University Chinese-American Cultural Center. From 1986 to 1987, Notar worked as a translator at Taiwan's National Palace Museum. From 1988 to 1990 she held a Foreign Language Area Studies scholarship.

In 1992 Notar completed a master of arts degree in Chinese studies from the University of Michigan. The following year, she completed a master of arts degree in anthropology from the same university. In 1994 she was named as a Fulbright-Hays doctoral dissertation research fellow. By 1999 she completed a Ph.D. in anthropology in Ann Arbor. While at the University of Michigan, Notar served as an interviewer with the Institute for Social Research in 1989, a teaching assistant from 1990 to 1992, and an instructor in anthropology in 1997. That same year she also worked as a teaching assistant in Asian studies at Cornell University. In 1998 Notar worked as a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Washington. The following year she worked as a lecturer in Asian studies at Smith College. Also from 1998 to 2000 Notar served as a visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Mount Holyoke College.

In 2000 Notar moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and began working as an assistant professor of anthropology at Trinity College. She became an associate professor of anthropology in 2007. Her research interests cover economic anthropology, anthropology of money, Chinese society and culture, and borderland cultures. Specifically, Notar focuses on the concepts of consumption, car cultures, money as an economic and symbolic object, representations of gender and ethnicity, and the transformations and representations of place. She has received numerous research grants for her work and is a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Association for Asian Studies, the Society for Cultural Anthropology, and served on the executive committee of the Society for Economic Anthropology from 2004 to 2007.

Notar has contributed to a number of periodicals and academic journals, including Asian Cinema, Visual Anthropology Review, Twentieth-Century China, American Ethnologist, Journal of Asian Studies, and Modern China. From 1995 to 1997 she served as the editor for the Journal of the International Institute. Notar additionally works as a book and article manuscript reviewer for journals, including American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Modern China, Pacific Affairs, Research in Economic Anthropology, and a few publishing houses, including the University of California Press, the University of Hawaii Press, the University of Washington Press, and Palgrave-Macmillan. Notar has also worked as a grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation.

Notar published her first book, Displacing Desire: Travel and Popular Culture in China, in 2006. The account looks at the remote southwestern Chinese village of Dali, where ethnic minorities make up the majority of the population. The town has remade itself into a tourist hub for foreign and domestic tourists after its portrayal in films since the late 1950s. Notar examines how the shift from traditional village to popular tourist center will alter life in Dali, comparing it with other frontier towns that have already taken this path.

Tim Oakes, reviewing the book in Pacific Affairs, called it "a well-written ethnography," adding that "Notar writes about Dali's tourists with a tone of bemused charm that fits well the scene there." Oakes concluded that the book "is a well-crafted ethnography that stands on its own as a rich and rewarding discussion of the work of representation and the astonishing touristic materiality of people's geographical imaginations in China today. For this reason alone, it is a timely and worthwhile book."