April 12, 2003 - Southwest Missouri State University: Marjories Buckner spent three years in the Peace Corps teaching high school in the Central African Republic

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Central African Republic: Peace Corps Central African Republic : The Peace Corps in the Central African Republic: April 12, 2003 - Southwest Missouri State University: Marjories Buckner spent three years in the Peace Corps teaching high school in the Central African Republic

By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 7:46 pm: Edit Post

Marjories Buckner spent three years in the Peace Corps teaching high school in the Central African Republic



Marjories Buckner spent three years in the Peace Corps teaching high school in the Central African Republic

MARJORIE BUCKNER is our new faculty member in Anthropology. She spent a year in Argentina as a high school exchange student, then returned twice to South America, once on a ten-month study-travel trip. After earning her B.A. in linguistics and in anthropology from San Diego, State University, followed by a bilingual teaching credential (Spanish-English), she spent three years in the Peace Corps teaching high school in the Central African Republic.

Earning a Master's and Ph.D. from the University of Paris X, she became a Member (since 1984) of the Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative, a research institute at the University of Paris X, and taught a semester at the American University in Paris.

She then worked for two years in Guinea Bissau (West Africa) for a British research program on HIV epidemiology. Her interests include cultural and linguistic anthropology, medical and applied anthropology, ethnomusicology, Africa (especially the Zande in Central African Republic and the Manjako in Guinea Bissau).



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Story Source: Southwest Missouri State University

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Central African Republic

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By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 8:03 pm: Edit Post

Margaret ("Margie") Buckner was born and raised in Oceanside, California. During her senior year of high school she was an AFS exchange student in Argentina, where she learned to speak Spanish. She started college at Palomar College, then transfered to San Diego State University, where she received a B.A in anthropology and in linguistics in 1978. Afterwards, she spent almost a year traveling around South America, and learned Portuguese in Brazil.

Margaret later earned a teacher credential in bilingual education at San Diego State with the intent of teaching in California schools, but joined the Peace Corps instead. She was stationed in Bangassou, Central African Republic, where she taught English and Spanish for three years. During her time there, she made forays into the countryside to learn the Zande and Sango languages. There she met Professor Eric de Dampierre, a French ethnologist studying a neighboring group, the Nzakara. Professor de Dampierre persuaded Margaret to go to the University of Paris X (Nanterre) for graduate study in ethnology.

Margaret wrote an M.A. thesis on the use of body part terms in Zande, and a Ph.D. dissertation on Zande chantfables (1993). She was elected as a member of a French research laboratory, the Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative, and continues to participate in it. She was also invited to organize and catalog the Zande (a.k.a. Azande) materials in the Evans-Pritchard archives at Oxford University.

While finishing her dissertation, Margaret was hired by the Medical Research Council of London to manage an HIV research center in Guinea-Bissau, which she did from 1991-1993. This enabled her to carry out significant research on the Manjako, particularly the subjects of kinship, prostitution, and HIV, as well as learning the Manjako language and the Portuguese Creole of Guinea-Bissau.

Dr. Buckner came to SMSU in 1997 as an assistant professor of anthropology. She is particularly interested in African cultures, linguistics, ethnomusicology, and medical anthropology. She teaches ANT 100 (World Cultures), ANT 280 (Linguistic Anthropology), ANT 310 (Ethnographic Research Methods), and ANT 380 (Language and Culture), and received a University award for Excellence in Teaching in 2001. She is also the principal author of our anthropology web-page. During her time at SMSU, she has established a faculty research colloquium series and an annual student conference.


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