Diane Baxter
Senior Lecturer 1 | Pro Tem Instructor
Biography
Diane Baxter is the Director of Internships in Israel and Palestine was Senior Lecturer and Head Undergraduate Advisor in Anthropology at U. of Oregon (1996 -2019). She welcomes students to speak with her about studying in Israel-Palestine. Diane's research focuses on the politics of identity among displaced persons, women, and indigenous peoples in colonial and postcolonial societies. Her area of focus continues to be the Middle East, in particular Israel/Palestine.
Diane was the Director of the Rutherford Middle East Initiative at the UO until 2019. In that role, she created and administered the new MENA (Middle East-North Africa) minor on campus and plans are underway to establish a Middle East, Arabic, and Islamic Studies major at the university. Diane was vice-Chair of the AAA'S Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (CORI) and co-editor of CORI'S 24 Selected Papers in Refugee and Immigrant Studies. Her article, 'Idealized and Devalued: Images of Identity among Palestinians in West Bank Refugee Camps', is included in the CORI volume. She is also the author of 'Honor Thy Sister: Selfhood, Gender, and Agency in Palestinian Society.' Diane received her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from UC-Northridge in 1982 and her Ph.D. in Psychological Anthropology from UCLA in 1991.
Education
B.A. UCLA (1976); M.A., California State University-Northridge (1982); Ph.D. UCLA (1991)
Dr. Baxter joined the UO Anthropology Department in 1996. Baxter’s research focuses on the politics of identity among displaced persons, women, and indigenous peoples in colonial and postcolonial societies. Her area focus is the Middle East, in particular Israel/Palestine. Currently she is studying Palestinian refugees in the U.S. She was vice-Chair of the AAA’S Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (CORI) and co-editor of CORI’S 24 Selected Papers in Refugee and Immigrant Studies. Her article “Idealized and Devalued: Images of Identity among Palestinians in West Bank Refugee Camps” is included in the CORI volume. A recent article published in Anthropology Quarterly is “Honor Thy Sister: Selfhood, Gender, and Agency in Palestinian Culture.” Baxter also teaches courses for the Conflict and Dispute Resolution (CRES) Program in the Law School and for the Department of Judaic Studies.