04/21/08 - Werner receives a National Science Foundation grant to study transnational migration patterns in Central Asia

Cynthia Werner, associate professor of anthropology, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to fund fieldwork in western Mongolia over the next two summers for her research on Kazakh migration patterns.

Werner is serving as principal investigator along with her colleague Holly Barcus of Macalester College for their project titled “Networks, Gender, Culture and the Migration Decision-Making Process: A Case Study of the Kazakh Diaspora in Western Mongolia.”

The project focuses on the process by which potential migrants make the decision to move or not, through a case study of Kazakh migration from Mongolia to Kazakhstan.

To investigate migration decision making, Werner and Barcus will gather data by conducting structured interviews with 120 Kazakh individuals in Mongolia and in-depth life history and family history interviews with 24 households.

The grant—co-funded by the Cultural Anthropology Program and the Geography and Regional Science program at NSF—will also fund undergraduate and graduate student research assistance at both institutions.

Preliminary research for the project was supported by the Women’s Studies Program and the Program to Enhance Scholarly and Creative Activities at Texas A&M University.

Werner received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Indiana University. Her teaching interests include socio-cultural anthropology, economic anthropology, applied anthropology, cross-cultural studies of gender, ethnographic methods, and the anthropology of tourism.

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Contact: Holly Lambert, hollyalyselambert@libarts.tamu.edu, 979.862.4879