Dr. Frederick (Fritz) Lampe

Emeritus Faculty, Cultural & Applied Anthropology

Education

BA, Pacific Lutheran University
MDiv, Wartburg Theological Seminary
MA, PhD, Syracuse University 2006

Specialty areas

Major area

• sub-Saharan Africa

Minor areas

• circumpolar North and Melanesia

Topical specializations

• religion
• critical theory applied to religion and anthropology
• globalization
• development
• theory and history of interpretation

Biography

As a sociocultural anthropologist, Dr. Lampe explores the motifs of globalization, belief in the ethereal and something called “religion.” His research in East Africa explores the nexuses of Baluyia cosmology, early migrations and trading systems, colonial and mission history, as well as post and neo-colonial experiences within a particular community as they influence and relate to contemporary Christian discourse.

His research, while theoretically focused remains ethnographically grounded. His research began as an attempt to understand the intricacies of the intersections between culture and religion, leading him to explore health and healing, representation, power, hegemony, indigenous cosmologies, and social change; a focus that has both broadened and narrowed.

He has expanded his interests in thinking about religion as a compendium of the larger socio-cultural experience. At the same time he continues to narrow his focus, paying particular attention to the ways in which elasticity of the socio-religious international experience is inculcated into existing cultural material.

He has begun to apply this work into the field of community development. He joined the Northern Arizona University in 2009 after teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Syracuse University, Utica, and Cortland Colleges.