Faculty and Staff Directory

Introduction

Dr. Parker is retired, but can be reached at skparker@uw.edu.

I have conducted ethnographic fieldwork in India and Bali where my primary area of focus has been on the contemporary practices of Hindu temple construction and use, both for locals and visitors, in traditional religious functions as well as cultural tourism. My research explores the ways that diverse contexts of production and use condition the validity of interpretations that can be applied to specific configurations of Hindu visual culture. I am currently working on the contemporary framing of ancient Hindu monuments by the institutions of cultural tourism in India.

I teach undergraduate courses on the interdisciplinary cultural studies of Asia (India, China, Japan) and the Pacific (Indonesia, Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia). In addition I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on values, evidence, the history and contemporary uses of the culture concept, semiotics and the social construction of realities and meanings through visual languages and material culture.

Current Research

My primary area of focus has been on the contemporary practices of Hindu temple construction and use, both for locals and visitors, traditional religious functions as well as cultural tourism. My research centers on the ways that diverse contexts of production and use condition the validity of interpretations that can be applied to specific configurations of Hindu visual culture. I am currently working on the contemporary framing of ancient Hindu monuments by the institutions of cultural tourism in India.

Teaching

I teach undergraduate courses on the interdisciplinary cultural studies of Asia (India, China, Japan) and the Pacific (Indonesia, Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia). In addition I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on values, evidence, the history and contemporary uses of the culture concept, semiotics and the social construction of realities and meanings through visual languages and material culture.

Affiliations

• American Council for Southern Asian Art
• Association for Asian Studies
• American Anthropological Association

Academic Service

• I am the secretary of a local sangat that serves practitioners of Surat Shabd Yoga in the South Puget Sound.

Honors and Awards

• 2008 awarded an invitation (plus travel and stipend) to deliver the Wheedon Lecture at the University of Virginia.
• 2007 UW Tacoma Founders Endowment award supporting sabbatical research in India.
• 2005 Henry Luce Foundation AsiaNetwork Consultancy. Through my participation in this grant I researched and catalogued the Asian Art collection in the Trout Gallery, Dickinson College.
• 1999 UW Tacoma Founders Endowment award for research in Bali.

Scholarly Interests

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