Holly Swyers
Assistant Professor
Sociology and Anthropology

Phone 847-735-5252
E-mail swyers@lakeforest.edu

Specialization
US culture, esp. 20th-21st century education
sports community development and maintenance

Education
Ph.D. The University of Chicago
MA The University of Chicago
AB Ripon College
International Baccalaureate Waterford Kamhlaba UWC (Mbabane, Swaziland)

Courses Taught
Introduction to Sociology and Anthropology
Anthropology of Sports
Anthropology of Education
Ethnographic Methods
Cultural Anthropology (Car Cultures)
Place and Social Memory in Chicago

Current Project
The Roadmap to Adulthood
Over the past 20 years, we have seen an increasing emphasis on college education, a widespread pattern of single heads of households, and a significant delay in starting families among American young people.  This project seeks to understand the social and economic conditions underlying these trends and to explore how these trends affect the expectations and experiences of Americans making the transition to adulthood in the early 21st century.

Concluding Project
And Keep Your Scorecard Dry
Set in the bleachers of Wrigley Field in Chicago, this ethnographic monograph considers the daily practices that allow people to constitute themselves as a community.  Rather than follow the current trend of quantitatively arguing the fate of community in the 21st century United States, I am working from the premise that humans find ways to craft a feeling of community under almost any conditions.  The question we need to answer are what conditions and behaviors help create and sustain that feeling.  Using the self-described community of bleacher regulars as a case study, I am seeking to answer this question. Book manuscript currently under review at The University of Illinois Press.

Dissertation
Succeed Anyway: Life and Lessons in American High Schools
Based on ethnographic and archival research, this dissertation studies the way that American philosophies of liberal democracy become encoded into the everyday social life of adolescents, shaping and limiting the ways in which American teenagers understand their life experiences.  From this base, it considers how education as practiced in the United States has operated and continues to operate as an adaptive system for social continuity and change.
Committee:  John L. Comaroff (chair), John Kelly, Susan Gal

Publications
2007 (in press) – “Scoring at Home” in Northsiders: A Social History of the Chicago Cubs.  Ed. By A. Hazucha and G. Wood.  McFarland Press.

2007 “The Opposite of Losses: Wherein Lies the Soul of American Sports?” International Journal of the History of Sport 24 (2)

2006 - (under review) And Keep Your Scorecard Dry.  University of Illinois Press.

2005 - "Who Owns Wrigley Field?"  Sport in American Society - Past and Present, a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport 22:6.

2005 - (forthcoming) [Review] "A World of Possibility in the 'not not real': A Review of the University of Chicago’s lecture course, 'Sport, Society and Science.'"  International Journal of the History of Sport.

2000 - “We’re Not the Police:  Batman, the State of Cynicism and the Revisionist Future.”  Chicago Anthropology Exchange, 30 (Winter).

1999 - (with Dorothy Shipps and Karin Sconzert)  “The Chicago Annenberg Challenge: The First Three Years.”  Improving Chicago’s Schools: A report of the Chicago Annenberg Research Project.  March.

1997 - (with Priscilla Ellington)  “School-based Centers:  Advocates for Successful School Reform.”  National Elementary School Networks Newsletter, Spring.

Invited Lectures
2007 "Sports Fans and Community"  The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, January 23.

2006 - "'Yuppie on the Phone!': Defining Community Boundaries."  The Chicago Seminar on Sport and Culture, The Newberry Library, Chicago, IL; April 28.

2006 - "Who Owns Wrigley Field?"  Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA; March 27.

2006 - "Hot Stove Leagues."  Kangeiko "Fireside Chat" Series.  The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL: January 10

2005 - "Discussion Leading II: Classroom Discipline."  Center for Teaching and Learning, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; March 10.

2003 - Guest speaker in courses "American Culture," "Race Relations," and "School and Society."  Ripon College, Ripon, WI; February 19-20.

Invited Panelist
2006 - "Imaging Chicago Film Festival."  Fire Escape Films, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; May 19.

2006 - "The Pedagogy of Anthropology."  Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; April 29.

2006 - "Plato vs. the Simpsons: Values in Liberal Arts Education." The Society of Fellows, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; January 21.

2003 - "Considering Culture."  Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; July 28.

Organized Panels
2004 - Organizer: "Word on the Street: Popular Culture as Social Theory." Central States Anthropological Society 81st Annual Meeting. April 17, Milwaukee, WI

2003 - Chair: “Reproductions: Making Selves and Meanings.” Central States Anthropological Society 80th Annual Meeting.  April 18, Louisville, KY.

2002 - Chair:  “Changing Subjectivities and the 21st Century: The World in the Age of Globalism.”  Central States Anthropological Society 79th Annual Meeting.  March 8, East Lansing, MI.

2000 - Chair:  “The Present Life – Naught but a Diversion and a Sport?  A Panel toward a Renewed Anthropology of Sports.”  Central States Anthropological Society 77th Annual Meeting.  April 23, Bloomington, IN.

Presentations
2004 - "Superman vs. the President of the United States" Central States Anthropological Society 81st Annual Meeting.  April 17, Milwaukee, WI

2003 - This is Not Your Father’s Protest Movement: Post Cold-War Youth vs. War.”  American Anthropological Society 102nd Annual Meeting.  November 19, Chicago, IL.

2003 - Gary Stu Doesn’t F*** Here: The Panache of ‘Slash.’”  Digital Genres Conference.  May 30, Chicago, IL.

2003 - Dr. Goodschool, or How Education Policy Learned to Stop Worrying about Race and Class and Love the Suburbs.”  Central States Anthropological Society 80th Annual Meeting.  April 18, Louisville, KY.

2002 - The Generation of Worldviews:  September 11, School Shootings and Starship Troopers.”  Central States Anthropological Society 79th Annual Meeting.  March 8, East Lansing, MI.

2000 - The Way God Intended: Moral Purity in the Bleachers.”  Presented at the Central States Anthropological Society 77th Annual Meeting.  April 23, Bloomington, IN

1999 - Wait ‘til Next Year for the Sign of the Apocalypse: Reckoning Time in the Bleachers.”  Presented at the American Anthropological Association 98th Annual Meeting.  November 17, Chicago.

1999 - The Three Rs (Rights, Responsibility and Reform):  The Progressive Education Association, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and the Crisis of the Nation-State.”  Presented at the Central States Anthropological Society 76th Annual Meeting.  Chicago.

1996 - Measuring the Success of the NESN Project.”  Presented at the National Elementary School Networks Networking Institute.  New York.

Teaching Experience
2003-2006 - Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Collegiate Division, The University of Chicago

2003 - Lecturer, Self, Culture and Society, part 3
Core course in Social Science at the College, The University of Chicago

2002 - Teaching Assistant, The Development of Social and Cultural Theory, part 1 (“Systems”)  -- First year graduate course in the Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago

2001-2002 - Course Intern, Self, Culture and Society, parts 1-3
Core course in Social Science at the College, The University of Chicago

2000-2002 - Multidisciplinary tutor, Ivy League Tutoring

1999-2000 - Classroom aide, Chicago Public Schools

1998 - Classroom teacher, Institute for Reading Development

Additional Professional Experience
1995-1997 - Assistant National Director, National Elementary School Networks Project, The Center for Collaborative Education, New York, NY

Research Experience
1997-2005 - Participant observation in Wrigley Field bleachers, focusing on issues of community formation and maintenance Chicago, IL

2003 - Participant observation, surveys and text interviews of an on-line community

2000-2002 - Participant observation in high schools as well as interviews and archival work for dissertation project 

1997-1998 - Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data on Chicago Annenberg Challenge for the Consortium for Chicago School Reform Chicago, IL

1994 - Archaeological research and artifact analysis for Ceresco historical archaeology project, sponsored by the Ripon Historical Society Ripon,WI

1993 - Archival research for the Goodman Theatre dramaturg team Chicago, IL

Service
2006 - "Taking the Next Step" Panelist, The University of Chicago

2005 - Weissbourd Event Planning Committee, The Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts: The University of Chicago

2004 - Dec 2005 Junior Fellow Co-Chair, The Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, The University of Chicago

2004-2005 - Faculty Fellow, Dewey House, Shoreland Residence Hall, The University of Chicago

2004, 2005 - Faculty Facilitator, Aims of Education Colloquium, The University of Chicago

2004 - Goettler Prize Selection Committee, The University of Chicago

2002-2003 - Coordinator, Post-Field Reintegration Task Force, The University of Chicago
2002, 1997-99 - Student Faculty Liaison Committee (Student Chair 1998-99), Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago

1999 - Editorial Board, Chicago Anthropology Exchange

1993-1994 - Co-Founder/President, "The Network " (GLBT and ally group), Ripon College

Professional Affiliations
American Anthropological Association

American Ethnological Society

Society for Urban, National and Transnational Anthropology

Awards And Honors
Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, The University of Chicago, 2005

Katharine Graham Fellowship Society of Fellows at The University of Chicago, 2004

Harper Fellowship Society of Fellows at The University of Chicago, 2003

Doolittle Fellowship, The University of Chicago, 2003

Dissertation Teaching and Research Fellowship, The University of Chicago, The Division of the Social Sciences, 2002

Finalist, National Postdoctoral Fellowship In the Humanities, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 2001

Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, US Department of Education, 1998

University Unendowed Fellowship, The University of Chicago, 1997

Phi Beta Kappa, Ripon College, 1994

Senior Achievement Award in Anthropology, Ripon College, 1994

Pickard Scholarship, Ripon College, 1991

Millennium Society Scholarship, Millennium Society, 1989