Elise Edwards
I am currently the Chair of the History and Anthropology Department at Butler University and an Associate Professor of Anthropology. My research interests include the anthropology of sport, science, technology and society studies, gender studies; feminist theory, historical anthropology, mass/popular culture, theories of embodiment, urban anthropology, and visual culture. Most of my fieldwork has focused on cultures of sport--specifically soccer--in Japan. I am currently working to complete a book manuscript about soccer, corporate sport, the recession of the 1990s, and national identity in Japan, which is tentatively titled Fields for the Future: Soccer and Citizens in Japan at the Turn of the 21st Century. I am also beginning a new project on the intersections between the “hometown” soccer movement spurred by the Japan Football Association, grassroots activism, volunteerism, and ever-evolving relationships between public and private entities in contemporary Japan. In the small pockets of time I can find away from teaching and research, I work with the Butler Women’s Soccer team as an assistant coach and head goalkeeping trainer.
