Dorothy K. Billings
Professor of Anthropology
dorothy.billings@wichita.edu
316-978-3351
Office: 217 Neff Hall
Area of study/interests
Melanesia, Art, religions, world views; indigenous knowledge, sustainable development
Classes Taught
Peoples of the Pacific, Art and Culture, World Cultures, Intercultural Relationships, LAS 300: Global Issues, Peoples of China, Peoples of Africa, Women in Other Cultures, Magic, Witchcraft, Religion; Theory.
Biography
Raised in Milwaukee. Attended Riverside High School. I began college at Radcliffe and finished at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I studied for one year (1955) at the University of Auckland-New Zealand as a Fulbright scholar Began my Ph.D at Columbia in New York, where I passed the PhD comprehensive exams and the exams in two languages (French and German). While studying I worked full time (1959-63) at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where I taught school children and teachers about the arts and artifacts of “Eskimos,” Pueblo Indians, Northwest Coast, Oceania, Africa and Mexico. I then (1964)went on to the University of Sydney, where I received a tenured position as a Senior Tutor.
Billings recievied her PhD in 1972 at the University of Sydney, Australia
Publications
1987 Expressive Style and Culture: Individualism and Group Orientation Contrasted. Language in Society 16:475-497.
2002 Cargo Cult as Theater: Political Performance in the Pacific. Lanham: Lexington Books.
2007 New Ireland Malanggan Art: the Quest for Meaning. Oceania: 77:3, pp. 257-285.