Alumni

SF State Alumni Association

The SF State Alumni Association contains information about membership, alumni events, and other related alumni interests. The SF State Alumni Association was started in the 1930s to create and maintain a partnership among alumni, the University and the community. It encourages alumni to promote and support the University; and it provides SF State alumni with services, benefits, networking opportunities and continued access to the University community.

Classmates

We are currently assembling a database of alumni details. If you are interested in being included, please email: anthro@sfsu.edu

"After graduation in May of 2009, I took off to the Peruvian Amazon where I lived with a group of individuals from the Machiguenga tribe for four months. While there, I was volunteering and "doing anthropology" at a tourist lodge run by the Machiguengas about a day away from their native communities. I established a great relationship with the tribe and hope to return to the jungle in eight months to continue my work. In the meantime I am working on an ehtnography about my time there and playing in a rock n roll band. I give a special thanks to all my professors at SF State who taught me the fine arts of anthropology and ethnography."

Kelsey (on right) with Machiguengas tribe member

Kelsey (on right) with Machiguengas Tribe Member

  • Tom King, Ph.D. (B.A. ’68) has had a productive career as a cultural resource management expert working in the U.S. and Micronesia. In his latest venture he has delved into fiction writing and his most recent book, Amelia Earhart: Unrescued, uses historical and archaeological data as the basis for imagining the last days of Amelia Earhart.  

  • Christine Arata (B.A. ’83) worked for several years as an administrator in the Department of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences. Currently she has a freelance writing career, and has recently self-published an e-book titled Raised by Hollywood: Reflections from a Latchkey Kid. The work includes some personal stories related to her experience pursuing her B.A. at S.F. State and her enjoyment in studying Anthropology!

  • Harjant S Gill, Ph.D. (B.A. ’05) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Towson University. His recent 3-part ethnographic film series Indian Masculinities (Sent Away Boys, Mardstan/Macholand, and Roots of Love) is available via his open access Harjant Vimeo site. The trilogy has been described as an exploration of the “complex and intricate dynamics of the construction and reception of the the projected image of Indian men and their Social duties, responsibilities and privileges in context of the Indian State of Punjab” (Sen 2018). 

  • Natalie Cox, Ph.D. (M.A. ’09) received her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). After teaching at City College San Francisco and CIIS for several years, Natalie was hired for a full-time, tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Anthropology at CCSF.

  • Shay Cannedy (M.A.) received her Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University in 2016. Her research focuses on Congolese asylum seekers and resettled refugees in Europe. She is currently a visiting assistant professor at Whittier College in California.

  • Sean David Christensen (B.A. ’09) completed his film, Ghost Tape #10, as part of his M.A. work at USC Center for Visual Anthropology. The film is a documentary about the U.S. Army's attempts to use Buddhist belief in the afterlife as propaganda during the Vietnam War. As an accomplished visual artist, Sean has received numerous awards for his work. 

  • Brian Gleeson (BA ’02, M.A. ’11) works in the Health Care Industry (regulatory affairs), teaches Anthropology courses on California Indians / Native Americans part-time at CSU East Bay in Hayward, and helps run an online monograph series focused on California Studies and California Indians.

  • Tesla Monson, Ph.D. (M.A. ‘12) started a multi-year postdoctoral position at the Anthropology Institute at the University Zürich in July. She completed her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley.

  • Hannah G Van Vlack (B.A. ’12) completed her M.A. in applied anthropology at San Jose State (2014), after which she worked in cultural research management in New Mexico for various private agencies and the National Park Service (Valles Caldera National Preserve and Bandelier National Monument). Since 2018 she has worked as an Environmental Professional/Archaeologist in the Environmental Protection and Compliance, Environmental Stewardship Group of Los Alamos National Laboratory where she helps manage, preserve and protect over 2000 archaeological and historic sites including the last standing-walled pueblo on the Pajarito Plateau.  

  • Cheryl Tripathi (M.A. ’17) is a curatorial assistant in the Department of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences.