Biography

Rosaria Pisa originates from Naples, Italy and has lived in the United States since the age of nine. As a child in Italy, she dreamed of seeing the world, interacting with people from different cultures, and learning multiple languages in her quest to access and understand more intimately human cultural diversity. She did not know it at the time, but the 1971 irreversible journey to the United States set her on the path to pursue that dream in a way she could never have imagined in Italy; now she moved in the world with “America” as an integral part of her identity and imagination. Over the years, Pisa became multilingual (studying French, German, and later Spanish), traveled extensively, and lived in Germany and Mexico for a time.

It was on one of her sojourns abroad that she came to know and love Mexico, a country she considers one of her homes. Her passion for Mexico ultimately shaped the direction of her graduate studies in political science (M.A. 1992), specializing in the field of international development with a regional focus on Latin America. Desiring to get closer to the community-level (social actor level) of the countries she studied and having taken several anthropology and sociology graduate courses that inspired her, Pisa selected to pursue doctoral studies in sociology (Ph.D. 2001).

Pisa’s interest in community-level conditions drew her naturally to ethnographic research. Beginning in 1993, Pisa has conducted in-depth fieldwork in rural and urban Mexico in several states. Her research has evolved from studying the impact of the privatization of communal land on community life to her current focus on the gender dynamics of local and organic farming.

Pisa takes an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to her pedagogy. She developed and teaches regularly several cross-listed courses: SOC/APG 329 Contemporary Mexican Society, SOC/APG 415 Migration in the Americas, and SOC/APG/GWS 308 Sustainable Agriculture and Food Cultures. Pisa also teaches SOC240, Race and Ethnic Relation, SOC 100 General Sociology, GWS400 Capstone Seminar: Critical Issues in Feminist Scholarship, and courses for the Honors Programs.

Beginning in 2012, Pisa broadened her pedagogy to include international experiential learning opportunities for students. Translating her research interests and passion for cross-cultural exchange and understanding, Pisa has created two study abroad programs, one in Mexico and one in Italy. Both programs focus on a holistic, comparative approach to the study of the environment, sustainable agriculture, and food. Most importantly, the programs represent a synthesis of Pisa’s cultural homes of the United States, Italy and Mexico.

Her research on the Mexican Agrarian reform and land privatization has been published in Urban Anthropology and Habitat International as well as several edited volumes here and in Mexico. Pisa has presented her work at numerous conferences in the U.S. and in Mexico.