Eddie Joel Pesante González

EDUCATION

The City University of New York, Graduate Center

Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology (August 2020–Present)

M.Phil. in Cultural Anthropology (February 2025)
M.A. in Cultural Anthropology (February 2023)

University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez Campus

B.A. in Comparative Literature, Magna Cum Laude (May 2020)

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Critical Agrarian Studies, Critical Border Studies, Economic Anthropology, Nationalism, Political Anthropology, Political Economy, Rural Development; Europe, The British Isles, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Puerto Rico 

HONORS & AWARDS

• Graduate Center-CUNY Conference Support Grant (2023, 2024)
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant (2023)
• Doctoral Student Research Grant, Graduate Center-CUNY (2023)
• Early Research Initiative-Provost’s Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship (2023)
• AES Small Grant, American Ethnological Society (2022)
• Paul C. Notari Research Grant in Environmental Studies (2022)
• Honor Roll, Humanities Department (2019–2020)
• Hurricane María Emergency Assistance Scholarship (2019)

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Graduate Center–CUNY

• Library Committee (2022–2024)
• Committee on Curriculum and Degree Requirements (2023–2024; 2025–2026)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Sociology & Anthropology

Baruch College, CUNY (2023–Present)

• Designed and taught:
  • ANT 1001: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
  • ANT/SOC 3085:  Special Topics: The Anthropocene
  • ANT 3161: Power and Conflict

Hunter College, CUNY (2022)

• Session Discussant for ANTHC 1000: Cultural Diversity of the United States
• Responsibilities included grading, assisting with lecture materials, and organizing class content.

College of Staten Island, CUNY (2022)

• Designed and taught ANT 201: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Online)

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY (2021–Present)

• Designed and taught:
  • ANT 100: Ethnography of Youth and Justice in NYC (Hybrid & In-Person)
  • ANT 101: Introduction to Anthropology
  • ANT 208: Urban Anthropology

• The seminar ANT 100 is part of John Jay’s Student Academic Success Programs. These First-Year Seminars are small, hands-on classes where students work closely with professors and classmates to explore justice issues and what it means to be a fierce advocate for justice. ANT 100 is also part of ¡Adelante! Latinx Leadership Program is designed to support students for two years and help them graduate.

Teaching Assistant

Department of Psychology

University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus, 2020

• As a teaching assistant, I was assigned to Dr. Manuel Valdés Pizzini and the course PSIC 4078, Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology.
• Specifically, I supported the course’s laboratory when the professor discussed fieldwork, historiographic methods, and fieldnote-taking.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant

Department of Political Science

Baruch College-CUNY,2023

• Assisted Dr. Viviana Rivera Burgos in a collaborative project establishing Puerto Rico’s Public Opinion Laboratory.
• Conducted survey translation and administration using mixed-method research techniques.

Research Assistant

Department of Social Sciences

La Guardia Community College-CUNY, 2021

• Part of Drs. Ryan Mann-Hamilton and Nathan Hosannah’s research group as part of an “Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research Grant.”
• We are focused on the socioeconomic dimension of the project, so we are using surveys and interviews to contact stakeholders and other central actors of the different Puerto Rican communities.
• We interviewed influential scholars and researchers about climate variation in Puerto Rico and its effects on vulnerable communities throughout the archipelago.
• Designed and analyzed surveys, interview questions, and quantitative methodologies.
• The article “Rainfall Forecast Skill in Vulnerable Tropical Coastal Communities” was submitted to Weather, Climate, and Society, the American Meteorological Society journal.

Research Assistant

Interdisciplinary Center for Studies of the Coast

University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, 2017-2021

• Under the supervision of Dr. Manuel Valdés Pizzini, I studied the transformations of Puerto Rican coastal landscapes since the XIX century and applied ethnohistorical methods to reconstruct the sociocultural process in these regions.
• Designed and prepared interviews and other qualitative methods to study coastal communities and their organizations before the passing of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Also, I made a rapid ethnographic assessment of coastal communities in southwest Puerto Rico in the summer and fall of 2019.
• Prepared data mining and technical reports on St. Croix’s fisheries after the passing of Hurricane María. I analyzed and selected key issues fishers have identified for decades, intending to design informed research. 
• Currently, secondary sources are being revised to study and analyze the gastronomical culture of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and their camps in Puerto Rico between the years 1929 and 1942.

Research Assistant

Hispanic Studies Department

University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, 2017-2018

• Under the supervision of Dr. Maribel Acosta Lugo and Dr. Jacqueline Girón Alvarado, I began studying and analyzing the works of the Puerto Rican writer René Marqués as a member of the project called: “The universes of René Marqués: literate, writer, ideologist and reader” (Los universos de René Marqués: erudito, literato, ideólogo y lector)
• Periodical monographic works were done, an example of these are: “El cronotopo del litoral en La víspera del hombre de René Marqués” (The chronotope of the coast in La víspera del hombre by René Marqués) and “De un pájaro las dos alas: el bildungsroman en las novelas Écue-Yamba-O de Alejo Carpentier y La víspera del hombre de René Marqués” (Of the same bird, its wings: the bildungsroman in  the novels Écue-Yamba-O by Alejo Carpentier and La víspera del hombre by René Marqués).           

PUBLICATIONS

• Anazagasty Rodríguez, José, and Pesante González, Eddie Joel. “Para estudiar la Nueva Canción.” 80 Grados, March 20, 2020. Link
• Pesante González, Eddie Joel. “El litoral en La víspera del hombre.” Cuadrivium 14 (2021): 181–185.
• Pesante-González, Eddie J. Esta canción es diferente: resistencias y emergencias en selecciones de Yo Protesto por Roy Brown Ramírez, Aires Bucaneros por Aires Bucaneros y Algo más que rabia por Zoraida Santiago Buitrago. Puerto Rico: University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, 2020 (Undergraduate Thesis).

CONFERENCE AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS

“The Border Beyond Borders: Bordermaking/Border Work as Praxis” Roundtable (organizer), American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, 2024

“Ethnographies of Capture: Experiences from Puerto Rico” Roundtable (Ethnographies of Capture),

American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, 2023

“Old Passions, New Protocols: Agricultural Politics in Northern Ireland after Brexit.” Early

Research Initiative Conference, CUNY, Graduate Center, 2023

“Energizing an Archipelago: Transforming the Energy Matrix as Self-Governance in Puerto

Rico” Indeterminacy Spring Conference, American Ethnological Society, 2023

“After the Sun Rises: Reflections on Community Response after Hurricane María”

From Storms to Earthquakes in Puerto Rico: Coincidences since San Narciso and the Earthquakes Conference University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, 2019

“The coast in La víspera del hombre” Centenary of René Marqués International Conference

            University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, 2019

“Añasco se levanta (Añasco Rises): An Ethnographic Study of Coastal Communities’ Resilience

in the Face of Hurricane María” Poster Presentation, The Ford Fellowship Program Annual Conference San Juan, PR, 2019

“The coast as a chronotope in La víspera del hombre” Centenary of René Marqués Conference

University of Puerto Rico-Bayamón, 2019

“Voices that Resist: Identity, Struggle, and Assertion in Lucecita Benítez, Sylvia Rexach and Zoraida

Santiago” XII National Women Colloquium University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, 2019

“The Bildungsroman in the Novels Écue-Yamba-O by Alejo Carpentier and La víspera del hombre

by René Marqués” Caribbean Culture and Society Symposium

University of Puerto Rico-Bayamón, 2018

“De un pájaro las dos alas: the Bildungsroman in Two Novels” 5th Undergraduate Research and

Creativity Encounter, UPRRP San Juan, PR, 2018

“René Marqués and the Gaze of the Mysterious” VII Coloquio del otro la’o (Gender Studies

Colloquium) University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, 2018

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Anthropological Association

American Ethnological Society

Society for the Anthropology of Europe

Association of Political and Legal Anthropology

Association for the Anthropology of Policy

North American Conference on British Studies

The Association of Latina/o & Latinx Anthropologists

The National Association of Student Anthropologists

American Conference for Irish Studies

Society for the Anthropology of Work

Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition