Eddie Joel Pesante González

email: [email protected]

EDUCATION

The City University of New York, Graduate Center                                

PhD. 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

Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature

Magna Cum Laude

May 2020

HONORS & AWARDS

• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant, 2023
• Doctoral Student Research Grant, Graduate Center-CUNY, 2023
• Early Research Initiative-Provost’s Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship, Graduate Center-CUNY, 2023
• AES Small Grant, American Ethnological Society, 2022
• Paul C. Notari Research Grant in Environmental Studies, Future Initiatives, Graduate Center-CUNY, 2022
• Honor Roll, Humanities Department 2019-2020
• Scholarship for Students Affected by Hurricane María
  Office of Planning, Research, and Institutional Improvement Emergency Assistance Program of the Federal Education Program, 2019

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Anthropology of Policy, Anthropology of the State, Critical Agrarian Studies, Development, Economic Anthropology, Nationalism, Political Anthropology, Political Economy, Rural Governance; Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Puerto Rico

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Graduate Center-CUNY:

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

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Adjunct Lecturer

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Baruch College, 2023-present

• Designed the courses ANT 1001: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology,  ANT/SOC 3085: The Anthropocene, and ANT 3161: Power and Conflict

Adjunct Lecturer

Department of Anthropology

Hunter College, 2022

• Session discussant for the course ANTHC1000: Cultural Diversity of the United States, offered by Professor María García.
• This consisted of grading assignments, taking, and assisting with lecture notes, and organizing class material.

Adjunct Lecturer

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

College of Staten Island, 2022

• Designed and taught the online course ANT 201: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.
• The course consisted of a panoramic introduction to cultural anthropology and allowed students to understand the relevant topics of the field and the main research methods.

Adjunct Lecturer

Department of Anthropology

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2021-present

• Designed the courses: ANT 100: Ethnography of Youth and Justice in New York City in hybrid asynchronous mode and in-person, ANT 101: Introduction to Anthropology,  and 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, 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 covered the topics of fieldwork, historiographic methods, and fieldnote-taking.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant

Department of Political Science

Baruch College-CUNY,2023

• Research assistant to Dr. Viviana Rivera Burgos in the collaborative project, between the University of Michigan and the University of Puerto Rico, of establishing Puerto Rico’s Public Opinion Laboratory.
• I will be translating the surveys and administering them to a percentage of Puerto Rico’s population. For this, I am combining my training in qualitative research with quantitative techniques.

Non-Teaching Adjunct

Department of Social Sciences

Laguardia 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 by 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, a journal of the American Meteorological Society.

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 the Puerto Rican coastal landscapes since the XIX century. Also, I 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, under the revision of secondary sources to study and analyze the gastronomical culture of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and their camps in Puerto Rico between the years 1929 through 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, 20 de marzo de 2020, https://www.80grados.net/para-estudiar-la-nueva-cancion-puertorriquena/.

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 Ramirez, 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

• “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.” EarlyResearch 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” 5^th 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

LANGUAGES  

Spanish- native

English- fluent

French- beginner

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