Lisa Feder

Lisa Feder, Ph.D is a lecturer of anthropology at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where she teaches students how to learn cultures through an artistic lens. Lisa’s ongoing fieldwork explores Manding music and culture in translocal communities between West Africa, New York, and France where she currently resides. Becoming an apprentice to a musical master, Lisa learned to tune in to the more subtle aspects of culture, the ineffable, the tacit, the unspoken about. Her research explores timing, flow and wisdom embedded within Manding music that point to a greater Manding sensibility. Her forthcoming book Embodying Jali Music, Sweetness, Money and Time among the Mande addresses this topic as well as her methodology, called “transformative ethnography.” In general, Lisa is interested in exploring different cultures through their arts. She has used ethnographic film for both research and representation, and on occasion, has been contracted to work on documentaries within her field of expertise. Professionally, Lisa has been a college-level study abroad advisor throughout Latin America, and has worked with NGOs on sustainable development in the Brazilian Amazon with the Kayapo tribe, and in small villages in Guinea and Sierra Leone.