Headshot of Sonya PetrakovitzSonya Petrakovitz

Sonya Petrakovitz is a Doctoral Student at Case Western Reserve University studying Medical and Psychological Anthropology. Her research interests are situated at the intersections of identity, cultural persistence, resistance, traditional medicines, and commodification in tourism-based economies. Her area of interest, Rapa Nui (“Easter Island”), is uniquely situated to study the confluence of these theories because of its naturally bounded population, formidable history of oppression, and economic dependency.

Sonya received her Masters in Medical Anthropology from CWRU (2017) and is also working towards a second Masters in Bioethics. She has a Bachelor of Science in Photojournalism (2013) and a Bachelor of Arts in Classical History (2010).

Headshot of Rachel ShahRachel Shah

Rachel is an anthropologist of education and international development, currently based at Durham University in the UK. Her PhD research investigated the extent to which schooling and indigenous forms of education are incompatible for children living in the rural Papuan highlands of Indonesia, and what the consequences of this are for Papuan people and cultures. Her findings suggest that although children can potentially participate in different education systems simultaneously, indigenous understandings of the purpose of schooling differ significantly from those of external stakeholders. While external stakeholders are focused on individual and national benefits, indigenous stakeholders are focused on benefits for networks of kin, and on the ways schooling can enable them to gain equality globally, and ensure the persistence of their cultures. An understanding of such differences is critical to both local and global debates about how schools can be used to prevent rather than to further the colonisation, oppression and marginalisation of indigenous peoples.

Rachel also enjoys teaching anthropology, challenging students’ preconceptions about human diversity, and promoting rigorous ethnographic research undertaken in the context of genuine partnerships between different stakeholders.