Faculty Bios

Paula L.W. Sabloff

Senior Research Scientist of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology

Paula L.W. Sabloff, Senior Research Scientist of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology, joined the University of Pennsylvania community in 1996 following teaching and administration at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of New Mexico. After receiving her BA (magna cum laude) from Vassar College, she started graduate school in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, completing her Master's and PhD at Brandeis University.

A political anthropologist, Dr. Sabloff began conducting research in Mongolia in 1996. While her first project (sponsored by IREX) concerned patron-client relations, her subsequent and continuing work (sponsored by NSF, IREX, and the University Museum) focuses on the cognitive analysis of Mongolians' ideas on democracy and market economy. This work was initially featured in the joint exhibition of the University Museum and National Museum of Mongolian History (Ulaanbaatar), MODERN MONGOLIA: RECLAIMING GENGHIS KHAN. A book of the same title accompanied the exhibition, which travels to the Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History - and Middlebury College in 2002-2003. Dr. Sabloff has presented her research on this topic to various professional organizations (American Anthropological Association, Association for the Study of Nationalities, Mongolia Society, workshop on Mongolian research at the Smithsonian Institution), CENTRAL ASIAN SURVEY (vol. 21, No. 1, 2002), and several public lectures.

Prior to conducting research in Mongolia, Dr. Sabloff conducted various political anthropology studies which resulted in several books, monographs, and professional papers. The books and monographs published in the last decade include MODERN MONGOLIA: RECLAIMING GENGHIS KHAN (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2001), CAREERS IN ANTHROPOLOGY: PROFILES OF PRACTITIONER ANTHROPOLOGISTS (NAPA Bulletin 20. National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (American Anthropological Association, 2000), HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE POST-COMMUNIST WORLD: EIGHT CASE STUDIES, (Garland Series in Higher Education, vol. 14, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999), CONVERSATIONS WITH LEW BINFORD: DRAFTING THE NEW ARCHAEOLOGY (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), REFORM AND CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES. (edited with James Mauch, Garland Press, 1995), and WILL STATE LEGISLATURES INCREASE RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY? (University of Houston Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance Monograph 93-4, 1994).

Paula L.W. Sabloff
33rd and Spruce Streets
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324

Tel: (215)898-4121
Fax: (215)898-0657
Email: psabloff@sas.upenn.edu