BIOGRAPHY

Nancy Johnson Black

Nancy Johnson Black received her BA in anthropology summa cum laude from the Pennsylvania State University where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Her MA and PhD in anthropology were earned at the University of New York at Albany.

Prior to moving to the Twin Cities in 1985, she was an Administrator in the Anthropology Department at Harvard University and Resident Tutor in anthropology at Winthrop House at that same institution.  She has taught at Hamline University and was an Academic Advisor at the University of Minnesota.  Professor Black has taught anthropology and social science at Metropolitan State since 1986, and served as Chair of the Social Science Department from 1994 until 2003, the 9-year limit allowed by the contract. Some of her service includes IFO Representative to the State Board, IFO Government Relations Board Liaison, IFO Council Representative for College of Arts and Sciences, Curriculum Committee, General Education Committee, Advising Task Force, Professional Education Council, Multicultural Education Committee, and Co-faculty Advisor to International Students Association.  She also chaired MnSCU initiatives at Metropolitan State on Global Understanding, and served as Faculty Director for the MnSCU Pilot Project on Women in Domestic and International Development. 

Dr. Black has conducted anthropological research primarily among the Maya in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico since 1977.  This work has been largely funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Sigma Xi, the National Geographic Society, and the MacArthur Foundation. As the author or co-author of four books and more than 25 articles, her research has been published by the Smithsonian Institution, Yale University Press, Westview Press, the University of California at Los Angeles Press, Waveland Press, Prisma Press of the University of Minnesota, and E.J. Brill of the Netherlands.

Nancy Black has been recognized several times for her excellence in teaching.  The Carnegie Foundation named Dr. Black 1998 Minnesota Professor of the Year, and the St. Paul Rotary Club awarded her the Educator of the Year in 1998 as well. She received the Educator Award from the Women’s Commission at Metropolitan State University for rigor in her research and maintaining sensitivity to women’s issues in her teaching in 1999 and Metropolitan State University’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 1995 and Excellence in Teaching Award in 1993. 

She has been named a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association and has served for several years on the Editorial Board of their journal, The American Anthropologist.  Her relationship and efforts with The American Anthropologist have made possible the donation of more than $50,000 of review copies of new publications to the recently opened library at Metropolitan State University. She was selected as a Kellogg Fellow in 2000 and as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Minnesota Humanities Commission Summer Teacher Institute in 1999 and again in 2002.  In 2003, she was a Distinguished Visitor in the Global Perspectives Visitors Series at the University of Central Florida.  She currently serves on the Nellie Stone Johnson Scholarship Committee and is in the third year of her six-year appointment on the MnSCU Trustee Selection Committee.