Angela Castañeda

Angela Castañeda is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Associate Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at DePauw University. Dr. Castañeda earned her doctorate in Cultural Anthropology from Indiana University. Her research interests have focused on issues of identity, festival, religion, and expressive culture among communities of the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. In her courses she uses examples from her research in Mexico and Brazil to examine how people view themselves and how our identities are continually crafted into new understandings of who we are. In addition to working in Mexico, Dr. Castañeda has also examined the commercialization of Afro-Brazilian religious traditions such as Candomblé. 

 

Dr. Castañeda is now working in the area of anthropology of birth and reproduction with a particular focus on the role of doulas in birth. A practicing birth and postpartum doula, she also serves on the Board of Directors for Bloomington Area Birth Services (BABS) and the Advisory Council for the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization (IMBCO).