As both a student and advisee of Dr. Alison Greene, I was more than pleased when I was asked to write an article about her for the Sociology and Anthropology newsletter. Starting out as the instructor for one class in 2009, Dr. Greene has been teaching courses at NC State ever since. After spending a few years gradually teaching more and more courses, Dr. Greene added advising in 2013 and has been doing so ever since as well. In addition to teaching and advising, Dr. Greene runs the Anthropology Club here at NC State!
If you’ve ever had a class with Dr. Greene you know just how passionate she is about both teaching and advising. In Dr. Greene’s smaller courses, many times (such as in my case) her students will be either ones she has had before or ones she also advises. Advising, as she says, is the number one way she is able to develop one-on-one relationships with her students.
Dr. Greene originally started with about a dozen advisees and now has 75. She says she hopes to get even more because she really likes having a lot and being able to connect with each student individually.
What’s especially interesting about Dr. Greene is that she did not actually start as an anthropology major in school, she majored in religious studies at the University of Colorado – Boulder and later on obtained her Ph.D. in anthropology from UNC Chapel Hill after realizing it was something she was keenly interested in through friends and her roommate. Dr. Greene also worked at the Duke Divinity School Library for three years before moving on to her graduate studies.
For her graduate work, Dr. Greene was mainly interested in Latin America with a focus on women and development. Having a deep respect for and interest in Latin America, Dr. Greene has visited Mexico as well as other countries to do research. It is perfect that Dr. Greene now teaches the Andean South America course because she has visited there as well! The Andean South America course (as well as her other 300-level course Native Peoples and Cultures of North America) are her favorite courses to teach because they provide her with the ability to go more in-depth than the introductory courses such as Cultural Anthropology (which is an amazing course with Dr. Greene that everyone regardless of major should take).
In her free time, Dr. Greene is interested in a variety of different things including — but certainly not limited to — bird watching, volunteer work (especially in regards to voter registration), and Students for Immigrant Rights.
If you have the opportunity to take a course with Dr. Greene (or even just engage her in conversation), you definitely should. From her introductory level courses to 300-level ones, Dr. Greene brings her passion, enthusiasm, and yoga skills — if you’ve had a class with her you know what I’m talking about — to each course she teaches. Having Dr. Greene as my advisor has been integral in my success as a student here at NC State, and I’m sure is the case for many of my peers!
This post was written by Maura Wyatt, an anthropology major and a Department of Sociology and Anthropology student ambassador.
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