Cherubim Quizon, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Anthropology
Department of Sociology Anthropology and Social Work

Dr. Quizon studies how ideas of nation, ethnicity and the self relate to symbols and their transformation, whether approached as material culture, art or popular imagery. Her principal research is on the textiles and dress of the Bagobo of Mindanao, the Philippines using multi-site fieldwork to understand contemporary indigenous textile practices while critically engaging with American museum collections from the 1900s. She broadly explores the politics of representation whether in living anthropological displays of peoples in World's Fairs; in tropes of indigenism and dictatorship in 20th century painting; and in lexical and visual signifiers for indigenous peoples in the 21st century that diverge from indigenous modes of self-ascription. By applying ethnographic and material culture perspectives, her research unpacks categories of "modern" and "traditional" in various discourses from nationalist to neoliberal to tourism/development. She has collaborated with peers in various disciplines and institutions on the use of ethnography for within-community research as well as short video in field-and-museum representations. She continues her exploration of how Southern Mindanao's textile-producing communities negotiate national and transnational social spaces while building on prior work on the cultural history of abaca/banana fiber within the broader context of loom and fiber technology in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. 

Dr. Quizon teaches introductory courses in Cultural Anthropology and Linguistic Anthropology, Qualitative Research Methods, Anthropological Theory, Senior Seminar as well as advanced electives in Visual Anthropology and Anthropology of Art. She also teaches in the University Core, is an advisory board member of the Women and Gender Studies Program, participates in university-wide Digital Humanities initiatives, and is a member of the editorial board representing the Social Sciences for Locus: The Seton Hall Undergraduate Research Journal.