Claudia Strauss

AM, PhD, Harvard University
AB, Brown University

Professor Strauss studies personal and cultural meanings of social policy issues such as immigration and economic fairness.  Her current research investigates diverse work meanings in the United States.  Her areas of expertise also include psychological anthropology, culture theory, American political culture, discourse analysis, and qualitative social research methods.

Language, Culture, and Society (ANTH03)

Psychological Anthropology (ANTH 70)

Fields Methods in Anthropology (ANTH 105)

The Future (FS 21)

U.S. Cultures and Society (ANTH 80)

Life Stories (ANTH 83)

Anthropology of Public Policy (ANTH 86)

What Work Means: Beyond the Puritan Work Ethic. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
(2024)

Political Sentiments and Social Movements: The Person in Politics and Culture. (Co-
edited with Jack Friedman) NY: Palgrave. (2018)

Making Sense of Public Opinion: American Discourses about Immigration and Social
Programs. NY: Cambridge University Press. (2012)(Finalist, Society for Psychological
Anthropology Stirling Award, 2014)

A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning. (Co-authored with Naomi Quinn) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (1997)

Human Motives and Cultural Models. (Co-edited with Roy D’Andrade) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (1992)

“Small work pleasures and two types of well-being,” Economic Anthropology,11(2) (2024):1-10. http://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12314

“What is (and is not) a cultural model,” in G. Bennardo, V. de Munck, S. Chrisomalis,
eds., Cognition In and Out of the Mind: Cultural Model Theory, NY: Palgrave
(forthcoming)

“‘It feels so alien’ or the same old s—: Attachment to divergent cultural models in insecure times,” Ethos, special issue, “Culture and Economic Adversity,” E. Lowe and C. Strauss, special issue editors. (2018)

“The complexity of culture in persons,” in N. Quinn, ed., Advances in Culture Theory from Psychological Anthropology. NY: Palgrave (2018)

“Positive thinking about being out of work in Southern California following the Great Recession.” In Anthropologies of Unemployment: The Changing Study of Work and Its Absence, Jong Bum Kwon and Carrie M. Lane, Eds.  Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (2016)

“Blaming for Columbine: Conceptions of agency in the contemporary United States. Current Anthropology 48(6): 807-822, and “Reply,” Current Anthropology 48(6): 827-832. (2007)

“Analyzing discourse for cultural complexity.” In Naomi Quinn, ed. Finding Culture in Talk: A Collection of Methods. NY: Palgrave. (2005)