TERRY JAMES PREWITT 
Professor of Anthropology

Department of Anthropology
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, Florida 32514
850-474-2186

My B.A. in anthropology was awarded by San Diego State University in 1967, where I worked under the mentorship of Paul H. Ezell.  My graduate studies were completed at University of Oklahoma (M.A. 1974, Ph.D. 1979) where I worked under the direction of Stephen Thompson and Joseph Whitecotton.  I served in the United States Army Security Agency from 1969-1973.

I joined the UWF faculty in 1981 after teaching in visiting positions at University of Houston and University of Tulsa.  My courses cover a range of core topics in anthropology, support work for the arts and humanities, and occasional specialty courses.  My teaching responsibilities are currently shifting from mainly undergraduate teaching to a mix of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses.  These changes are a result of the establishment of an independent Anthropology Department and the addition of several new faculty. 

Though I began my career as a cultural ecologist, for many years my academic work has been dominated by studies in religion and semiotics.  My current activities also include creative non- fiction writing, critical studies of ethnography, postmodern theories of culture, studies of film and popular culture, and the anthropological history of Europe and North America.  I have been very slow in seeking publication of the longer of my two fiction works, but plan to push on that front during my 2006 sabbatical. I'm also thinking of a poetry collection involving pieces from the past several years.  A few examples of my recent writing are available through my home page [http://www.uwf.edu/tprewitt/], with short writing represented especially on links in some of my syllabi.  There are also links to my students' work and other personal pursuits.

While most of our department is focused on mainstream anthropological work, I continue to contribute to Interdisciplinary Humanities M.A. program, an inter-institutional Interdisciplinary Humanities program, Interdisciplinary Social Science programs, and the Social Science Ed.D. track housed in the College of Professional Studies at UWF.  Indeed, my interests in the arts and humanities remain very strong, especially performing arts and creative writing.  I have appeared in several UWF theater productions, including "Rocky Horror Show," "The Tempest," "Alice in Wonderland," "The Miser," and "Cabaret."  "Alice and Wonderland" and "Vinegar Tom" were innovative university productions directed by my student and colleague, Linda May, formerly of the CFPA. 

Through my connection with Northwest Florida Ballet I have appeared in several community productions, including the annual "Nutcracker," "Dracula," “Scheherezade,” and Pensacola Opera's "La Traviata." I have also encouraged and supported excellent choreographic work of my student/colleague Lavonne French.  All of this activity is fed by my continuing scholarly grounding in aesthetic elements of semiotic theory.  Though I'm capable of operating within the scholarly focus of anthropology and have helped several of my students establish themselves in anthropological careers, I find myself in recent years less inclined to "disciplinary" limitations.

As my anthropological presence "wafts," so to speak, my current work is becoming more formal and serious on the fronts of creative writing and making art, with plans for (at some opportune point) directing my own play and other collaborative work in theater and dance.  I am actively engaged, nonetheless, in books on the ethnography and ethnographic methods--so let us simply say that I'm very busy at dividing attention. Those familiar with contemporary ethnographic trends will not see all this activity as particularly disjointed. 

Courses taught in two-year rotation:

I began to "blend" all of my courses after teaching one on-line class and working in the distance classroom for two other classes over the past three years.  My writing and teaching have been closely connected, so much so that I'm enjoying a revival of both.  Over the past several terms I have worked about 60 hours a week divided between in-class activities, writing, and community service, including full days on campus and considerable evening and weekend time in on-line support of my students and community activities. The rest of my time is devoted to immediate family, grandchildren, and extended family ties.

professional and community activities:

Academic Council

CAS Academic Standards Committee

Co-Editor of the Semiotic Society Proceedings Project

Faculty Senate (Secretary)

Green Earth Fellowship (Pagan Ministry)

General Studies Committee

Humanities Interdisciplinary Committee

Local Arrangements, 2005 Semiotic Society of America Meeting Local Arrangements, 2006 Southern Anthropological Meeting

Phi Kappa Phi honor society
Women's Studies Faculty

Board of Advisors, Gulf Coast Zoological Society
Board Member, Northwest Florida Ballet

writing projects and books (from 1989):

----	The Uninvited Guest (Cultural Study). Manuscript in revision, based upon diverse preliminary draft materials on fieldwork in Ireland in 1986 and additional trips during the Summers of 1999, 2002, and 2005.  What began as "Alternative Ethnography" bridging social science and humanistic cultural studies perspectives has become, in the context of disciplinary developments, somewhat mainstream. [still in process, and first priority for Spring 2006]
----	The Squatter (A Bohemian Gothic Western). Fiction. (ms. 1995) Combines historical treatment of the Oklahoma settlement and Native American religiosity with elements of Czech vampire folklore -- horror and fun with a point, and a bite. I hope to sell it soon.
----	"The Marriage of Salome" (play) reworked from parts of A Gospel for James. Originally planned and cast for Summer 2005, but unfortunately the production didn't fit into the schedule--perhaps another time, when there is the proper intellectual climate.
----	A Gospel for James (ms. 1993). A "culture-critical" historical novel; publication negotiation a priority for Spring 2006. It doesn't do to have books laying around unpublished. [extract available at http://www.uwf.edu/tprewitt/writ.htm]
2003	Semiotics 2002 (with John Deely, co-editor). New York and Toronto: Legas Press.
1993	(with Dallas Blanchard, senior author) Religious Violence and Abortion: The Gideon Project. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, FL.
1993	Semiotics 1991 (with John Deely, co-editor). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
1993	Semiotics 1990/"Symbolicity" (with John Deely, Karen Haworth, and other co-editors). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
1990	The Elusive Covenant: A Structural-Semiotic Reading of Genesis. Indiana University Press: Bloomington, IN.
1990	Semiotics 1989 (with John Deely and Karen Haworth, co-editors). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
1989	Semiotics 1988 (with John Deely and Karen Haworth, co-editors). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Articles and Essays (from 1989)

	"Game Analogies of Social Discourse" and "Coexistent Systems." Essays drafted as part of the development of a book on linguistic and semiotic approaches to ethnographic methods.
	"Modern Feminist Witchcraft: Background for Cultural Comparison," and "Heritage and Practice." Essays drafted for placement in a book of contemporary earth-based religion, under development; currently also in use as readings in an online course on anthropology of religion offered through the University of West Florida.
	forthcoming: "Meaning in the Science of Signs." Publication of the session on Kenneth Pike's Language Theories as General Semiotic Theories, American Journal of Semiotics.
2005	"Themes in Dynamic Affirmations of Culture." Essay in the exhibition catalog for "Cultural Domestication--Instinctual Desire: An Exhibition of Contemporary Czech Art."  Center for the Visual Arts, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH.
2003	forthcoming: "Phallocentric Identity and the Vampiric Father." In Terry J. Prewitt and John Deely, eds., Semiotics 2002. New York and Toronto: Legas Press.
2002	"Introduction: The Big House Described." In Robert S. Grumet, ed., Voices from the Delaware Big House Ceremony. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 3-22.
2001	"Small World", in Terry Stocker, ed., Incidents (Tempe, AZ: Franklin Publishing)
1998	"Trickster and the Universal Elvis", (with Robert Philen) The American Journal of Semiotics, Volume 14 (Winter 1997 [1998]), 79-97. [also available at http://www.uwf.edu/tprewitt/writ.htm]
1998	"Reality and the Games of Wizards: Religious Semiosis and Universal Vision", in Roberta Kevelson, ed., High Fives: A Trip to Semiotics (New York: Peter Lang Publishers).
1993	"Unholy Anorexia: Vampires of the Body and Sign." In John Deely, ed., Semiotics 1992. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, pp. 300-319. [also on-line at http://www.uwf.edu/tprewitt/bmmain.htm]
1993	"Romancing Transgression: Modern Contexts for Ancient Texts." Review article in Semiotica, Vol. 85.
1992	"Geometry and the Hidden Algorithm of Discourse." In John Deely and Terry Prewitt, eds., Semiotics 1991 [bound with "Symbolicity"]. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, pp. 27-34.
1992	"Style, Structure and Unity: Critical Gleanings of Genesis 22-23." In Karen Haworth, John Deely, and Terry Prewitt, eds., Semiotics 1990. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, pp. 181-187 (in press).
1990	"Poetics and Presence: Simasia, Eghoismos and the Meaning of Ethnography." Semiotica, Vol. 82, Nos. 3/4, pp 329-338.
1990	"Like a Virgin: The Semiotics of Illusion in Erotic Performance" The American Journal of Semiotics, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 137-152; an expanded and revised version of the "The Exposed Exotic Dancer..." invited for a special issue on the Semiotics of Pornography).

Conference Papers (from 1993)

2006	Semeiotic, the Evolution of Anthroposemiosis, and the Meaning of “Language”, (with Karen Haworth) Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Pensacola, Florida.
2006	Religious Pluralism in the Jesus Cults of the 1^st and 2^nd Century: Was Jesus a Religious Eclectic or Xenophobe, Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Pensacola, Florida. (part of a panel on religious syncretism).
2005	"'The Daughter of Herodias' and the Legitimation of Jesus: Gospel Syntax and the 'God-Man' Paradigm." Annual meeting of the Semiotic society of American, Pensacola, Florida. (part of a panel on Culture and Text Analysis)
2005	"The Globalization of Irish Towns: Getting Wired in Lisdoonvarna." Annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Chattanooga, Tennessee. (part of a panel on Irish Ethnography and the Processes of Globalization).
2004	The Minimal Conditions of "Argument": Semiotics of Paleolithic Technology, Animal Tool Use, and Ape Signing in Relation to Human Language Origins, (with Karen Haworth), Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Atlanta, Georgia.
2003	Narrative Style and Themal Analysis in Ethnographic Representation: Examples from the Irish West, Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1999	"Appropriation and Creativity: Media and the New Mythmakers", (with Debra Davis, Stephanie Richardson, and Wayne McNeil), Annual Meeting of the National Association for Humanities Education, Jacksonville, Florida.
1999	"The Celtic Revitalization Movement, or Cinema : Culture :: Sagacity : Disillusionment", Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Atlanta, Georgia.
1997	"Coitus and Contempt: Evasive Men in the Era of Casual Sex", (with Emory Seale) Central States Anthropology Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1996	"Trickster and the Universal Elvis" (with Robert Philen), Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America, Santa Barbara, California. (Popular Culture, Elvis)
1995	"My Father, My Daughter: A Discourse of Absence and Silence" (with Shannon Self), Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America, San Antonio, Texas.
1994	"Relation, Text, Event: Explorations of Crystallographic Symmetry and Semiosis," V International Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Berkeley, California. .
1994	"Will the Real Queer Please Stand Up?" (with Robert Philen) V International Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Berkeley, California.
1994	"Fear and the Violence of the Ordinary," Central States Anthropology Conference, Kansas City, Missouri.
1993	"Where Myth and Mercer Meet." Semiotic Society of America (October), St. Louis.
1993	"An Invitation to Semiotics: Notes on a 21st Century Anthropology." Congreso Mundial de Semiotics y Comunication: La Dimension Educativa in Monterrey, Mexico.
1993	"Edacity, Sin-Imagick, and the Margins of the Semiosic Self." (with Robert Philen) Beloit, WI.