Varenne, Herve H. (hhv1)

Hervé Varenne

Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education
212-678-3190

Office Location:

378 GDodge

Office Hours:

Fall 2024:Tuesdays 1:00 – 3:00p.m., Thursdays 3:00 – 5:00p.m.  Email ahead to notify.Via Zoom, by appointment only: Mondays - Thursdays. Email directly to make appointment.

Educational Background

License-ès-Lettres, Université d'Aix-Marseille, 1968
M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1972

Scholarly Interests

Culture, communication, and education with special attention to comparative and historical conditions.  Polity and community theory, particularly as it applies to families, their immediate situations, and their positions in a global humanity as the joint production of all involved.

Selected Publications

Americans Together: Structured Diversity in A Midwestern Town.  (1977).

American School Language: The Rhetorical Structuring of Daily Life in a Suburban High School. (1983)

Symbolizing America. (Editor. 1986)

Ambiguous Harmony: Family Talk in America  (1992).

Successful failure: The School America builds, with Ray McDermott (1998).

Alternative anthropological perspectives on education Volume 1 of the Perspectives on Comprehensive Education, (co-edited with Edmund W. Gordon 2008)

Theoretical Perspectives on Comprehensive Education: The Way Forward.  Volume 2 of the Perspectives on Comprehensive Education, (co-edited with Edmund W. Gordon 2009)

Educating Comprehensively: Varieties of Educational Experiences. Volume Three of the Perspectives on Comprehensive Education Series (Third editor with Linda Lin and Edmund W. Gordon 2010)

Educating in life: Ethnographies of challenging new normal, a collective book with J. de Wolfe, J. Koyama, G. Oliveira, S. Samaddar, M. Scroggins, D. Souleles, J. Van Tiem, S. Wessler. (2019)

Related Articles

TC Education Anthropologist Herve Varenne Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Herve Varenne, TC Professor of Anthropology and Education, has received the George and Louise Spindler Award for lifetime achievement from the Council on Anthropology and Education.

A Group of TC Faculty Condemns the Release of Teacher Evaluations Based on Student Test Scores

Group of TC Faculty Condemn the Release of Teacher Evaluations Based on Student Test Scores

Whither the Future of Anthropology in Education?

Eminent scholars gathered at TC in October to consider ways to sustain and make relevant a shrinking field

Can History Point to What Ails Educational Testing Today?

An upcoming TC conference will focus on the history, current issues, and future of testing in education.

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