Dear Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of Keri Brondo as the inaugural Lambros Comitas Chair in Applied Anthropology, effective January 1, 2026. Professor Brondo has been a visiting professor in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies this fall, where the position is based. 

As the inaugural Comitas Chair, Professor Brondo will extend the historic legacy and reputation of TC’s programs in anthropology and education, and applied anthropology, through her research and scholarship, teaching and mentorship of students. The new Chair was established in the name of the late Lambros Comitas, the former Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology & Education, among the world's preeminent scholars on Hispanic and non-Hispanic cultures in the Caribbean, and a beloved member of TC’s faculty and community for more than half a century.

Professor Brondo is an applied environmental anthropologist whose research focuses on the intersection of development policy, local livelihoods and environmental change, particularly in Honduras’ Caribbean coastal and island communities. Past projects explored the gendered impacts of Garifuna territorial dispossession and land rights activism, the sociocultural impacts of marine protected area legislation, and the relationship between multispecies conservation voluntourism, and the affected economy. Most recently she has worked on environmental education in the Bay Islands, collaborating with islanders and conservation professionals to incorporate local voices, memories, and knowledge to produce new K-12 environmental education learning modules. She is working on a new project around the politics of joy that considers the interconnections between environmental change, trauma, pain, and systemic oppression, bridging applied environmental and medical anthropology.  

Professor Brondo has published five books and more than 80 journal articles, book chapters, reviews and commentaries. Her publications include: Land Grab: Green Neoliberalism, Gender, and Garifuna Resistance (U Arizona Press, 2013); Cultural Anthropology: Contemporary, Public, and Critical Readings (Oxford University Press, 2017; 2022); Anthropological Theory for the 21st Century: Thinking with the Canon (with A. Lynn Bolles, Ruth Gomberg, and Bernard Perley) (University of Toronto Press, 2022); and Voluntourism and Multispecies Collaboration; Life, Death, and Conservation in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, (University of Arizona Press, 2021), awarded the 2022 Ed Bruner Book Prize from the Council on Heritage and the Anthropology of Tourism. Her most recent book, Culture, Nature, and Sustainability: An Anthropological Introduction (with Luis Vivanco) is forthcoming from Wiley Press.

Prior to joining Teachers College, Professor Brondo served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Memphis and she has been widely recognized for her research and leadership in the field of anthropology. Professor Brondo was a National Geographic Explorer (2019-2021) and the recipient of several distinguished awards including the Presidential Award from the American Anthropological Association (2016) and the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Award (2024) at the University of Memphis. A former Fulbright scholar and Title VI FLAS recipient, Professor Brondo received her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Michigan State University.

Professor Brondo’s exceptional contributions to research and leadership in applied anthropology will not only carry forward the unparalleled legacy of Professor Comitas, but will continue to strengthen and expand our institution’s program offerings in the field. I could not be happier to have her join our stellar faculty. Please join me in warmly congratulating Keri Brondo on her new role and welcoming her to the Teachers College community.

Sincerely,

KerryAnn O'Meara
Provost and Dean of the College
Professor of Higher Education
Teachers College, Columbia University
she/her/hers