Rachel Fleming, second from left, in Bangalore, India with nursing college instructors. (Photo courtesy of Rachel Fleming)

Graduate student Rachel Fleming is a rising star in CU-Boulder's Department of Anthropology. As a third year PhD student, her research interests include South India, South Asian cities, and the changing of gender roles, especially in the professionalism of women.

“CU is a good place to study anthropology and it is getting stronger every year,” said Fleming. “There are anthropology resources for globalization and changing gender roles.”

Before coming to CU-Boulder, Fleming earned her bachelors degree in anthropology from Dartmouth College, and masters in urban planning from the University of North Carolina. Fleming came to CU-Boulder on a Chancellor's Fellowship in the fall of 2007. “I’ve always been very interested in urban places and the way cities grow and peoples’ lives change,” said Fleming.

This academic school year, Fleming has been active in organizing and participating in campus events. She helped to organize the Department of Anthropology's two-day interdisciplinary conference, Memory + Truth, a conference that focused on the relationship of memory and truth in the social, cultural, and political contexts. She will also help to organize next year's interdisciplinary conference, “States of Belonging,” to be held in late September. Fleming is advanced in the Hindi language, and demonstrated her skills by participating in Hindi Language Night on April 2. On April 6, she contributed to the 11th Annual Asian Language Night.

Next year, Fleming will be spending one year studying abroad in southern India and Bangladesh. While there, she plans to immerse herself in ethnographic fieldwork concerning women's lives after migrating from rural communities, and the professional opportunities available to them. “Bangladesh is the IT capital,” said Fleming. “There are opportunities for well-educated migrants, especially women.”

Fleming has taken her studies abroad in the past with the help of several grants. The Chancellor's Fellowship, the Beverly Sears Award from the Graduate School, and the Goldstein Graduate Award from the Department of Anthropology funded her 2009 summer trip to Bangalore, India.

“My next step will be applying for major field grants all over the country,” said Fleming. “I will also be taking an advanced Hindi course.”

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