Phyllis Pease Chock

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Phyllis Pease Chock is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in American ethnicity and discourses of cultural identity, "ethnicity," and gender, particularly about "citizenship."  Her work has focused especially on Greek-Americans and the symbols and meanings in which they explore their identities as "Greek" and as "American" and the play of gender in discourses about such identities.

Recently she has published studies of Congressional testimony and other official discourses on what it means to be American.   Among her publications are:

--"The Constrained Use of Irony in U.S. Congressional Testimony" (2001).

--" 'A Very Bright Line': Birth, Nature, and Reason in U.S. Congressional Hearings on Birthright Citizenship" (1999).

-- "Porous Borders: Discourses of Difference in Congressional Hearings on Immigration" (1997).

--" 'No New Women': Gender, 'Alien,' and 'Citizen' in Congressional Debate on Immigration Reform" (1996).

--"'Illegal Aliens' and 'Opportunity': Myth-making in Congressional Testimony" (1991).

--"The Self-Made Woman: The Success Story and Gender in Greek-American Family Histories" (1995).

--"Ambiguity in Policy Discourse: Congressional Talk about Immigration" (1995)

--"Culturalism: Pluralism, Culture, and Race in The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups" (1995).

--"'Your Friend, the Illegal': Definition and Paradox in Newspaper Accounts of Immigration Reform," Co-authored with Susan B. Coutin (1995).

This page was last updated on 09/16/03.