Posted on the door of Mellon Professor Brenda Bright's office, along with her office hours, is a sign patterned after a graffiti-style mural in Los Angeles which espouses her own personal philosophy: "Study your CULTURE and learn to be proud of it."
For Bright, who said she takes pride in "understanding how culture works and in working to make it better," the sign affirms her belief that people should study their own cultures.
Bright, who will leave the College in June when her Mellon professorship expires, said she has been especially delighted to be teaching at the College because she has been able to teach Latin American and Caribbean Studies, her area of expertise.
"It's not always the case that anthropologists get to teach their specialty. Usually, we have to deal with the theoretical aspects of the profession," Bright said.
In her two-year stay at the College, Bright has accomplished many things, but perhaps none more important to her than her support for the advancement of Latino studies.
Bright stressed the importance for all people to learn about Latino culture, and she said she was particularly impressed with the efforts of a group that pushed for the creation of a permanent Latino and Caribbean Studies program at the College two years ago.
She especially praised Ana Henderson '94, who spearheaded the effort, saying Henderson "really understood institutional politics."
"I know people at other colleges who are in similar situations, and I think that it speaks well of the College and the administration that such an program was instituted," Bright said. "It shows that Dartmouth has an open environment as an institution."
Bright said she has found her students and colleagues to be wonderful during her time at the College.
"The students are intelligent and are really interested in the material, which makes for a stimulating environment," she said.
She added she finds the diversity of her students exciting, and she has enjoyed helping students with their individual projects and advising their theses.
Henderson said that Bright brought a wealth of knowledge about Latino issues to the campus and helped students who wanted to pursue independent studies about Latino issues.
"It was this that we had most missed on campus prior to her arrival," Henderson wrote.
"In addition to being a professor, [Bright] has been a valuable resource to students and the community as a whole," she continued.
Among her colleagues, Bright said she has found a wonderful working environment as well. "There are people in many different departments -- anthropology, history, LACS, Spanish, and geography -- who are genuinely interested in Latino studies," she said. Bright's interest in culture, however, extends beyond her academic pursuits. She enjoys reading mysteries, particularly those written by a Mexican novelist named Taibo.
"I really enjoy the fact that his books have no resolutions, and he explores all different kinds of social groups, and especially the particular problems of the specific groups," she said.
While she has enjoyed her time at Dartmouth, teaching at the College has also presented some interesting "problems" for Bright.
Her responsibilities as a professor and a scholar take her away from her time at home in Amherst, Mass., said Bright, who stays in Hanover from Tuesday to Thursday and then spends her long weekends at home.
According to Bright, it has been particularly difficult to leave her two children, Irene and Jimmy, at home. "My husband is a wonderful child care taker, so I don't worry too much about them. They miss me and I miss them, but they're doing okay," she said.
In her spare time, Bright enjoys "building things" and ice skating, an activity that surprisingly is not entirely foreign to her in Texan upbringing.
Bright said an ice skating rink was built near her home when she was a teenager, and she had the opportunity to skate a few times there. "And since I don't have the time to go skiing right now," said Bright, "ice skating is the perfect winter activity."
For Bright, teaching here at Dartmouth has been a joy which she equated to "having immense amounts of ice cream."
In the past two years, Bright has had the opportunity to teach a course in Latino popular culture, which has been the major focus of her academic work.
She deals mainly with expressive forms of mass culture society, specifically car customizing, and is currently working on a monograph titled: "Low Rider: Culture in the Time of the Automobile."
Now negotiating with both the Columbia University Press and the University of California Press, she anticipates having a book deal in the near future.
Bright's interest in Low Riders stems in part from her educational background. She began studying architecture because she had always liked art and design, and because her father, a contractor, was a role model.
As an architect, she said she was always interested in how thing were put together, but she became dissatisfied with architecture and its insularity.
She decided to study anthropology after a few years as an architect, and received her Ph.D. from Rice University.
According to Bright, anthropology "allows me to look at things and wonder why they look like they do, and what exactly is the reason behind that."
Bright also said that her interest in anthropology was fueled by a trip she made to Chiapas, Mexico, when she was still an architect.
But Bright's educational background is not the sole reason for her interest in the Low Rider. She grew up in Houston, one of the areas that she uses for her studies of the Low Rider and of mass culture today.
Her studies also focus on Los Angeles and northern New Mexico.
Although she is not yet sure what she will be doing when her Mellon professorship ends in June, Bright said she would like to be teaching.
"I'm currently in the process of applying to different places, including the Latino professor position here at Dartmouth," Bright said. "I'd be very happy to continue teaching here."
