Visiting assistant Professor of international and global studies
Diana P. Hatchett is a cultural anthropologist interested in religion, the state, education, and the global fitness industry, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa Region. She conducts fieldwork in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Dr. Hatchett earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky, her M.A. from the University of Chicago, and her B.A. from the University of the South. At Sewanee, she teaches courses on the Middle East, including: Cultures of the Middle East; The Body and the Body Politic in the Middle East; and Middle Eastern Diasporas. Dr. Hatchett also has offered anthropology courses, such as Introductory Cultural Anthropology; Anthropology of the State; and Southern Cultures.
Currently, Dr. Hatchett is working on a book based on her ethnographic research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The ethnography, Captivating State: Youthful Dreams and Uncertain Futures in Kurdistan, tells the stories of Kurdistani teenagers and young adults experiencing the push and pull of living in a “captivating state” in two senses of the phrase: One sense refers to a state of feeling trapped due to war and displacement, sociocultural barriers, or lacking resources to emigrate. The other sense of “captivating state” refers to the Iraqi and Kurdistani states and the power they hold over the imaginations and affections of their citizens. Throughout the ethnography, people negotiate the ethics of staying or leaving Iraq; debate descriptions of and prescriptions for the state and civic order; and express doubts and hopes for uncertain futures. Captivating State provides a view of ethical life in Kurdistan that centers young people and their moral striving at the intersections of “sectarianism,” state-making, and the struggle to generate hope.
