Meet our new faculty: Matthew DeMaio

Matthew DeMaio, anthropology and sociology | Photo by Adam Atkinson

My research focuses on: My research is situated at the intersection of anthropology, urban studies, and human geography, and considers questions of displacement, place, digital placemaking, belonging, identity, memory, urban space, and urban refugee encampment among Palestinian refugees. Specifically, my current project considers questions of attachment to place amid experiences of iterative displacement. I focus on the former residents of the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp in Damascus, Syria, who, having lived in Syria as refugees for decades, suddenly found themselves displaced from Syria by civil war. Fieldwork for this project included in-person ethnographic research in Lebanon and Jordan, as well as digital and archival study of maps, city plans, U.N. and governmental documents, photographs, and videos. In tracing the experiences of these Palestinian refugees who have been forced to flee violence multiple times over lives and generations, I explore what it means to belong to a place, how such feelings of attachment arise, and how they change as people encounter and spend time in new places. 

This fall, I am teaching: AS 233: Anthropology of the City and AS 342: Theories of Society 

What students can expect from me: Students can expect a dynamic classroom experience that mixes lectures, group activities, and class discussion. In my classes, we analyze and learn from a variety of materials including books, articles, videos, films, and podcasts. I also like to introduce students to the abundance of resources available to them as Lafayette students and Easton residents. This includes, for example, exploring special archival collections at Skillman and the Easton Area Public Library and making use of engaging technologies for researching, organizing and presenting ethnographic projects such as Scalar and ArcGIS’s StoryMaps platform.

Getting to know me: This is actually my second year at Lafayette College, having begun last year as a visiting assistant professor. In addition to my professional interests, I am an avid baker and music obsessive, often winding down on weekends by finding new recipes to make and new records to listen to.

Meet Lafayette College’s new faculty.