After earning her bachelor’s degree in Chinese studies from Wellesley College, Assistant Professor Beth E. Notar spent some time in China in the 1980s. There were three different kinds of money in circulation at the time. One was a “tourist currency” and was issued, Notar says, “partially as a way of controlling foreigners and partially as a way of controlling certain goods and services that only foreigners would have access to.” The second currency was what Notar calls “an old revolutionary people’s money” used by the older workers and peasants. Finally, there was a new issue of the people’s money, which depicted China’s ethnic minorities on some of the smaller denominations. Notar says, “Looking at the different circulation of these currencies and the different symbolism of these currencies really got me thinking: What is money? What do we take for granted about money? How does money work?”

   Her interest in pursuing these intermingled economic, social, and cultural questions led her—two master’s degrees later—to a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. Here at Trinity since 2000, Notar has carved out an interdisciplinary niche in the curriculum. Her courses “Economic Anthropology,” “The Meanings of Money,” and “Women and Social Change” are sought by students majoring in anthropology, economics, Asian studies, and women’s studies. Associate Professor of Anthropology Jane Nadel-Klein, who chairs the anthropology department, says Notar has impressed her colleagues with her ability to make interdisciplinary connections and to reveal the broader implications of her own particular research. Says Nadel-Klein, “She has a remarkable breadth of knowledge, as well as a depth of knowledge in her own field.”

Active learning

   Among her students, Notar is known for favoring active learning. For example, in “Introduction to Anthropology,” typically a large lecture class, Notar expects students to show their understanding of concepts through role-playing. “If I’m teaching about family and kinship systems cross-culturally, I want them to try to put themselves in the position of someone in another culture and another family system,” she says. Notar also engages students with interesting projects. “She’s creative with her assignments,” says Melissa L. Pytlak ’02, who took Notar’s “Time and Culture” course. “We had to create our own calendar or system for keeping track of time—really our own concept of time.” In the “Meanings of Money” class last fall, students had to make their own currency and then try to use it in an exchange. “I find that students are very creative. They have a lot of ideas,” says Notar. “I want to somehow tap into that creativity and get them to express it.”

Integrated fieldwork

   While fostering creative thinking, Notar also teaches the skills and techniques employed by professional anthropologists. Thus, she integrates fieldwork into her courses whenever possible. After reading a text about a center for the elderly in Los Angeles, students in the “Time and Culture” course last spring visited the Hartford Artisan’s Center, where they interacted with individuals from 60 years old on up. Notar says her goal was to have students learn the art and science of conducting oral history interviews, while at the same time illuminating the topics raised by the book—how do the elderly in our society negotiate the pace of life and think about work and identity? Says Notar, “I wanted students to get a more empathetic understanding through doing the interviews.” 

   Notar has since received a grant from the Hartford Metropolitan Research Fund and is collaborating with two students—Melissa Pytlak ’02 and Andrew Hatch ’03—to continue oral history interviews at the Artisan’s Center. One result has been experimenting with a new technique for loosening the memories of the interviewees. Notar and her collaborators integrated their project with workshops conducted by a local poet, who brought in poems for the artisans to read and discuss. Says Notar, “Then we would use those poems as a springboard for asking people about their life stories.” Notar says she and her students will write an article about using this method as well as produce a pamphlet on life stories of people at the center.

   Starting in March, Notar will engage students in another research project in Hartford. Building on a study conducted several years ago by Professor of Sociology Noreen L. Channels and Director of the Trinity Center for Neighborhoods Alta Lash, Notar and students in her “Economic Anthropology” course will look at wages and prices in the Hartford region and compare them to a national price index for basic commodities. Meanwhile Notar continues to find rich avenues for exploration in China. She is currently working on a research paper about the meanings of money in China from the 1920s through the 1940s, when there were hundreds of competing currencies, and on a manuscript about the impact of tourism on the minority community in the borderland between China and Burma. Again the research raises myriad issues of money as symbolic, money as commodity, money as a political tool, and the ritual uses of money.  “There’s this Chinese saying that a 10,000- mile journey begins with the first step,” says Notar. “So, I’m taking the first step, and I’ll be pursuing this for a while.”

 –Leslie Virostek

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