Bio
Bri Meyer is a sixth year PhD dissertator at UW-Madison and 2022 Virginia Horne Henry Distinguished Fellow. She does multispecies ethnography working with the American Saddlebred show horse community—of which she has been a lifelong member. Her specific research interests in this area include the creation and cultivation of caring bonds across species that are collaborative, embodied, and gendered.
She is also invested in discussions on the accessibility of anthropology and ethnographic writing, and how the “genre” of ethnography relates to and differs from other genres of literature. A recent endeavor to help bring academic writing to the public is becoming an editor for Edge Effects, a graduate-student run digital magazine.
Education
Bri holds a BA in Anthropology & English with a minor in Spanish language from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. She also participated in the Honors program and Symphonic Band there, where she was able to do three tours. Her Honors Capstone project focused on language, music, and tourism in Ireland.
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At UW Madison, Bri holds an MA in cultural anthropology and is ABD in her fifth year working toward her PhD completion. She is also affiliated with the Center for Culture, History, & Environment (CHE) on campus, including helping to organize their yearly graduate student symposiums and one international conference.
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Currently, Bri is doing archival trips and ethnographic fieldwork at horse shows around the country.
Employment
Bri has practical experience teaching in the anthropology department on campus, but specializes in pedagogical planning.
She has taught seven semesters of Anthropology 104, the introductory course to cultural anthropology offered by UW Madison. This course routinely has over 900 enrolled students, satisfying an Ethnic Studies Requirement for undergraduates. Bri works with a team of nine to ten other TAs to communicate the learning objectives for the course as equitably as possible throughout the sections. She herself teaches 86 students in four sections during the week.
In addition to practical teaching, Bri also has experience planning effective, active, and student-centered learning. During the Anthropology 104 REACH redesign to better streamline teaching and learning for the course, she helped develop new material and worked as the graduate liaison between the supervising faculty and TAs.
Through REACH, she also led anthropology TAs from the entire department in Teaching Development workshops on topics like "Teaching For & From an International Student's Perspective," "Planning & Keeping a Discussion Going," and "Writing a Syllabus."