Krista Harper

Krista Harper, professor of anthropology, is a cultural anthropologist with specializations in Europe (Hungary and Portugal), urban environmental and social movements, and qualitative research methods.

In her most recent book, Participatory Digital and Visual Research in the Social Sciences (Routledge, 2015), Harper and coauthor Aline Gubrium explore innovative uses of digital and visual methodologies to involve community members in data collection and analysis and to communicate findings to policymakers and the public. Her 2006 book, Wild Capitalism: Environmental Activists and Post-Socialist Ecology in Hungary, examined changing meanings of both “civil society” and the “environment” during the transformation from state socialism. Harper also studies policy debates about urban agriculture and food justice. Her recent multiyear grant from the National Science Foundation has assisted UMass in establishing an international research and training program in Barcelona, Spain.

Harper received her PhD in anthroplogy from the University of California, Santa Cruz.