Joel M. Halpern Papers, 1840-2007

Summary Information

Description

Summary

Papers of Joel M. Halpern, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The collection contains bio-bibliographic data, census data and other information pertaining to American expeditions to former Yugoslavia.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

Material is unprocessed. Please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

This collection has no restrictions.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Joel M. Halpern Papers; Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

401 and 2007.2008.M043: Source of acquisition--Joel M. Halpern.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Collection-level record describing unprocessed material made public in summer 2018 as part of the Hidden Collections initiative.

Revision Description

07/14/2020 Biographical note was written by Tanya Chebotarev and added to the record by Katia Shraga. Authorities updated, ksd

Biographical / Historical

Joel Halpern (1929-2019), cultural anthropologist, Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Halpern was an adventurer and a keen observer who from an early age set his own path. As a youth, he rejected his father's advice that he study chemistry, and instead earned a BA in history from the University of Michigan and a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University.

His PhD dissertation on the Serbian village of Orašac received the Clarke F. Ansley Award from Columbia University Press and was published in 1956 as A Serbian Village. Throughout his long career, he conducted ethnographic research in regions ranging from Lapland to Laos, and is best known for his studies of the effects of modernization in the Balkans, particularly the work he and his former wife Barbara performed in Orašac, which spanned six decades.

He also engaged in fieldwork in Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, India, Israel, the former Soviet Union, Sweden, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam. He was on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles; Brandeis University; and the Russian Research Center at Harvard before arriving at UMass–Amherst in 1967, where he taught until his retirement in 1993.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

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Name
Halpern, Joel M. (Joel Martin), 1929-2019	CLIO Catalog	ArchiveGRID
University of Massachusetts Amherst	CLIO Catalog	ArchiveGRID
Place
Yugoslavia	CLIO Catalog	ArchiveGRID