Miria Kano, MA, Anthropology
Senior Ethnographer
Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Email: mkano@bhrcs.org


Miria Kano is a Senior Ethnographer at PIRE's new satellite, the Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest since 2004. Prior to joining the PIRE team, Miria worked as a grant writer for 6 years. Over the last 6 years, Miria has taught several courses in Women Studies and Anthropology at the University of New Mexico and the College of Santa Fe including, "Women in Contemporary Society," "Lesbian History, Culture and Politics," and "The Land of Entrapment: 100 Years of New Mexico History and Politics." Currently, she works as an ethnographer on the "Ethnographic Assessment of Behavioral Health Care Reform in New Mexico," and is in the process of developing papers from the preliminary project findings of, "Gender, Ethnicity and Mental Health in a Rural State."

Miria is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. She holds a Master Degree in Anthropology, 2002, and a Bachelor of University Studies, 1999, both from the University of New Mexico.

While not working on other PIRE projects at the moment, Miria is in the information gathering phase of her dissertation research, "Women Rabbis of New Mexico: The Politics and Performance of Life History." This study uses life histories to explore the history and nature of the shift in liberal Judaism resulting from the first ordination of women rabbis in 1972, and examines the subjective accounts of rabbis who draw from their experiences in the Women's and Civil Rights Movements, as well as other political and religious venues to become pioneering Jewish leaders. Miria is a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, the Association for Feminist Anthropology, and the Society for the Anthropology of Religion. She also serves on the Fundraising Committee for Congregation Nahalat Shalom in Albuquerque, New Mexico.