David Delgado Shorter
Associate Professor
UCLA
World Arts and Cultures
120 Westwood Plaza,
Suite 150
Box 951608
Los Angeles, CA 900951608 USA
tel: 310.825.3951
fax: 310.825.7507
www.davidshorter.com
Bio Sketch
David Shorter was raised in New Mexico, USA, and studied Religious Studies and Women’s
Studies at Arizona State University for both his Bachelors and Masters degrees. He then
attended the University of California Santa Cruz. After receiving his PhD in the History of
Consciousness, he went on to teach in American Studies at Wesleyan University in
Connecticut and then in Folklore at Indiana University in Bloomington. Currently a professor
at the University of California Los Angeles, he lives in Los Angeles. His first book, We Will
Dance Our Truth, evolves from decades of learning about indigenous lifeways, primarily
among the Yoeme communities in northwest Mexico. Dr. Shorter's work explores other-thanhuman relations and the myths and rituals of native people around the globe. Among his
favorite classes to teach are "Tribal Worldviews," “Indigenous Film and Video,” and
“Ethnographies of/as Colonialism.”
Area(s) of Expertise
Ethnography
Colonialisms
Digital Technologies
Intellectual Property Rights
Ritual, Symbol, Myth
Borderlands of Science (UFOlogy, psychics, ghosts)
“Indigenous Methodologies and Theories”
Current Research Activities
Post-Cartesian Theoretical Postulates for Indigenous Studies
Indigenous Filmmaking aesthetics in popular and documentary form
Digital technology and language revitalization
Healing practices among contemporary Yoeme communities
A critical analysis of “sacred” and “spiritual” categories in indigenous studies
Two Key Publications (pick two only)
ISRN Research Affiliate
(October 2010). We Will Dance Our Truth: Yaqui History in Yoeme Performance. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press.
(February 2005). Vachiam Eecha/Planting the Seeds: Yoeme Culture and Language
Web-based publication, permanently hosted by New York University.
http://www.hemisphericinstitute.org/eng/cuaderno.shtml
ISRN Research Affiliate