Crystal Sheedy

Dr. Sheedy joined USD's Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 2022. She is a cultural and linguistic anthropologist, who works in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and in Belize with Yucatec Maya speakers.

Dr. Sheedy's current courses include:

Cultural Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology
Socio-Cultural Theory
Shamanism, Magic, and Witchcraft
Art and Anthropology
Anthropology of Folklore
Cross-Cultural Study of Women
Anthropology of Food
World Ethnography
Ethnographic Methods

Cultural Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, Mesoamerican Studies, Indigenous Studies, Gender Studies, Folklore, Maya Culture and Language

Sheedy, Crystal, Contemporary Yucatec Maya Women’s Speech and Practice. Presented at the Do Something: Practice and Power, Vermillion, SD. (March 26, 2025)
Sheedy, Crystal, ‘Home’ Is Where the Conflict Is: Examining Maya Women’s Evaluative Speech . Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Tampa, FL. (November 21, 2024)
Sheedy, Crystal, Gendered Spaces: Speech and Practice Surrounding the K'óoben. Presented at the 2nd Coloquio Internacional Sobre Género y Sexualidad en la Historia del Área Maya, Mexico City, Mexico. (September 25, 2024)
Sheedy, Crystal, Transitions in the Maya World: Exploring Shifts in Landscape, Ways of Knowing, and Language Ideologies throughout Mexico and Guatemala. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA)/Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (November 15, 2023)
Sheedy, Crystal, Way Yaano’one’ (We are Here): Indigenous Geographies of Valladolid, Yucatán . Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA)/Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (November 15, 2023)
Sheedy, Crystal, and Vaske, Lauren , “Sharing the Dream”: Building Transnational Spaces in the Great Plains . Presented at the Plains Anthropological Society Annual Meeting, Rapid City, SD. (October 21, 2023)
Sheedy, Crystal, U T'aan Nukuch Maak (Words of the Elders): An Example of Yucatec Maya Women's Embodied Knowledge. Presented at the Primer Coloquio Internacional Sobre Genero y Sexualidad en la Historia del Area Maya, Mexico City, Mexico (Presented Remotely). (September 19, 2023)
Sheedy, Crystal, A Contentious Legacy: Unsettling Anthropology's Landscape to Build a Collaborative Discipline. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Seattle, WA. (November 12, 2022)
Sheedy, Crystal, Co-Creating Narratives about Yucatec Maya Culture. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Seattle, WA. (November 12, 2022)
Sheedy, Crystal, Contesting ‘Maya’-ness: Positioning Claims to ‘Maya’ and ‘Indigenous’ in the Context of Modernity. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Baltimore, MD. (November 2021)
Sheedy, Crystal, Máasewáal or Mestiza?: Configuring Indigeneity in the Yucatán Peninsula. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Baltimore, MD. (November 2021)
Sheedy, Crystal, Women’s Symbolic Space: Ancient Concepts in Maya Life Today. Presented at the Mesoamerica Meetings, Austin, TX. (January 2020)
Sheedy, Crystal, The Fear of Reflection: Taking a Reciprocal Ethnographic Approach. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA)/Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). (November 2019)
Sheedy, Crystal, Escucha a Ella: Indigenous Women’s Narratives in Mexico and Central America. Presented at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Boston, MA. (May 2019)
Sheedy, Crystal, U T’aan Nukuch Máak (Advice of the Elders): An Entrance into Maya Women’s Symbolic World. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), San Jose, CA. (November 2018)
Sheedy, Crystal, Turning Babies into ‘Mayas’: An Analysis of the Heets Méek’ Ceremony. Presented at the American Folklore Society (AFS), Buffalo, NY. (October 2018)
Sheedy, Crystal, Home as a Symbolic Space: Examples from Yucatec Maya Women’s Oral Literature. Presented at the Society for Linguistic Anthropology (SLA) Bi-Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. (March 2018)
Sheedy, Crystal, “A Woman’s Work is Never Done!”: Maya Women’s Competing Moral Obligations in a Changing World. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington, D.C.. (November 2017)
Sheedy, Crystal, Ancestral ‘Words’ in a Changing World: Maya Women’s Oral Literature. Presented at the American Folklore Society (AFS), Minneapolis, MN. (October 2017)
Sheedy, Crystal, ‘Lying Roads’: Maya Women’s Work and Cultural Realities in a Changing World. Presented at the Central States Anthropological Society Conference, Lincoln, NE. (April 2017)
Sheedy, Crystal, "Chismes is the Curse of Small Villages”: Situating Two Maya Women’s Moral Identities in a Changing World,”. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Minnesota, MN. (November 2016)
Sheedy, Crystal, The Reappropriation of Essentialized Traits for a Global Presence in Support of the Revitalization of a Local Identity. Presented at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington, D.C.. (November 2014)
Sheedy, Crystal, “A Mexican Spirit. A Mayan Soul”: The Creation of an International Tourist Playground on the East Coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. Presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology, Albuquerque, NM. (March 2014)
Sheedy, Crystal, Cross-Generational Change and Continuity: The Effects of a Monolithic National Culture on a Single Maya Family. Presented at the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology Bi-Annual Meeting, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. (March 2013)
Sheedy, Crystal, Negotiating Spaces: A Maya Woman’s Experience with Migration. Presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology, Seattle, WA. (March 2011)
Sheedy, Crystal, The Compromised Social Position of Maya Women in the Yucatán. Presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. (March 2010)

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