Michael Joseph Francisconi

Mailing Address:
710 S. Atlantic
Western Montana College Box 2
Dillon, MT 59725

Phone: (406) 683 7328 E-mail: m_franciscon@wmc.edu

Major Influences on Professional Life:

At the University of Oregon my Mentors were Al Szymanski & Vern Dorjahn.

Intellectually other influences were: Classical Marxist-Syndicalist, Marx, Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, V.I. Lenin, Paul Sweezy, Andre Gunder Frank, Antonio Gramsci, Bill Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Philip Foner,  Eleanor Burke Leacock, substantivist economists, Karl Polanyi, George Dalton, Marshall Sahlins, Cultural Materialism (Anthropology), Julian H. Steward, Leslie A. White, Marvin Harris, Weberian Social Theory

Other influences include: Eric Wolf, Jon Bodley, Philip Young, Michael Parenti, James Theodore Salt, John Bellany Foster, A.V. Chayanov, Vallon Burris, Claude Meillsoux, Maurice Godlier, Amilcar Cabral, Albert Camus, Michael Bakunin, Peter Kroptotkin.

From living six years among the Dine' (Navajo) I learned to see the world from more than one pair of eyes.  The philosophy of the Dine' taught me that K'e' of the Dine' means not only am I my sister and brother's keeper, they are my keeper as well.  The Dine' were teachers who always taught that romantic is good. Naayee'eek'egho (male protection) and Hozhoojik'egho (female happiness), taught me about change that is constantly evolving in which each part constantly influences and is influenced by every other part.

Subfields of interest within Anthropology:

Navajo (Dine') cultural emersion, Labor Studies, Economic Anthropology, Political Anthropology, Political Sociology, Cultural Ecology, Social Stratification, Social Movements and Native American Studies.  Research interests include Native Americans, informal economies, organized labor history, and African studies.

Interests in the Anthropology of Work:

Informal Economy, rank and file labor movement, labor history, globalization, neo-colonial dependency, anti-colonial movements, sovereignty of indigenous peoples.

Regions of specialization and Languages:

USA, Africa, third and fourth world in general (see above).

Major Publications:

Kinship, Capitalism, Change: The Informal Economy of the Navajo Nation
Tribute to Paulo Freire in Critical Pedagogy Summer 2000

 Other Relevant Information (Current research, interests, goals):

At this time I am working on research  exploring Tribal Sovereignty, Culture, and Economy, as a comparative study between the Navajo Nation and the Montana tribes, particularly the Crow Nation, through both education and economic programs.  The role of education in cultural preservation and how this is used to deal with economic issues within these nations is a specific focus.  This research will be connected to the Intensive Summer Institute for Montana Educators. Other research interests include the radical agrarian movement in Sheridan County Montana in the 1920's - 1930's.