William Beeman

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William O. Beeman

Born	Manhattan, Kansas, birth date unknown
Occupation	Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, author, opera singer, and actor
Website www.wbeeman.com

William Orman Beeman is an actor, author, singer, and professor of anthropology at The University of Minnesota, where he is Chair of the Department of Anthropology. For many years he was Professor of Anthropology; Theatre, Speech and Dance; and East Asian Studies at Brown University. Born in Manhattan, Kansas, Beeman was the recipient of an award named in honour of opera baritone, George London. From 1996-1999 Beeman sang under contract with Oper Chemnitz in the German city of Chemnitz. He authored the book: The Third Line: The Opera Performer as Interpreter with opera stage director Daniel Helfgot.

[edit] Background

Beeman was trained as a linguistic anthropologist at Wesleyan University and the University of Chicago. He gained fame through his extensive writing, having authored several books and more than 100 scholarly articles on communication dynamics in the United States, Iran, Japan and South Asia. His Language, Status and Power in Iran has become a classic, as has his Culture, Performance and Communication in Iran.^{[citation needed]}Beeman, William O. (1982). Culture, Performance and Communication in Iran. Tokyo, Japan: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia & Africa. His most recent work, The “Great Satan” vs. the “Mad Mullahs”: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other Beeman, William O. (2005). The “Great Satan” vs. the “Mad Mullahs”: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood Publishers. ISBN 0275982149. Beeman, William O. (2008). The “Great Satan” vs. the “Mad Mullahs”: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other, 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-04147-6. , dealing with the negative discourse and rhetoric between Iran and the United States for the past 30 years has had enormous influence on national attitudes toward the Bush administration's attacks on Iran,^{[citation needed]} and the possibility of military conflict between the two nations.

An important aspect of his work has been in the field of performance studies, particularly the study of non-Western theatrical traditions. In Iran, this includes the Iranian ritual passion drama, ta'ziyeh and the comic improvisatory theatre tradition, ru-howzi. He has also studied traditional performance in Japan, China and South Asia. His interest in the art world is also shown in his contribution to the co-authored volume Object, Image and Inquiry: The Art Historian at Work. He has authored more than 500 opinion pieces and media essays, and is the author of the blog Culture and International Affairs.

An admirer of the late anthropologist, Margaret Mead, Beeman has edited seven volumes of her post-World War II papers, having written scholarly introductions for several of them, including The Study of Culture at a Distance, and Studying Contemporary Western Society: Method and Theory.