Christina Cappy is an instructor of anthropology at K1体育 鈥 Cascades and Central Oregon Community College. Since starting at K1体育-Cascades in 2017, she has designed and taught a range of courses in the fields of cultural and linguistic anthropology, as well as mentored honors students. She previously acted at the part-time faculty representative on the Faculty Senate at COCC and currently serves as the associated faculty representative on Academic Faculty Council at K1体育-Cascades.
Cappy received two masters and a joint Ph.D. in anthropology and educational policy studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on language, culture and education in South Africa. She received a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship to conduct research in low-income South African high schools where she examined how education shapes a sense of belonging and morality.
In 2019 Cappy founded Bend Language Institute, a collaboration of higher education and K-12 teachers that offers small group classes and private lessons in several different languages. Through BLI鈥檚 classes, organizational partnerships, and community events, she seeks to foster multicultural perspectives and cross-cultural understanding in our Central Oregon community. Cappy serves as the director and Italian teacher at the institute.
Cappy uses research to inform a student-centered approach to teaching in her university classes and at the institute. She recognizes that learning happens when students can drive their own trajectory and examine their own interests through course content and pedagogical practices. Beyond teaching, Cappy enjoys playing outside in every way that Bend has to offer from backpacking and backcountry skiing to mountain biking. She has traveled extensively around the world and worked with nonprofits in South Africa, India and the United States.
Courses Taught at K1体育
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Comparative Cultures
Language in the USA
Peoples of the World 鈥 Africa
Language, Culture and Society
Global Conflicts
Anthropology of International Development
Anthropology, Health, and Environment
Selected Publications
Cappy, Christina. 2019. 鈥淩ighteous Paths: Performing Morality in South African Morning Assemblies.鈥 Anthropological Quarterly 92 (3): 845-876.
Cappy, Christina. 2016. 鈥淪hifting the Future? Teachers as Agents of Social Change in South African Secondary Schools.鈥 Education as Change 20 (3): 119-140.
Cappy, Christina. 2016. 鈥淭he Role of Philanthropic Foundations in Shaping South African Colonial Educational Policy in the Early Twentieth Century.鈥 In Empire and Education in Africa: The Shaping of a Comparative Perspective, edited by Peter Kallaway and Rebecca Swartz, 129-154. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Stambach, Amy and Christina Cappy. 2012. 鈥淲hat We See, What Is Missing, and What Has Fallen Away: The 2011 Comparative Education Review 叠颈产濒颈辞驳谤补辫丑测.鈥 Comparative Education Review 56 (3): 534-546.
Popular Articles
Cappy, Christina. 2022. 鈥淎m I Too Old to Learn a Language?鈥 Bend Language Institute, September 17.
Cappy, Christina. 2021. 鈥淗ow Effective Are Language Apps?鈥 Bend Language Institute, February 2.
Selected Presentations
Cappy, Christina. 2018, March 6. Models of Mentoring Undergraduates: The Potentials and Pitfalls of Graduate Student Mentors at a Large State University. Panelist. Critical Questions in Education Conference, Portland, OR, United States.
Cappy, Christina. 2016, March 9. Learning Values in South African Life Orientation and English Classes. Panelist. Comparative and International Education Society Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Cappy, Christina. 2015, November 21. Making Family: The Morality of Reciprocity in South African Schools. Panelist. American Anthropological Association Conference, Denver, CO, United States.
Cappy, Christina. 2014, September 19. South African Youth鈥 Experiences of Social Cohesion through Schooling: Preliminary Insights. Invited Presentation. University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Education Plenary Series, Edgewood, KZN, South Africa.