Richard Kernaghan, PhD

Associate Professor

Cultural Anthropology

Richard Kernaghan is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida, specializing in ethnography, legal relations, aesthetics and the philosophy of sense. His research explores the political time, law and terrains of settler frontiers of Amazonia, through ethnographic and archival methods focused on techniques of rural, especially fluvial, transportation. Dr. Kernaghan is Undergraduate Honors Thesis Coordinator for the Department of Anthropology, affiliate faculty with the Center for Latin American Studies, as well as faculty sponsor of the Empirical Things Working Group (under the umbrella of the UF International Ethnography Lab).

Areas of Specialization

  • legal anthropology
  • aesthetics
  • political time

Courses Taught

List of courses taught, including title and how often each is offered.
Course Title Frequency
ANT 2930/ANG 6930 - The Ethnographic Image Alternate Years
ANT 4273 - Anthropology of Law Alternate Years
ANG 6034 Anthropological History and Theory Every Fall
ANG 6804 Ethnographic Writing Alternate Years
ANT 4930/ANG 6930 Sources of Law in Amazonia As Needed
ANT 4930/ANG 6930 Ethnography and Illicit Worlds As Needed

Education

  • Ph.D. Anthropology, Columbia University, 2006
  • M.A. Anthropology, Columbia University, 1995
  • B.A. Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, 1989

Publications & Profiles

Google Scholar
Personal Website

Featured Books

Book cover featuring title "Crossing the Current" by Richard Kernaghan with subtitle "Aftermaths of War along the Huallaga River." Design includes black and white abstract lines resembling a river or landscape, emphasizing themes of conflict and recovery.
Crossing the Current: Aftermaths of War Along the Huallaga River
2020 | Stanford University Press
This book tracks territorial transformations in the wakes of political- and cocaine-related violence in the Upper Huallaga Valley of Peru, by following the experiences of river boat operators dedicated to fording people and cargo across the valley’s main river.
Winner of the 2023 LASA Peru Flora Tristán Book Prize, sponsored by Latin American Studies (LASA) Peru Section.
Book cover featuring large green coca leaves as background with title "Coca's Gone of Might and Right in the Huallaga Post-Boom" and author name Richard Kernaghan in blue and white text. Design emphasizes themes related to coca cultivation and socio-economic changes in Huallaga region.
Coca's Gone of Might and Right in the Huallaga Post-Boom
2009 | Stanford University Press
This book examines the social and temporal aftershocks of a twenty-year cocaine boom in Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley, tracing how the violence of law-making practices shaped the ways local residents remembered and narrated the recent past.