Susanna Hoffman
Susanna Hoffman is a disaster anthropologist and the author, co-author, and editor of 10 books, two ethnographic films, and numerous articles and columns. Hoffman gives talks and organizes conferences around the world.
Among her books are: “Catastrophe and Culture” (2002) and “The Angry Earth” (1999), both co-edited with Anthony Oliver-Smith. Her ethnographic films are the award winning “Kypseli: Women and Men Apart” and the Emmy-winning “The Nature of Culture.”
In 2001, Hoffman was the first recipient of the Fulbright Foundation’s new Aegean Initiative grant shared between Greece and Turkey, where she worked on disaster issues facing the countries and lectured in both. In the last few years she has worked on pre- and post-disaster issues in Aceh, Sumatra, and Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami. She has worked in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to coordinate government and civil society factions in anticipation of the next earthquake; El Salvador on mudslide, earthquake, volcano, and clean water issues; Turkey and Greece after the Izmit and Athens earthquakes; and various disaster situations in the United States. She helped write the United Nations statement on Women and Natural Disaster.
Hoffman has served as a board member of Project Concern International, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) working on disaster and relief, sustainable agriculture, clean water, maternal and child health, and HIV/AIDs in 13 countries. In 2007 and 2008 she visited China and Tibet and has worked with numerous other NGOs. She is a member of the American Anthropological Organization, as well as other national and international disaster organizations.