Administration Profiles
Nicole Constable
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research
As associate dean of graduate studies and research, Nicole Constable concentrates on continuing to strengthen the School of Arts and Sciences’ ability to produce the next generation of top-quality university researchers and educators. She is committed to increasing the diversity of the graduate student body, advancing the academic and research components of Arts and Sciences graduate programs, and increasing the competitiveness of graduate admissions and funding.
Constable received her BA degree in anthropology with highest honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1980. She received her MA degree in 1983 and her PhD degree in 1989 from the University of California at Berkeley.
Constable’s honors include membership in Phi Beta Kappa (northern California chapter) and the Distinguished Research Award from the Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. Her research and teaching interests include gender and migration, transnationalism and globalization, and virtual ethnography. Her geographical areas of specialization include Hong Kong, China, and the Philippines. She has authored numerous articles and books, including Christian Souls and Chinese Spirits: A Hakka Community in Hong Kong (University of California Press, 1994); Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Filipina Workers (Cornell University Press, 1997); and Romance on a Global Stage: Pen Pals, Virtual Ethnography, and ‘Mail Order’ Marriages (University of California Press, 2003). She is editor of and contributor to Guest People: Hakka Identity in China and Abroad (University of Washington Press, 1996) and Cross-Border Marriages: Gender and Mobility in Transnational Asia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005). She is currently working on a new edition of Maid to Order in Hong Kong and is conducting research on migrant worker protests and photographic practices in China.
Constable accepted the position of assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. Before that, she was a lecturer at San Francisco State University and an assistant professor at Western Michigan University. Her administrative experience includes serving as academic dean for the Pacific Rim Voyage of the Semester at Sea Program in summer 2004, serving as acting director of Pitt’s Asian Studies Center in 2005, and serving on many Arts and Sciences and university-wide committees. Constable is professor of anthropology and a core faculty member in the Asian Studies and Women’s Studies programs. She has been on leave from her position as research professor at the University Center for International Studies since accepting the position of associate dean of graduate studies and research in the School of Arts and Sciences in 2005.