Jessica Madison Pískatá

(she/her, they/them)

  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Areas of Study

Education

  • PhD, cultural anthropology, University of California at Santa Cruz
  • MFA, poetry, The New School
  • BA, creative writing, University of Southern California

Biography

Jessica Madison Pískatá is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the relationships between humans and geological landscapes on the peripheries of Cold War empires. Her previous work looks at the intersection of poetic practice and geological sociality on the Dariganga Volcanic Field in eastern Mongolia. Currently, she is conducting research on radon health spas operating on former uranium mining sites in the Czech Republic.

Pískatá earned a BA in creative writing at the University of Southern California, an MFA in poetry at the New School, and a PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has also published Mongolian to English translations of Dariganga Mongolian poet O. Dashbalbar’s Grass Trilogy and is a Contributing Editor for the Society of Cultural Anthropology.

Fall 2025

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology — ANTH 101

Notes

Jessica Madison Pískatá Essay Published in "Intersections"

November 6, 2024

Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jessica Madison Pískatá published an essay entitled "Provincializing Energy in the Mongolian Gobi" in the Social Science Research Council's Intersections series on Religion and Energy.

Jessica Madison Pískatá Interviewed on University of Toronto’s Podcast

May 8, 2024

Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jessica Madison Pískatá was interviewed for an episode of the University of Toronto’s Buddhist Studies Footnotes podcast on the intersection of poetry, geology, Buddhism, and more-than-human sociality in Mongolia.

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