Serina Bailiff Curtis

Masters Student of Social and Cultural Anthropology at KU Leuven, Belgium. Departing a career as a Hollywood executive, she returned to school to better understand issues of value and socially accepted suffering. Her masters research approaches these themes through the lenses of economic, affective, and organizational anthropology.

Location

More about Serina

Leuven, Belgium

A Southern Californian now living in Belgium, Serina is interested in studying and living the full breadth of different cultural worlds. She sought out the AAN Mentorship Program to balance the rigorous academic lens of her master’s program at KU Leuven and to better understand the practical elements of leveraging anthropological theory to effect positive change in the working world. Working with her mentor, Marte, proved to be an enriching, joyful experience and Serina remains grateful to AAN for their continuing support.

Her master’s research will be centered in New York City, studying how and why people are motivated to form their lives around achievements that might in fact cause them harm, big and small. She is fascinated by how social and material environments affect subjectivity and how people understand their own experiences. After graduating, she plans to travel in New Zealand and South America before returning to Europe to work as a corporate cultural consultant and executive coach.