Rebecca Forgash

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Rebecca Forgash

Professor of Anthropology

Sociology and Anthropology

Bio

I am a cultural and linguistic anthropologist whose research focuses on social and cultural change in rural Okinawa due to in-migration, changing demographics, and the presence of U.S. military bases.

My first project investigated international dating and marriage between local people and U.S. military personnel, culminating in my scholarly book, Intimacy across the Fencelines: Sex, Marriage and the U.S. Military in Okinawa (Cornell University Press, 2020). In this work, I analyze the stories of U.S. military-Okinawan couples against the backdrop of Okinawan history, political and economic relationships with Japan and the United States, and a long-standing anti-base movement. The narratives highlight the simultaneously repressive and creative power of military fencelines, sites of considerable institutional surveillance and the symbolic negotiation of gender, race, and class.

In recent years, I have written about alternatives to the military base economy. Centering a network of young Okinawan farmers and mainland Japanese migrants committed to sustainable agriculture and healthy lifestyles, the project explores farmers’ competing responsibilities to self and family, fellow villagers, and larger imagined ethnic, national, and global communities. Cultivating land and making decisions regarding the use of agricultural chemicals inevitably takes on political meaning in Okinawa, where pollution is linked in the popular imagination to the foreign military presence. The project thus continues my interest in relationships and identities formed in the shadow of U.S. bases.

Currently, I am engaged in additional projects involving learning and pedagogical research. I collaborated with MSU Denver colleagues on mixed methods research investigating the impact of an honors experience on students with low GPAs. I am also engaged in ongoing research on the impact of the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant program, particularly among students of color. I involve students as research assistants in all my projects and am always on the lookout for motivated undergraduates who are interested in gaining experience with ethnographic and mixed methods research.

I teach a variety of cultural and linguistic anthropology courses, including courses on Japan and East Asia. I also lead the Anthropology program's short-term study abroad experience in Japan. My administrative duties include serving as director of the MSU Denver Ethnography Lab, co-director of the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Program, and associate director of the Honors Program.

Degree

PhD in Anthropology

University of Arizona

MA in Anthropology

University of Arizona

BA in Anthropology and Comparative Area Studies

Duke University

Published Works

  • Bernhardt, E. P., Forgash, R., Hernandez-Julian, R., Hughes, M. . Can We Really Admit Students with a 2.0 GPA into the Honors Program? Findings, Conclusions, and Programmatic Implications from a Year-Long Study. (in press). Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (JNCHC).
  • Forgash, R., Bernhardt, E. P. (2025). Biannual Executive Summaries, 2021-present: Mixed Methods Research on the Impact of the MSU Denver Teaching Assistant Program on Student Satisfaction, Performance, and Rentention. ,
  • Forgash, R. (2025). A Question of Responsibility: Practice and Politics of Reducing Use of Agricultural Chemicals in Northern Okinawa . Bulletin of Social Anthropology (Jimbun Gakuho), 3(521-2). .
  • Forgash, R. (2021). Author Response, H-Diplo/ISSF Roundtable on Intimacy Across the Fencelines: Sex, Marriage, and the U.S. Military in Okinawa (Cornell University Press, 2020), by Rebecca Forgash . H-Diplo/ISSF (International Security Studies Forum),
  • Forgash, R. (2020). Intimacy Across the Fencelines: Sex, Marriage and the U.S. Military in Okinawa. (). Cornell University Press.
  • Forgash, R. (2019). Touring Tohoku, Serving the Nation: Volunteer Tourism in Post-Disaster Japan. The Applied Anthropologist / High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology, 38(1-2), 70-75. .
  • Forgash, R., . (2018). 結婚の壁を乗り越える--沖縄における文化的市民権とアメリカ帝国の再生産 (Negotiating Marriage: Cultural Citizenship and the Reproduction of American Empire in Okinawa). The Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities / Tokyo Metropolitan University, (514-2), 139-162. .
  • Forgash, R., Ingram, T. (2013). Marrying Out in Okinawa: Analyzing International Marriage Narratives. Multicultural Cities and the Formation of New Interactive Zones / Tokyo Metropolitan University, 6-108. .
  • Forgash, R., . (2011). Touring Tohoku, Serving the Nation: Volunteer Tourism in Post-Disaster Japan. The Applied Anthropologist / High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology, 31(1), 30-36. .
  • Forgash, R., . (2010). Negotiating Marriage: Cultural Citizenship and the Reproduction of American Empire in Okinawa. Ethnology: An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology, 48(3), 215-237. .