Alessandro Duranti

Alessandro Duranti is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and former Dean of the Social Sciences Division (2009–2016). He holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Southern California (1981). His work focuses on linguistic anthropology, emphasizing agency, intentionality, and intersubjectivity, with fieldwork in Samoa, the U.S., France, and Italy. He is renowned for studying verbal and visual communication in political contexts, everyday life, jazz performance, and Samoan cultural practices.

Research interests include ethnopragmatics, phenomenological theory, improvisation in music and language, and the history of U.S. anthropology. Duranti has authored seminal works such as From Grammar to Politics (1994) and The Anthropology of Intentions (2015). He has pioneered methods combining participant observation with audio-visual recordings of spontaneous interaction, notably in his study of jazz aesthetics through collaborative courses with musicians like Kenny Burrell.

• Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship (1999–2000), UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award (1999), American Anthropological Association Teaching Award (2001), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008).
• Labs/Teams: Co-founder of the Culture of Jazz Aesthetics course, integrating live music performance with ethnographic analysis. Extensive video corpus on jazz improvisation and teaching practices.