Michael Jindra is a cultural anthropologist at the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University. My current writing centers on the relationship between lifestyle diversity and economic inequality, which includes research on anti-poverty nonprofits with his wife Ines. A Wisconsin native, I have been both a Peace Corps Volunteer and corporate financial analyst. Besides academic books and articles in anthropology and sociology, I also write for the general public. While still in graduate school, my article on Star Trek fans in the journal Sociology of Religion was featured in the Washington Post, and I was an hour-long guest on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” and made other media appearances about its popularity among fans. I have appeared on National Geographic television and on CNN.com to help explain funeral rites in Africa, and discussed the social implications of video gaming on the radio. 

More recently, I have turned my attention specifically to lifestyle/subculture diversity and its connection to inequality, and have also undertaken research, along with my wife Ines, on how nonprofits help the poor.

What ties this all together is an interest in the varied things people do, why we do them, and the implications of our life patterns. This is culminating in the book project on diversity and inequality.

We recently moved to Pocatello, Idaho, where my wife Ines teaches at Idaho State University, though I continue my affiliation with Boston University. I am also a contributing editor at American Purpose magazine.