Amanda Hilton

• 2025 Fall
  • ANT 373 Magic and Religion
• 2024 Fall
  • ANT/NAT 323 Peoples and Cultures of North America
• 2024 Spring
  • ANT 111 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
  • ANT 400 Selected Topics - Sensory Anth Multispecies Rel

Amanda Hilton (she/her/hers) joins the Anthropology Department in Spring 2024 as a tenure-track assistant professor. She will teach classes in environmental anthropology, critical food studies and applied cultural anthropology.

Prior to joining Syracuse University, Hilton was a research scientist at the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona. There she conducted research on climate change adaptation and cultural resilience among southern Louisiana Tribal communities forced to relocate due to land loss and hurricane impacts. Prior to her work at the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, in 2021 she was an Instructor in the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona. In 2019 Hilton was an Instructor, Syracuse Academy/ACCENT for the University of California Education Abroad Program, Siracusa, Sicily, Italy.

Hilton's research focuses on political ecology, critical food studies and critical heritage studies. Her most recent publication, "Quality and Genuineness in the World of Sicilian Olive Oil," was published in Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies. She is the co-editor of a special issue "Making Collaborative Futures" of Collaborative Anthropologies. Her paper, "Amara e Bella, Bitter and Beautiful: A praxis of care in valuing Sicilian olive oil and landscapes." was published in Economic Anthropology.

Hilton's research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, The American Philosophical Association and by Fulbright awards.

She is a board member of the Society for Economic Anthropology and a founding and board member, Associazione Food Heritage, Palermo, Italy.

Hilton earned a Ph.D. in 2020, an M.A. in 2015 both from the University of Arizona, and a B.A. in 2007 from Colby College.

"Addressing Demographic Disparities in Students’ Choice of Engineering Discipline", Sponsored by National Science Foundation.

• Journal Articles
  • Hilton, A. J., "Sicilianità versus Sicilianismo: Thinking from the South with Sicilian Oliviculturalists." Italian Studies, 2026.
  • Hilton, A. J., "Visceral love and more-than-human interembodiment: olive trees as sentient kin in Sicily." Social Science & Medicine, 2025.
  • Hilton, A. J., "Quality and Genuineness in the World of Sicilian Olive Oil." Gastronomica, 2023.
  • Hilton, A., Storey, A., "Making Collaborative Futures: An Introduction to the Special Issue." Collaborative Anthropologies, 2022.
  • Hilton, A. J., "Amara e bella, bitter and beautiful: A praxis of care in valuing Sicilian olive oil and landscapes." Economic Anthropology, 2022.
  • Hilton, A., "Collaboration in Anthropology: The (Field)Work of Grounded Practice." Cambio: Rivista Sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, 2018.
• Book Chapter
  • Hilton, A. J., "Whose Arancino/a? The Multiple Making of Place through an Iconic Sicilian Food." In Food in Memory and Imagination. Forrest, B., St. Maurice, G. d. (eds.) Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2022.
• Book Review
  • Hilton, A. J., "Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South." In Transforming Anthropology. Odem, M. E., Lacy, E. (eds.) Wiley, 2016.
• Special Issue
  • "Collaborative Futures in the Making." Hilton, A., Storey, A. D. (eds.) Collaborative Anthropologies, 2022.
• Technical Reports
  • Hilton, A., Pullen, S., Eklund, E. and Austin, D., Community-University Relations: Community Perspectives on their Interactions with The University of Arizona. , 2022.
  • Hilton, A., Austin, D., Composting Toilets in Nogales, Sonora: Assessing a Neighborhood Project After Seven Years. , 2017.
  • Hilton, A., "Ethnographic Literature Review." In O’odham Trails on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: The Western and Central Travel Corridors. Hart, S., Ferguson, T. and Hopkins, M. (eds.) , 2016.
  • Penney, L., Hilton, A., BARA Report on Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona Client Survey 2014. , 2014.
  • Bikiyaa, N., Hilton, A., Ndee Bikiyaa Survey Report. , 2014.
  • Bulletts, C., Anderson, S., Osife, M., Bulletts, K., Sheehan, M., Hilton, A. and Austin, D., Southern Paiute Consortium Colorado River Corridor Resource Evaluation Program: Annual Report of Activities. , 2014.
  • Hilton, A., Powers, R., BARA Report on Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona Client Survey 2013. , 2013.

The American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, The American Anthropological Association, "Abandonment as Haunting in Olivicultural Sicily" (November 22, 2025)

Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Society for Applied Anthropology, "Rolling With the Punches: Reflections on Changing Research Partnerships and Contexts" (March 29, 2025)

Guest lecture for Italian 326: Italy Today: Language, Media and Culture in Contemporary Italy, Italian Studies, "Research, Teaching, and Life in Italy (as an American anthropologist)" (February 24, 2025)

Liebniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient and the Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean conference: Emplacements and Mobilities: Changing Olive Entanglements Around and Beyond the Mediterranean, Liebniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient and the Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean, "“The oil is alive”: shifting markets, volatile ecologies, and multispecies care in Sicily, Italy" (October 17, 2024)

The European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, The European Association of Social Anthropologists, "The sea, its shores, and its people: doing and undoing anthropology in/of the Mediterranean" (July 24, 2024)

The European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, The European Association of Social Anthropologists, "What’s in a Name? Sicilian stereotypes and their counter narratives" (July 24, 2024)

Italy, The Mediterranean, and The South, Oxford University, "Sicilianità: The Southern Answer" (June 15, 2023)

Colby College Center for Humanities Lecture Series: Food for Thought, Colby College, "Living Landscapes of Loss and Love: Oliviculture in Sicily" (February 27, 2023)

American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, "Living oil, living landscapes: Multispecies relationality and vitality in Sicilian oliviculture" (November 12, 2022)

European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, "Vivere la terra: Living landscapes of Sicilian oliviculture" (July 26, 2022 - July 29, 2022)

The Umbra Center for Food & Sustainability Studies Biennial Conference, "Italian lives matter? Belonging and gastronationalism in Sicilian PGI olive oil" (June 9, 2022 - June 12, 2022)

Master's Seminar L'antropologia tra conservazione e trasformazione: riflessioni metodologiche e etnografiche, Anthropology between conservation and transformation: methodological and ethnographic reflections, University of Catania, "Living Landscapes in Sicilian Oliviculture: A Political Ecological Approach" (May 11, 2022)

Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, "Geographical Indications and Precarious Heritage: Sicilian Perspectives" (March 26, 2022)

Hilton, A., Tusing, C., Dimensions of Political Ecology Annual Meeting, "Sensory Approaches to Landscapes, Labor, Livelihoods, and Lifeworlds" (March 24, 2022 - March 26, 2022)

Dimensions of Political Ecology Annual Meeting, "Harvesting olives in Sicily: A sensory multispecies ethnographic exploration" (March 25, 2022)

American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, "Authentic or Not? Quality versus Genuine Sicilian Olive Oil" (November 19, 2021)

Hilton, A., McDonell, E., The American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, "Constructing Quality: Power and Negotiation in Commodity Chains" (November 19, 2021)

Society for Economic Anthropology Annual Meeting, "Protected Geographical Indication of Love? The Parallel Lifeworlds of Sicilian Olive Oil" (March 4, 2021)

Dimensions of Political Ecology Annual Meeting, "'Twenty years ago there didn’t exist a family that didn’t have oil in the house': The Local Lifeworld of Sicilian Extra-Virgin Olive Oil" (February 19, 2021)

Traditions, Transitions, and Treasures Research Award, School of Anthropology (2015 - 2020)

Graduate College Fellowship, University of Arizona (2019)

Graduate Research Award, Diebold BARA and The Salus Mundi Foundation (2019)

Travel Award, Graduate and Professional Student Council (2019)

P.E.O. Scholar Award, P.E.O. (2018 - 2019)