Since graduating from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), in 1993, Jane Margold has written and published academic articles on various aspects of social-cultural anthropology, with a focus on the effects of colonialism on the Philippines and Filipino global labor migrants. The community college professor has made a name for herself with her publications, which have been featured in literary journals as well as textbooks and essay collections.

While in pursuit of her PhD in Anthropology from UCB, Jane Margold conducted anthropological fieldwork in the Philippines, gaining expertise in her area of geographic speciality. Her first publications on colonialism and Filipino global labor migrants were both printed in 1995. “Egalitarian Ideals and Exclusionary Practices: U.S. Pedagogy in the Colonial Philippines” was published in the Journal of Historical Sociology, and “Narratives of Masculinity and Transnational Migration: Filipino Workers in the Middle East” was featured in the book Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia.

While conducting fieldwork in Finland and teaching at the University of Helsinki, Margold wrote “An ‘Exceptional’ Colonialism: Thomasite Teachers in the Turn-of-the-Century Philippines” for the Finnish anthropological journal Suomen Antropologi. Most recently, Jane Margold’s work was featured in L. Long and E. Oxfeld’s book, Coming Home? Immigrants, Refugees and Those Who Stayed Behind. Her paper, “Filipina Depictions of Migrant Life for Their Kin at Home,” was used as a chapter for the book published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

In addition to her significant published contributions to the anthropology field, Jane Margold had taught at several universities and colleges. She began her teaching career as a Graduate Student Instructor at UCB, teaching freshman level anthropology courses. From there, Jane Margold served at the University of California, Santa Cruz; the Chinese University of Hong Kong; University of Helsinki in Finland; Sonoma State University; College of Marin and College of Alameda before accepting a position at Laney College, where she currently teaches. Since the fall of 2010, Jane Margold had also served as co-chair of the Department of Earth and Human Sciences at the college.