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Violetta Paley is a contracted lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Long Beach. Over the past seven years, she has taught a wide range of courses, including Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Human Growth and Development, Diversity in California, Health and Healing, Anthropology of Religion, Magic and Witchcraft, and the Anthropology of Gender. Her teaching is grounded in a strong commitment to inclusive, reflective, and experiential pedagogy, supported by multiple faculty development credentials at ������ and her participation in the Inclusive Excellence in Pedagogy Faculty Learning Community.

Her research interests center on the human experience of illness, healing, and self-transformation, with particular emphasis on critical medical anthropology, gender, power, and inequality. She engages ethnographic and linguistic approaches to examine talk, meaning-making, and integrative healing therapies in contexts such as cancer care, addiction, and medical pluralism. Her work also draws from sensory anthropology and the anthropology of consciousness, exploring mindfulness, hypnosis, guided imagery, yoga, martial arts, and psychotherapeutic practices, alongside mind–body medicine, psychoneuroimmunology, and indigenous and nature-based healing traditions.

Paley’s scholarship has been published in the National Association of Practicing Anthropology through articles including “Defying Medical Patriarchy: Women’s Roles in Healing,” “Buddhist Teachings and Mindfulness,” and “Medical Pluralism,” as well as an earlier published manuscript on imagery hypnosis and mindful meditation in a cancer support setting. Her professional training includes certifications in mindfulness, tantric meditation, shamanic healing, herbalism, and trauma-informed and contemplative practices. Through her research, teaching, and ongoing practice, she bridges academic anthropology with applied and integrative approaches to health, healing, and embodied knowledge.