College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty & Staff

BS Chemistry, Furman University

PhD Chemistry, University of Virginia

Post-doctoral work, Furman University

Faculty at Butler University since 2003.

Associate Dean for Faculty and Program Development in College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

My research interests include the history and culture of Japan, the anthropology of sport, the anthropology of science, gender studies, feminist theory, historical anthropology, mass/popular culture, theories of embodiment, urban anthropology, and visual culture. Most of my fieldwork has focused on cultures of sport in Japan and while I study and teach about all kinds of sport, football (soccer) is my ultimate passion. I continue to work on my primary project about soccer, corporate sport, the recession of the 1990s, and national identity in Japan, but have also written recently about the new professional women’s soccer league in Japan and the history of women’s professional soccer/football globally; I’m also interested in issues related to trans* athletes in Japan and the U.S.

Jason Goldsmith is a writer, artist, and educator whose work traces the vexed relationship between art and place from the19th-century Picturesque tradition through today’s twinned unravelling of ecological and social networks. He has published numerous scholarly articles on place-based writing, and his creative nonfiction and art have appeared in River Teeth, Humana Obscura, Grasmere, Indiana Waterways:The Art of Conservation, and on the cover of publications from the University of Iowa Press. 

His sense of place sharpened by figures such as Jamaica Kincaid, bell hooks, James Baldwin, and Ross Gay, Goldsmith introduces students to a range of diverse voices to interrogate the limits inherent in literary traditions and to cultivate an inclusive and equitable classroom. He teaches courses on art, literature, and the environment, from Romanticism to 19th-Century British Women Writers, from Jane Austen to Video Game Narrative, from Contemporary Writers to Creative Non-Fiction, and from Urban Sketching to Wilderness Literature. 

When not teaching, he enjoys hiking, sitting by a river while sketching, and spending time outdoors with his wife and children.

Marabeth joined Butler in August 2022 and is currently working as Assistant to the Dean for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Michael’s College and a Master of Arts from Sacred Heart University. She previously worked for Newtown Public Schools  and Hamilton Southeastern Schools Corporation.