Marcia Mikulak earned her Ph.D in cultural anthropology at the University of New Mexico, and is a professor of anthropology at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Dr. Mikulak's research interests include human rights, social and cultural constructions of childhood, and rural and urban migration. She has extensive applied fieldwork experience in Brazil, where she has carried out research in collaboration with street and working children, and she is a Brazil country specialist for Amnesty International. Her writing has appeared in a variety of journals including the Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences and Humanity and Society. Her recent book Searching for a New Paradigm: A Cultural Anthropology Reader was published in 2014.