Pamela Crespin is an Assistant Professor in the Business and Organizational Anthropology (BOA) concentration, Department of Anthropology, WayneStateUniversity. Her current research interests include ethnography of complex organizations, the 
anthropology of work in North America, and the globalizing processes associate with media, digital-based information technology, the workplace, workers, and their work products.
She is an industrial/organizational anthropologist, whose field research includes ethnographies in manufacturing (steel and automotive), mass media (broadcasting), medicine (psychiatric hospital) and higher education (university administration). Other recent research includes assistance with a project in the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute & Hospital and team-based, qualitative-data analysis for the John A. Hartford Foundation’s National Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training (GITT) Program.
Recent publications include first authorship on “Ethnographic Research Methods,” an article in Research in organizations: foundations and methods of inquiry, an edited work in the Berrett-Koehler organizational performance series.
Pamela Crespin, Allen Batteau, and Christine Miller co-authored the article "Ethnographic Research in Organizations," which describes the methods used and challenges encountered when conducting ethnographic research in corporations. After describing ethnographic methods, which originated in the first-hand study of small-scale, indigenous societies, it presents two case studies of the use these methods in contemporary business organizations: A broadcaster and an automotive components manufacturer. The article then concludes with a general discussion of the challenges of organizational ethnography: framing appropriate research questions, gaining access, maintaining the research role, and accounting for issues of scale when using first-hand observation.
The Academy of Human Resource Development book has recognized Research in Organizations as the Outstanding Book of 2005 in the advancement of theory and/or practice in the profession.
Dr. Crespin joined the Wayne State faculty in 2004, soon after receiving her Doctorate in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also received her M.A. (1999) and B.A. (1997) in Anthropology, summa cum laude, (with a Specialization in Labor and the Workplace). While at UCLA, Dr. Crespin was honored with a Fulbright Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, UCLA Chancellor’s Fellowship, UCLA Anthropology Fellowship, UC Regent's Award, College of Letters and Science Honors and Departmental High Honors, Golden Key Scholar award, UC Regents' Scholar award, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. During the 1999-2000 academic year, Dr. Crespin served as the Thomas O. Enders Chair in Canada-U.S. Relations in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Calgary.
Prior to enrolling at UCLA, Dr. Crespin enjoyed a successful career in marketing and advertising. Corporate management positions she held include San Francisco Manager for ADVO (the nation’s largest print-media, direct- and target-marketing firm); Regional Manager—in New Mexico, Texas, and California—for Harte-Hanks (worldwide, print- and electronic-media, direct- and targeted-marketing); Retail Sales Manager for Lesher Communications, Inc. (California newspaper publisher and print-media, direct-marketing); and Managing Partner for Val-Pak of Austin (national print-media, direct-marketing).
Among her business accomplishments in corporate management are the team-based planning and implementation of corporate expansions and acquisitions; planning and implementation of organizational restructuring programs; participation in a national task force convened to design a model sales organization; creation and implementation of local, state and national recruitment and training programs; analysis, development, and implementation of project- and quality-management systems and tools; and seminar speaker for the Austin Marketing Education Foundation. Dr. Crespin’s expertise in the “creative” end of print- and electronic-media includes commercial photography, news and advertising copywriting, and print-media design. Awards include the New Mexico Press Association’s highest awards for advertising design.
