Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Samuel Tettner is a Venezuelan-born global citizen, cultural anthropologist, and multimedia artist. He completed a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the Granada Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Manchester. As a dancer, conscious dance facilitator, audiovisual producer, and scholar of dance and music, he conceptualized, managed, and performed in projects using artistic modalities for social science knowledge creation in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, and Japan. His work has been shown in art galleries, cultural centers, film festivals, and universities. As an anthropologist of religion and spirituality, Samuel cultivates expertise in how music and dance are integrated into cultural practices, particularly in Sufism in South and Central Asia and in contemporary "Spiritual but not religious" conscious dances around the world. Samuel has lived in Venezuela, the United States, Turkey, India, and Spain and speaks (with varying degrees of proficiency) Spanish, Portuguese, French, Turkish, and Urdu.