Rev. Raymond A Bucko, S.J.
Rev. Raymond A Bucko, S.J. (Ph.D., anthropology. 1992, University of Chicago) is a professor of anthropology at Creighton University and program director for Native American Studie. His areas of interest include contemporary Native American peoples, identity, anthropology of religion, museums, and Christian missions. Fr. Bucko is from Bayonne New Jersey, born and bred in a log cabin on the idyllic eastern shore of the Newark Bay. He completed his undergraduate degree at Fordham University in anthropology and philosophy. Fr. Bucko earned two degrees in Theology, one at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley and the other at Regis College in Toronto where he studied missiology under the late Carl Starkloff, S.J. Fr. Bucko began his doctoral work at the University of Chicago in 1985 and finished in 1992 with a dissertation on the Lakota of Pine Ridge. He taught at Le Moyne College from 1992 until 1999 and then moved west to Creighton University in 2000. He spent a sabbatical year at the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum on the Rosebud Reservation where he created a digital database and electronic resourse for Fr. Eugene's Buechel's ethnographic collection.
He attended grammar school at Our Lady Star of the Sea (now called All Saints Catholic Academy) in Bayonne and high school at St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, New Jersey and remains a staunchly loyal alumnus. Fr. Bucko first became interested in computers while doing fieldwork on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His close associate, Fr. David Shields, S. J. was gifted with a computer complete with a modem. The two of them ran up one of the most remarkable phone bills in South Dakota history trying out this new device. They eventually opened their own computer bulletin board, "Opus Pocus", to both be of service to the people on Pine Ridge who had computer connections and also to cut down their own phone bill. Fr. Bucko took a job at Le Moyne College where he opened another bulletin board, The Erie Canal, this time to be of service to people with HIV - AIDS. He worked with Sr. Mary of The AEGIS Network in distributing vital information concerning prevention and treatment of this disease. With the advent of the internet, which he candidly admits not to have invented, Fr. Bucko transferred these computing skills to the classroom where he developed techniques in collaborative learning. Fr. Bucko began developing a virtual classroom at Le Moyne College in 1985 using BSCW (Basic Support for Cooperative Work). He also began along with others, innovative use of the web for the Society of Jesus.
Fr. Bucko's recent research writings can be found listed on his vitae and academic research page. He has worked in West Africa, Micronesia, the Philippines and the Middle East. He teaches introductory anthropology as well as courses on medical anthropology, anthropological approaches to religion, Native American religions and cultures, Plains Indians, and museums and social science. In summers he has worked with the Vancouver School of Theology’s Native Ministry as well as the Sioux Spiritual Center’s Basic Directions in Native Ministry. He also provides support for the Tekakwitha Conference.
Rev. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J.
of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology
E-Mail: bucko@creighton.edu
Updated May 22, 2012
