Rev. Raymond A Bucko, S.J.

Raymond A Bucko, S.J. (Ph.D., 1992, University of Chicago) is a professor of anthropology and chair of the department of sociology and anthropology at Creighton University. He is also the program director for Native American Studies. His areas of interest include contemporary Native American peoples, identity, anthropology of religion, museums, missiology and inculturation. Fr. Bucko is from Bayonne New Jersey, born and bred in a log cabin on the idyllic eastern shore of the Newark Bay. 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. He did his undergraduate work at Fordham University in the Bronx 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 sudied under Carl Starkloff, S.J. Fr. Bucko began his Doctoral work at the University of Chicago in 1985 and finished in 1992. He taught at Le Moyne College from 1992 until 1999 and then moved west to Creighton University where he continues to teach in both the sociology/anthropology and Native American studies programs. He was appointed the director of the Native American Studies program in November of 2002. He spent his sabbatical year at the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum on the Roseubd Reservation where he is creating a digital database of Fr. Eugene's Buechel's ethnographic collection.

Fr. Bucko first became interested in computers while doing fieldwork on Pine Ridge. 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. The program which operates as a basis for the classroom, BSCW (Basic Support for Cooperative Work) is now used by the sociology and anthropology department at Creighton University). Fr. Bucko has worked on various educationally based web projects such as his own Lakota Information Page as well as an index of Native American Studies web sources sponsored by StudentAdvantage. His most recent forey into web based resources has been with Alexander Street Press' electronic resource: Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment.

Fr. Bucko's recent writings can be found listed on his vitae and home page. Fr. Bucko has done field work among the Lakota of Pine Ridge and has worked in West Africa, Micronesia, the Philippines and the Middle East. He teaches introductory anthropology as well as courses on medical anthropology, religion, Native American history and cultures, ethnohistory and museums and social science.

This page is managed by Rev. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J. of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Creighton University. E-Mail: bucko@creighton.edu Page Last Updated: March 4, 2008