Erick DuPree, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and award-winning author whose work investigates how masculinity, identity, and power are constructed through material culture, literature, and social systems from the 18th century to today.
Their research spans topics as diverse as toy collections, marriage politics, and Buddhist practice—all with a focus on how culture shapes the human experience.
A leading expert on dolls and material culture, Erick is the author of Dolls Beyond Play: The Cultural Significance of Dolls, the first major academic study to trace the evolution of dolls from prehistoric figurines to contemporary collectibles.
His current scholarship looks at how contemporary art dolls function as sculptural storytellers— and the doll as a profound vessel of identity, emotion, and imaginative expression.
Erick earned their doctorate from Queen’s University, where their dissertation examined religious pluralism and 11th-century Japanese court literature, culminating in a modern translation and analysis of Murasaki Shikibu’s court diary and its influence on contemporary marriage politics.
Their writing has appeared in HuffPost, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, New York Magazine, The Wild Hunt, Bitch, and Patheos, among others. Erick is the author of Awaken to Mindfulness: Cultivating Daily Practice & Wellbeing, praised for its grounded, accessible approach to meditation and awareness, and a contributor to anthologies including Masculinity: An Anthology of Modern Voices, BOLD, and editor of Men and the Goddess.
They have lectured on mythopoetics at the University of Pennsylvania, taught material culture at the University of the Arts, and served as literary reviews editor for Cleaver Literary Review. Erick has also consulted for the Netflix docuseries The Toys That Made Us and was recently featured on A Jaded Gay Podcast, Episode 89: “Beyond the Brawn.”
Erick lives on the East Coast with their husband and their beloved dogs.