Dr. Anna Willow, professor and engaged environmental anthropologist, focuses on human-environment relationships and resource conflicts. She joins David Staley to discuss her work on anti-clearcutting activism among the Anishinaabe people and her broader studies on industrial development impacts. She describes her publications on extractivism and alternative futures, emphasizing the role of anthropologists in envisioning and driving positive social and environmental change.
Sean Downey, associate professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University, discusses his research on the social and environmental dynamics of farming and foraging societies. Dr. Downey talks about his Human Complexity Lab and its work on swidden agriculture in Belize, highlights the significance of indigenous knowledge, and advocates for interdisciplinary approaches to understanding ecological patterns. He also shares his journey into anthropology, his passion for fieldwork, and the future direction of his research in supporting indigenous rights and addressing climate change.
Mark Moritz, Professor and Graduate Studies Chair in Anthropology, studies the transformation of African pastoral systems, specifically examining how pastoralists adapt to changing ecological, political, and institutional conditions. He shares some of the results of his research with pastoralists in the far north region of Cameroon with David Staley on this week’s Voices of Excellence.
Scott McGraw, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, is a researcher, biological anthropologist, evolutionary anatomist, and primate behavior analyst. He observes animals in the wild to see how their physical movements, for example, result from bone structures. Biological anthropologists then use this information to understand how extinct animals might have moved, such as our human ancestors.
Professor of Anthropology Mark Hubbe studies modern human dispersion with a special emphasis on the settlement of South America. He joins host David Staley on this week’s Voices of Excellence to discuss how the Americas were inhabited, what makes archeological evidence for human settlements controversial, and what methods are used to explore these questions.
Associate professor of anthropology Barbara Piperata applies an evolutionary and critical biocultural perspective to the study of nutritional anthropology, food security, and reproductive energetics. She’s especially interested in what happens to people’s health as they adapt to their circumstances. She explains her findings to David Staley on this week’s episode.
As humans transitioned from hunter-gatherers to farmers, their diet influenced their health greatly. Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Clark Larson’s research shows that “in much of North America, wherever corn agriculture happens relatively late in pre-history, health begins to decline.”