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||Laboratories of Ethnobiology
Teaching Activities
I regularly teach the required first year graduate seminar on History and Theory of Anthropology and a split-level undergraduate/graduate course on the Evolution of Human Cognition. I have recently taught a seminars on the Origins and Evolution of Language and Spoken Tzeltal Maya.. I am currently developing a new course on Indigenous Languages and Peoples of Latin America to be taught as part of the new major in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at UGA. Spoken Tzeltal Maya: A Self-paced Program-Tzeltal, along with Tzotzil, is one of the two major Maya languages spoken in Highland Chiapas. Until recently, pedagogical materials on the language were few and or poor quality. Stuart Robinson's translation of Joshua Smith's excellent Manual of Spoken Tzeltal goes a long way toward correcting this situation. In 2003, I'll be working with several Tzeltal male and female speakers form the municiaplity of Teneuapa to produce an interactive CD that will include a series of graded lesson sessions using the Smith manual as a guide. The lessons will eventually be posted on this website.My teaching has complemented my medical and anthropological interests. In addition to appointments in departments of anthropology (Columbia University, Michigan State University, and UGA), I have worked in medical education in the Department of Family and Community Medicine of the Stanford University School of Medicine. At Stanford I trained medical students and Family Practice Residents in health care delivery to patients in a multicultural health care setting. All of my teaching and research are grounded in a biocultural theoretical framework and incorporate an environmental and ecological perspective that I interpret to include the psycho-socio-cultural environment, as well as the biophysical and ecological context.My courses include community research experiences as well as standard classroom didactic and laboratory formats. I regularly teach Human Population Ecology, one of the core courses of the UGA anthropology department's doctoral program, Ecology of Foods, Diet and Nutrition, Environment and Health, and Conflict and Disease all three open to advanced undergraduates, honors students, and graduate students. I also periodically offer research courses in nutritional and medical anthropology and I am currently developing a new course on Hispanic Health and Healing in coordination with the proposed new undergraduate degree program in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
