Department of Anthropology

I worked as a registered nurse before obtaining my PhD degree in anthropology at WSU. I have conducted research in Gabon, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and more recently Ethiopia, where I was a Fulbright scholar in 2010-2011. My research interests include: bio-cultural contexts of infectious diseases, hunter-gatherers, adolescent development, the health and experiences of Ethiopian orphans, and birthmothers/fathers reasons for relinquishment and abandonment. I am the author of Listen, Here is a Story: Ethnographic Life Narratives from Aka and Ngandu Women of the Congo Basin, editor of Secret Lives of Anthropologists; Adolescent Identity: Evolutionary, Developmental and Cultural Perspectives; and co-author with Barry Hewlett of Ebola, Culture, Politics: The Anthropology of an Emerging Disease.

I have several topical areas of interest: the anthropology of adolescence, the anthropology of infectious and parasitic diseases, life histories of Central African women, Ethiopian orphans and relinquishment and abandonment of children by birth mothers and fathers. Specific topical interests in adolescence include: social-emotional development, grief and loss, intercultural and intra-cultural variation in the health of Aka forager and Ngandu farmer adolescents and the effect of health status and parasite load on the perception of physical attractiveness. Interests within the anthropology of infectious diseases include: local cultural models of disease, incorporating anthropological approaches to disease control efforts and emerging diseases. I am currently conducting research on Ethiopian children and the Chabu, a forager-farming society. Theoretically, I am interested in evolutionary approaches to culture, cognitive anthropology, and life history narrative.