Biocultural Anthropology
The primary focus of biocultural anthropology at UK is on contemporary human variation from the perspective of human adaptability. Students in biocultural anthropology will combine theory and method from both biological and cultural anthropology to investigate questions of human wellbeing as evidenced through nutrition and/or health outcomes. Because scholarly interests of UK faculty coalesce around contemporary themes in anthropology and the social sciences (see Departmental Research Themes), biocultural students at UK are provided a unique opportunity to engage in cross-subdisciplinary work. Students will be advised by Dr. Deborah L. Crooks, but will also work closely with cultural anthropology faculty and anthropologists in units and departments across the UK campus.
Deborah Crooks measuring a child in Zambia, December, 2005.
Current/planned research projects by students utilize biocultural approaches to investigate the relationship between consumerism and child growth outcomes in context of a shifting political economy in Ireland; the strategies used by Sudanese refugees in the U.S. to negotiate novel and unfamiliar food environments, and the implications for long-term health outcomes; and best practices to facilitate more healthful diet and activity patterns in communities in eastern Kentucky.
Biocultural students take a variety of courses in biological and cultural anthropology, and most take courses in archaeology, as well. Biocultural students also take courses that suit their scholarly interests in other departments and units across campus, e.g., Geography, History, and Public Health.
Participants in the NSF Ethnographic Field School, Zambia, taking part in a school measuring day, June, 2004.
Required and selected graduate courses for biocultural students
- ANT 610 History of Theory in Anthropology
- ANT 601 Theory and Concepts in Anthropology
- ANT 603 Human Biology in a Changing World
- ANT 604 Social Organization
- ANT 440 Anthropological Perspectives on Child Growth (taken as ANT 580)
- ANT 637 Sociocultural Dimensions of Economic Development
- ANT 645 Anthropology and Epidemiology
- ANT 646 Global Health
- ANT 662 Research Design
- ANT 725 Seminar in Applied Anthropology
- ANT 732 Seminar in Ecological Anthropology
- ANT 734 Seminar in Economic Anthropology
- ANT 736 Culture, Anthropology and Development
- ANT 765 Advanced Seminar in Medical Anthropology
- ANT 766 Gender, Ethnicity and Health
- ANT 774 Food and Food Security