Blog
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Anthropology is the study of humans, or as Dr. Jon Marks says: “the study of who we are and where we come from.” I consider it to be the study of humans, and the variety of relationships humans have. These relationships include some of the most obvious: kinship, communities, institutions, businesses, and religions. It also…
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My partner and I bought a house in 2019 and moved to San Antonio, TX, in service of my pursuit of a Ph.D. in anthropology. One thing that was abundantly clear to us—we are both from the East Coast and accustomed to a different climate—was that it is dry and gets very hot! Following the…
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We are only a few days removed from the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, where nearly two dozen people were murdered in cold blood. As readers likely know, I survived a mass shooting in a university classroom where I was teaching anthropology. Since that shooting, I moved to San Antonio,…
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I have not done many interviews on the subject. Here is an NPR article in which I am featured alongside one of my students about the shooting in the classroom three years ago: “A student and a professor remember the UNC Charlotte mass shooting three years later” https://www.wfae.org/charlotte-area/2022-04-29/a-student-and-a-professor-remember-the-unc-charlotte-mass-shooting-three-years-later
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Every year at this time, I reflect on the shooting that occurred in my classroom on April 30, 2019, that took the lives of two students, injured four others, and traumatized countless others, both in the classroom and across campus. That day changed my life forever, and three years on, I still have to contend…
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I recently participated in a webinar with the American Association of Biological Anthropologists and the Sausage of Science Podcast. We discussed mental wellbeing in academia and Dr. Rebecca Lester’s and my recent article on the subject: “Mental health in academia: Hacks for cultivating andsustaining wellbeing.”
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Since the start of the pandemic, my partner and I have worked to transform our San Antonio, TX backyard to a wildlife-friendly space. It began with a small garden pond just outside of our dining room picture window. The pond has been a hit! We have mosquito fish that are friendly and keep the mosquito…
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Today marks two years since a classroom shooting happened while teaching my final class at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Six students were shot, two of which did not make it. I wrote about my thoughts and experience a few days after it occurred: The Story of a Mass Shooting Survivor and Anthropologist I’ve…
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One of my more popular posts of late has been The Fall and Rise of Lindbergh: A Javelina Story. In that post, I tell the story of a javelina in one of the groups that I work with in the Texas Hill Country. In brief, Lindbergh was outcast from their group and I recount the…
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I have been working with javelinas in Texas for nearly a year. My first encounter with them occurred at Big Bend National Park and I have since visited groups all over Texas. The group that I am currently most fond of–partially because they are easiest to hang out with and partially because of the wonderful…
Anthrop 365 