May 2003
Rebecca Zarger, Section Editor
If you have information about other graduate training opportunities, research experiences, opinions, or essays of interest to our membership, please contact the column editor: Rebecca Zarger, Department of Environmental Studies & Sociology/Anthropology, Florida International University, zarger@fiu.edu, 305-348-1209.
Anthropology and Environment Section
OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE TRAINING
Programs of graduate study that focus on environmental or ecological anthropology continue to expand in the U.S. and internationally. This month’s column focuses on graduate training opportunities at the University of Florida.
Ecological Anthropology at the University of Florida
Contributed By John Richard Stepp
The Ecological Anthropology concentration in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida provides graduate training in anthropology with an interdisciplinary focus on human interactions with the biophysical environment. The anthropology department at UF is a true four-field department, with a strong tradition in applied anthropology, with 31 faculty and 19 affiliates. Graduate education in ecological anthropology at both the masters and Ph.D. level involves rigorous training in research design and methodology, anthropological theory and the development of professional skills.
Faculty research interests and expertise related to ecological anthropology include conservation and sustainable livelihood improvement, ecology of complex societies, environmental disaster and change, ethnobiology, ethnobotany, GIS, historical ecology, human ecosystem theory, human health and the biophysical environment, hunter/gatherer ecology, land use and land cover change, non-human primate ecology, nutrition and the biophysical environment, paleoecology of early humans, plant domestication, political ecology, remote sensing, and zooarchaeology. Geographical areas include Amazon, Andes, Caribbean, Latin America, Mesoamerica, North America, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Lab facilities include GIS/Remote Sensing, Anthropological Data Analysis, Ethnobotanical Herbarium, Southeastern U.S. Archaeology, Mesoamerican Archaeology, Visual Anthropology, and Biological Anthropology. Students also collaborate with anthropologists in the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Students are encouraged to participate in interdisciplinary centers and institutes at the University of Florida. These include the Land Use and Environmental Change Institute (LUECI), Tropical Conservation and Development Program (TCD), The Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Asian Studies, and the Center for African Studies among others. Also, the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) contains 280 faculty from 49 departments and 11 colleges working on a broad range of issues of potential interest to anthropology graduate students.
Space does not permit a detailed presentation of all the opportunities available for funding and collaboration but two in particular are the Working Forests in the Tropics and the Tropical Conservation and Development Program. For more information about studying Ecological Anthropology at the University of Florida contact John Richard Stepp, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, stepp@anthro.ufl.edu.
Working Forests in the Tropics Program http://www.tropicalforests.ufl.edu/wft/
A recent $2.8 million NSF-Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program on Working Forests in the Tropics can provide financial support for students in anthropology and other disciplines interested in conducting research in tropical forests in Latin America. The program is focused on neotropical working forests, meaning those tropical forests inhabited and utilized by humans. The program offers a tiered interdisciplinary curriculum to train doctoral students to conduct applied research on (1) tradeoffs and complementarities among working forest options, (2) the effectiveness of different kinds of working forests for conservation and development, and (3) capacity building efforts designed to promote forest management and conservation in neotropical regions.
IGERT fellowships are awarded for up to three years of doctoral study in the Working Forests in the Tropics program. Awards include tuition waivers, NSF stipends (currently $21,500 per annum), and limited travel and supply funds to be allocated by the Program Coordinator. Recipients of IGERT fellowships are required to participate fully in the Working Forests in the Tropics program.
Tropical Conservation and Development Program http://www.latam.ufl.edu/tcd
The mission of the Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) Program is to advance biodiversity conservation, sustainable resource management, and the welfare of rural people in the tropics through interdisciplinary graduate education, research, and collaborative learning and practice. TCD's three main goals are:
*To train conservation and development professionals, especially those from Latin America and Caribbean countries, to create and implement innovative policies, institutions and strategies that balance conservation with sustainable livelihood improvement
*To promote interdisciplinary research that integrates biological conservation and sustainable rural development in the tropics
*To strengthen and expand a learning network with organizations in Latin America and elsewhere that have compatible goals and approaches to interdisciplinary training and research
TCD provides significant financial assistance to qualified UF graduate students. The program funds Graduate Fellowships, Field Research Grants, and Charles Wagley Research Fellowships. It also offers the Practitioner Experience Program. Fellowship and field research grant competitions are held on an annual basis. Practitioner experiences are supported throughout the year. Anthropology students and faculty are a major component in the TCD program.