Suzanne Joseph

Assistant Professor

Phone: 508.999.8138

Fax: 508.999.8808

Office: Liberal Arts Bldg, Room 399H

Interests: research methods; political economy of population and health; anthropological demography; ecological anthropology; medical anthropology; biocultural anthropology; social class inequality, marriage and the family; Middle East

Education

Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microdemography, Brandeis University, 2003-2005
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Georgia, 2002
B.A., Anthropology, University of Central Florida, 1995

My research interests focus on the links between population, environment, and society, particularly as they relate to class disparities in demographic and health patterns, and the causes/consequences of population variation and change. I have explored these issues through ethnographic fieldwork among rural populations of the Middle East, particularly Bedouin and peasant peoples of the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon and the Syrian Desert. My research is highly interdisciplinary, combining political economic and bio-ecological approaches to our understanding of human reproduction and mortality as well as gender-related patterns in marital and sexual behavior. Integrating biological and cultural approaches to the study of human behavior without naturalizing nurture and socializing nature is a fundamental concern in my work. In the Sociology/Anthropology Department, I teach a four-field introductory anthropology course; Research Methods; the Politics of Reproduction; Population, Consumption, and the Environment; and Peoples and Societies of the Middle East. A common underlying theme in my courses is the need to understand the human condition as the interplay between natural and cultural systems. Pedagogically, I am interested in primary research projects and experiential learning as ways of enhancing both scientific skills and lateral thinking.

Recent Publications

"The Reproductive Ecology of High Pastoralist Fertility." American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 34: 91 (2002).

"The Biocultural Context of Very High Fertility among the Bekaa Bedouin." American Anthropologist 106(1):140-144 (2004).

"Globalization, Demography and Nutrition: A Bekaa Bedouin Case Study." In G. Guest, ed. Globalization, Health, and the Environment: An Integrated Perspective, pp. 201-216. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press (2005).

"Kissing Cousins: Consanguineous Marriage and Early Mortality in a Reproductive Isolate." Current Anthropology 48(5):756-764 (2007).

"The Role of Class in Demographic Explanation" (in preparation)