Core Faculty
Aleksa Alaica
Aleksa Alaica
Assistant Professor
emailaleksa.alaica@ubc.ca
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methods | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyI am an anthropological archaeologist interested in how people in the past interacted with and valued the world around them. I specialized in archaeology during my BA from the University of Toronto. During my MSc at the University of Edinburgh, I began training in osteoarchaeology and isotope analys...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methods | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Alexia Bloch
Alexia Bloch
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Professor
emailabloch@mail.ubc.ca
phone604 822 3160
location_onAnSo 2129
I came to the field of anthropology following my undergraduate studies in Russian language and literature, including at Wellesley College and as a study abroad student at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. In the early 1990s as a doctoral student in cultural anthropology at the ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: Europe | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobility | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Amirpouyan Shiva
Amirpouyan Shiva
Assistant Professor of Teaching
emailashiva@mail.ubc.ca
phone604 822 2878
location_onAnthropology & Sociology Building
I received my PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from the University of Minnesota in 2018. My PhD fieldwork research in the Persian blogosphere mainly examines how people change in the process of media-making and media-receiving. It addresses the questions of how, in a ubiquitously mediated world, t...Read more
Andrew Martindale
Andrew Martindale
LOA Director & Professor
phone604 822 2545
My research is intertwined with material legacies of people of and on the Pacific coast. I've been fortunate to work in partnership with Tsimshian and Musqueam people as friends, colleagues, and teachers. My endeavors as a result inhabit intersections of colonialism and race, of materiality and ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Camilla Speller
Camilla Speller
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Associate Professor, Anthropological Archaeology
location_onANSO 1209
I am broadly trained in biological anthropology and archaeology. My BA from the University of Calgary was a double major in archaeology and biological anthropology. During my MA at Simon Fraser University, I developed skills in ancient DNA analysis, and I expanded this expertise for my PhD research ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
Carole Blackburn
Legal and political anthropology, race and colonization, human rights, indigenous rights and sovereignty, First Nations and the Canadian state, injury, trauma and reconciliation.
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Charles Menzies
Charles Menzies
Professor
location_onAnSo 2305
Professor hagwil hayetsk's (Charles Menzies) primary research interests are the production of anthropological films, natural resource management (primarily fisheries related), political economy, contemporary First Nations' issues, maritime anthropology and the archaeology of north coast BC. He has c...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: Europe | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Daisy Rosenblum
Daisy Rosenblum (PhD University of California, Santa Barbara) focuses on the multi-modal documentation and description of indigenous languages of North America, with an emphasis on methods, partnerships, and products that contribute to community-based language revitalization. She currently works wit...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Linguistic Anthropology
Darlene Weston
Darlene Weston
She/Her
Associate Professor (Biological Anthropology), Chair Undergraduate Studies Committee
phone604 822 6897
location_onANSO 1207
https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/05/15/Anthropology-Reconciliation/
As a biological anthropologist, human osteoarchaeologist and palaeopathologist, I study human remains from archaeological contexts, focusing on bio-cultural interpretations of health and disease. My interest in human remains was s...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
Elif Sari
Elif Sari
Assistant Professor
I am a socio-cultural anthropologist interested in transnational sexualities, migration, asylum, waiting, humanitarianism, and queer and critical race theory with a specific focus on the Middle East and its diasporas as well as collaborative, multimodal, and social justice-oriented approaches to kno...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Africa/Middle East | Geographic Region: North America | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobilityResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Gastón Gordillo
Gastón Gordillo
Professor
emailgordillo@mail.ubc.ca
phone604 822 3797
location_onAnSo 2317
Research Area
Geographic Region: Latin America/CaribbeanProfessor Gastón Gordillo was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (1990) and completed his PhD at the University of Toronto (1999). He is a Guggenheim Fellow, was a visiting scholar at Harvard and Yale, a visiting professor at Cornell, and a ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Latin America/CaribbeanResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Heather Robertson
My interest, Biological Anthropology, began during my Undergrad at Simon Fraser University in the Department of Archaeology. In 2005 I began working for that department as a technician and research assistant in the Archaeology Laboratories documenting ancestral remains for repatriation to the Haida,...Read more
Helena Zeweri
I was drawn to the field of Anthropology because of its ability to attend to how people navigate relations of power in everyday life. I believe in the power of ethnography to capture the nuances of people’s multi-layered experiences of systems, institutions, and policies. I completed my doctoral s...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: North America | Geographic Region: Pacific | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobilityResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Hugh Gusterson
Hugh Gusterson
Professor
location_onANSO2311
Hugh Gusterson (PhD, Stanford University, 1991) has a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Anthropology Department at UBC. Before coming to UBC in 2020, he taught at MIT, George Mason University, George Washington University, and the Georgia Institute of Tech...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: North America | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methods | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Jennifer Kramer
Jennifer Kramer
Associate Professor, Museum/Sociocultural Anthropology
phone604 827 1868
location_onAnSo 2307a
I hold a joint position as cultural anthropologist in the department of anthropology and museum curator at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC. I strive to be both a collaborative museologist and a critical museologist. In this way, I merge practitioner/curator and theoretician/critic as I partn...Read more
Kristen Barnett
Kristen Barnett
Assistant Professor
emailkbarne04@mail.ubc.ca
Kristen Barnett (Unangax) is an assistant professor and Tier-2 CRC Chair in Indigenous Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Broadly trained in anthropological archaeology and Indigenous studies she received her PhD at the University of Montana (2015). ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Arctic/Subarctic | Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: North America | Geographic Region: PacificResearch Stream
Anthropological Archeology
Leslie A Robertson
Leslie A Robertson
Professor
location_on3122- 6303 N.W. Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest CoastI've worked on a variety of academic and solutions-focused, ethnographic projects with First Nations and settler communities in Western Canada. Methodologically, I'm interested in community and academic approaches to difficult knowledge production (silenced pasts, colonial impasses, contested repr...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest CoastResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Mark Turin
Mark Turin
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Associate Professor
emailmark.turin@ubc.ca
phone604 827 0613
location_onAnSo 158
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyMark Turin is a socio-cultural anthropologist and an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. He is cross-appointed between the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of Anthropology. He currently serves as the Interim Editor of the journal Pacific Affairs...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Linguistic Anthropology | Museum and Visual Anthropology | Socio-cultural Anthropology
Millie Creighton
Sociocultural Anthropology, Japan, Japanese descent communities (Nikkei or Nikkeijin), Korea, Inter-Asian Relations, Identity, Consumerism, Popular and Mass Culture, Gender, Minorities, Work and Leisure.
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobilityResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
ON LEAVE
On leave
Nicola Levell
Nicola Levell
ON LEAVE
On leave
Associate Professor
emailnicola.levell@ubc.ca
phone604 822 9856
location_onDept. of Anthropology, Room 2307B
Critical museology and curatorial practice; the history of museums and museum anthropology, visual and performative arts and storytelling.
Patrick Moore
After completing degrees in anthropology, linguistics and education, I worked for many years learning First Nations languages in northern Alberta and the Yukon, teaching those languages, and developing curriculum and teaching materials. In 1994, I returned to graduate study in anthropology, working ...Read more
Sabina Magliocco
Sabina Magliocco
Lecturer, Sociocultural Anthropology | Chair, Program in the Study of Religion
phone604 822 6798
location_onAnSo 3118
Sabina Magliocco, Ph.D. grew up in Italy and the United States. She received an AB from Brown University in 1980 and a Ph.D. from Indiana University – Bloomington in 1988. She has taught at California State University, where she served two terms as department chair, as well as the University of Ca...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: North America | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methodsResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Sam Walker
Samantha Walker is an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on the social production of place and landscape. She specialized in archaeology during her BA at the University of Toronto and completed her MA at Trent University on the emergence of Late Archaic and Middle Woodland cemeteri...Read more
Research Stream
Anthropological Archeology
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Sara Shneiderman
Sara Shneiderman
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Associate Professor
phone604 822 4387
Shaylih Muehlmann
Shaylih Muehlmann received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2008 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California Berkeley (2008-2010). She joined the anthropology department at the University of British Columbia in 2010 and was appointed the Canada Research Chair in Language,...Read more
Susan Rowley
Susan Rowley
Curator of Public Archaeology, Director of Museum of Anthropology | Associate Professor
emailsusan.rowley@ubc.ca
phone604 723 0494
location_onMuseum of Anthropology 224
Susan Rowley is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and a curator at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Cambridge University. She first travelled north in 1974 as a field assistant on an archaeological...Read more
Tracey Heatherington
location_onAnthropology & Sociology Building
I am a Sociocultural Anthropologist interested in globalization, development and political ecology. I examine environmental concerns in the context of social justice, using case studies to explore the evolving global imaginaries that beckon us to define environmental problems like biodiversity conse...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobility | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Vinay Kamat
I trained as a medical anthropologist with specialization in global health, first at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and then at Emory University, Atlanta, from where I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology. Before that, I trained as a professional social worker and received my Ph.D. in Social Work f...Read more
ON LEAVE
until June 2026
Zahra Hayat
Zahra Hayat
ON LEAVE
until June 2026
Assistant Professor
emailzahra.hayat@ubc.ca
I am Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. I study pharmaceutical capitalism, intellectual property, and law. I am trained as an anthropologist and lawyer, and work at the intersection of medical anthropology and law. From 2024-26, I will be a Harvard ...Read more
Zhichun Jing
Zhichun Jing
Associate Professor
emailjingzh@mail.ubc.ca
emailz.jing@ubc.ca
phone604 822 4937
location_onANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 1204
Dr. Jing’s areas of interest include the archaeology of Shang civilization, early urbanism, culture contact, environmental archaeology, the archaeology of collapse and sustainability, archaic jades, and archaeological ceramics. He has conducted fieldwork in China, Greece, and the United States. Hi...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methodsResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological AnthropologySessional Instructors
Ana Vivaldi
I am an instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology teaching in the areas of: Politics of Race and Indigeneity, Gender and transfeminism, Social Theory and Multimodal Ethnographic Methods. My research is based at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester, where I h...Read more
David Ryniker
Ph.D. UBC, 2001
Rafael Wainer
Rafael has a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from UBC specializing in children's cancer experience throughout treatment. He works with health care providers, children and families in Argentina. He is interested in questions of subjectivity, capacity for action, the body, social care, and the limits t...Read more
Adjunct Faculty
Luis Manuel González
Luis Manuel González
Adjunct Professor
Luis Manuel González is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at The University of British Columbia. He is also a Research Associate in the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto. A licensed professional archaeologist and educator trained at Universidad Nacional Mayor de S...Read more
Faculty Associates
Alison Wylie
Alison Wylie
Professor, Department of Philosophy | Canada Research Chair
emailalison.wylie@ubc.ca
phone604 822 6574
location_onBuchanan E 276
I’m a philosopher of the social and historical sciences, with particular interest in questions raised by archaeological research: How do we know what (we think) we know about the past? In particular, what counts as evidence in archaeological contexts? If values and interests play a role in all asp...Read more
Anthony Shelton
Anthony Shelton
Professor, Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory
location_onDorothy Somerset Studios 203
Prof. Anthony Shelton was Director of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia from 2004 - 2021. An anthropologist, administrator, curator and teacher originally from Britain, Prof. Shelton is a leader in museology, cultural criticism, and the anthropology of art and ae...Read more
Bernard Perley
Bernard Perley
Director, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies
emailcis.director@ubc.ca
Bernard C. Perley is Maliseet from Tobique First Nation, New Brunswick. He holds Bachelor of Fine Arts (studio arts) and Master of Architecture (architectural design) degrees from the University of Texas, Austin. His PhD is in Social Anthropology from Harvard. His academic training is interdisciplin...Read more
Danya Fast
Danya Fast
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
emaildanya.fast@ubc.ca
phone604-317-5976
location_on400-1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, V6Z 2A9
I am a medical anthropologist conducting research in Vancouver, Canada and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. My work in these settings has broadly focused on understanding the relationship between health and place among young people who use drugs in the margins of the city. I am an Assistant Professor in the...Read more
Fuyubi Nakamura
Fuyubi Nakamura
Curator, Asia, Museum of Anthropology | Assistant Professor, Asian Studies
location_onMuseum of Anthropology 245G
Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日) is a socio-cultural anthropologist. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies and is Curator, Asia at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. She is an Associate Member in the Department of Anthropology, but does not teach in the department. Her profil...Read more
Jemima Pierre
Jemima Pierre
Professor, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice
emailjpierr02@mail.ubc.ca
Faculty Associate, Department of Anthropology
For full bio and courses, please visit home department at the link:
Jemima Pierre, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice
Karen Duffek
Karen Duffek
Curator, Contemporary Visual Arts & Pacific Northwest, MOA
Pilar Riaño-Alcalá
Pilar Riaño-Alcalá
Professor, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice
emailpilar.riano@ubc.ca
Faculty Associate, Department of Anthropology. Full bio available at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice. (see link below).
Terre Satterfield
Terre Satterfield
Professor of Culture, Risk & the Environment, Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability
Faculty Associate, Department of Anthropology
For full bio please follow the link to home department below.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Lane Atmore
Lane Atmore
Postdoctoral Fellow
emaillane.atmore@ubc.ca
I am a Killam postdoctoral research fellow at the ADaPT lab. My research focuses on the historical ecology and intertwined evolution of Pacific herring and people across the Pacific Rim through aDNA and population genomics. I have a BA in anthropology from Grinnell College, where I focused on cultur...Read more
Honorary Research Associates
Andrew Mason
Andrew Mason
Honorary Research Associate
emailandrew.mason@ubc.ca
phone604 417 4259
location_onAnSo 153
I am trained as an anthropological archaeologist and I have obtained further formal education in the areas of intangible cultural heritage, the management of heritage sites, the assessment of cultural landscapes and historic districts, built heritage rehabilitation and the assessment of site signifi...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
Benjamin Collins
Benjamin Collins
Honorary Research Associate
emailbcolli08@mail.ubc.ca
I am an archaeologist with experience in zooarchaeology, personal adornments, Cultural Resource Management, rock shelter archaeology, and social network and connections. My research interests focus on how past foraging peoples adapted and thrived during periods of rapid climate change through exten...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Africa/Middle East | Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methodsResearch Stream
Anthropological Archeology
Dan Small
Dan Small is a medical anthropologist and Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. He has a PhD in medical anthropology (University of British Columbia), an MPhil in circumpolar studies (University of Cambridge), an undergraduate degree in sociology...Read more
Diana Moreiras Reynaga
Diana Moreiras Reynaga
Honorary Research Associate
location_onAnSo 153
I have training in anthropological archaeology and bioarchaeology, specializing in Mesoamerican studies. My BA (Hons.) from the University of British Columbia was a major in anthropology, minor in history. During my MA at the same institution, I developed skills in carbon and nitrogen isotope analys...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritualResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
Kate Kingsbury
Kate Kingsbury
Honorary Research Associate
emailkingsbur@mail.ubc.ca
Dr. Kate Kingsbury, D.Phil. has lived in the UK, France, Belgium, and Senegal, moving to live permanently in Canada in 2017. More recently she spends much time in Mexico doing fieldwork. She received her B.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and an...Read more
Sonia Zarrillo
Sonia Zarrillo
Honorary Research Associate
emailszarrillo@gmail.com
I am an anthropological archaeologist with a specialization in paleoethnobotany - the study of the interaction between people and plants in the past. My primary region of study is the Central Andes, including adjacent tropical forest areas, with a secondary interest in North America Plains.
I am ...Read more
Emeriti
Bruce Miller
Bruce Miller
Professor Emeritus, Sociocultural Anthropology | Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) Fellow
emailbgmiller@mail.ubc.ca
phone604 822 6336
location_onAnSo 2125
I have been a professor at UBC since 1990. My research concerns Indigenous peoples and their relations with the state in its various local, national, and international manifestations. In recent years my work has particularly overlapped with colleagues in archaeology and in law.
Much of my ethnogr...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
David Pokotylo
I am an anthropological archaeologist whose research and teaching expertise has focused on the archaeology of hunter-gatherer-foragers, lithic technology, public archaeology, archaeological heritage management, and the use of quantitative methods in archaeology.
I pursue research on public opinio...Read more
John Barker
John Barker
Professor Emeritus
emailjohn.barker@ubc.ca
John Barker (PhD, British Columbia, 1985) is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose main research concerns the religious change among Indigenous peoples in colonial and post-colonial Oceania and British Columbia and the history of anthropological research in Canada. After receiving degrees at the Uni...Read more
Julie Cruikshank
Julie Cruikshank
Professor Emeritus
emailcrui@mail.ubc.ca
Ph.D. University of British Columbia, 1987
Michael Blake
Michael Blake
Professor Emeritus
emailtmblake@mail.ubc.ca
I joined the faculty at UBC in 1986, a year after completing my Ph.D. in Anthropology, with a specialization in Archaeology, at the University of Michigan. My doctoral research in the early 1980s examined the household archaeology of the Postclassic period Maya centre of Canajasté on the Lagartero...Read more
Patricia Shaw
Patricia Shaw
Professor Emeritus
phone604 822 6481
Patricia A. Shaw is the Founding Chair (1996-2014) of the First Nations Languages Program at University of British Columbia, and Professor of Anthropological Linguistics with particular interests in sound systems; the interface of phonology with phonetics and morphology; literacy and oral traditions...Read more
Wade Davis
Biography
Wade Davis is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker whose work has taken him from the Amazon to Tibet, Africa to Australia, Polynesia to the Arctic. Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013, he is currently Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadersh...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritualResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
William McKellin
William McKellin
Professor Emeritus | Associate Chair, UBC Behaviourial Research Ethics Board
emailw.mckellin@ubc.ca
phone604 822 2756
location_onAnSo 3123
Medical anthropology: impact of genetic testing on families and clinicians; disability; qualitative health research. Sociolinguistics: cultural and cognitive models; interpretation of metaphors.
Faculty
Aleksa Alaica
Aleksa Alaica
Assistant Professor
emailaleksa.alaica@ubc.ca
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methods | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyI am an anthropological archaeologist interested in how people in the past interacted with and valued the world around them. I specialized in archaeology during my BA from the University of Toronto. During my MSc at the University of Edinburgh, I began training in osteoarchaeology and isotope analys...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methods | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Alexia Bloch
Alexia Bloch
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Professor
emailabloch@mail.ubc.ca
phone604 822 3160
location_onAnSo 2129
I came to the field of anthropology following my undergraduate studies in Russian language and literature, including at Wellesley College and as a study abroad student at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. In the early 1990s as a doctoral student in cultural anthropology at the ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: Europe | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobility | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Alison Wylie
Alison Wylie
Professor, Department of Philosophy | Canada Research Chair
emailalison.wylie@ubc.ca
phone604 822 6574
location_onBuchanan E 276
I’m a philosopher of the social and historical sciences, with particular interest in questions raised by archaeological research: How do we know what (we think) we know about the past? In particular, what counts as evidence in archaeological contexts? If values and interests play a role in all asp...Read more
Amirpouyan Shiva
Amirpouyan Shiva
Assistant Professor of Teaching
emailashiva@mail.ubc.ca
phone604 822 2878
location_onAnthropology & Sociology Building
I received my PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from the University of Minnesota in 2018. My PhD fieldwork research in the Persian blogosphere mainly examines how people change in the process of media-making and media-receiving. It addresses the questions of how, in a ubiquitously mediated world, t...Read more
Ana Vivaldi
I am an instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology teaching in the areas of: Politics of Race and Indigeneity, Gender and transfeminism, Social Theory and Multimodal Ethnographic Methods. My research is based at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester, where I h...Read more
Andrew Martindale
Andrew Martindale
LOA Director & Professor
phone604 822 2545
My research is intertwined with material legacies of people of and on the Pacific coast. I've been fortunate to work in partnership with Tsimshian and Musqueam people as friends, colleagues, and teachers. My endeavors as a result inhabit intersections of colonialism and race, of materiality and ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
Anthony Shelton
Anthony Shelton
Professor, Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory
location_onDorothy Somerset Studios 203
Prof. Anthony Shelton was Director of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia from 2004 - 2021. An anthropologist, administrator, curator and teacher originally from Britain, Prof. Shelton is a leader in museology, cultural criticism, and the anthropology of art and ae...Read more
Bernard Perley
Bernard Perley
Director, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies
emailcis.director@ubc.ca
Bernard C. Perley is Maliseet from Tobique First Nation, New Brunswick. He holds Bachelor of Fine Arts (studio arts) and Master of Architecture (architectural design) degrees from the University of Texas, Austin. His PhD is in Social Anthropology from Harvard. His academic training is interdisciplin...Read more
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Camilla Speller
Camilla Speller
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Associate Professor, Anthropological Archaeology
location_onANSO 1209
I am broadly trained in biological anthropology and archaeology. My BA from the University of Calgary was a double major in archaeology and biological anthropology. During my MA at Simon Fraser University, I developed skills in ancient DNA analysis, and I expanded this expertise for my PhD research ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
Carole Blackburn
Legal and political anthropology, race and colonization, human rights, indigenous rights and sovereignty, First Nations and the Canadian state, injury, trauma and reconciliation.
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Charles Menzies
Charles Menzies
Professor
location_onAnSo 2305
Professor hagwil hayetsk's (Charles Menzies) primary research interests are the production of anthropological films, natural resource management (primarily fisheries related), political economy, contemporary First Nations' issues, maritime anthropology and the archaeology of north coast BC. He has c...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: Europe | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Daisy Rosenblum
Daisy Rosenblum (PhD University of California, Santa Barbara) focuses on the multi-modal documentation and description of indigenous languages of North America, with an emphasis on methods, partnerships, and products that contribute to community-based language revitalization. She currently works wit...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Linguistic Anthropology
Danya Fast
Danya Fast
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
emaildanya.fast@ubc.ca
phone604-317-5976
location_on400-1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, V6Z 2A9
I am a medical anthropologist conducting research in Vancouver, Canada and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. My work in these settings has broadly focused on understanding the relationship between health and place among young people who use drugs in the margins of the city. I am an Assistant Professor in the...Read more
Darlene Weston
Darlene Weston
She/Her
Associate Professor (Biological Anthropology), Chair Undergraduate Studies Committee
phone604 822 6897
location_onANSO 1207
https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/05/15/Anthropology-Reconciliation/
As a biological anthropologist, human osteoarchaeologist and palaeopathologist, I study human remains from archaeological contexts, focusing on bio-cultural interpretations of health and disease. My interest in human remains was s...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
David Ryniker
Ph.D. UBC, 2001
Diana Moreiras Reynaga
Diana Moreiras Reynaga
Honorary Research Associate
location_onAnSo 153
I have training in anthropological archaeology and bioarchaeology, specializing in Mesoamerican studies. My BA (Hons.) from the University of British Columbia was a major in anthropology, minor in history. During my MA at the same institution, I developed skills in carbon and nitrogen isotope analys...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritualResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
Elif Sari
Elif Sari
Assistant Professor
I am a socio-cultural anthropologist interested in transnational sexualities, migration, asylum, waiting, humanitarianism, and queer and critical race theory with a specific focus on the Middle East and its diasporas as well as collaborative, multimodal, and social justice-oriented approaches to kno...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Africa/Middle East | Geographic Region: North America | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobilityResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Fuyubi Nakamura
Fuyubi Nakamura
Curator, Asia, Museum of Anthropology | Assistant Professor, Asian Studies
location_onMuseum of Anthropology 245G
Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日) is a socio-cultural anthropologist. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies and is Curator, Asia at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. She is an Associate Member in the Department of Anthropology, but does not teach in the department. Her profil...Read more
Gastón Gordillo
Gastón Gordillo
Professor
emailgordillo@mail.ubc.ca
phone604 822 3797
location_onAnSo 2317
Research Area
Geographic Region: Latin America/CaribbeanProfessor Gastón Gordillo was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (1990) and completed his PhD at the University of Toronto (1999). He is a Guggenheim Fellow, was a visiting scholar at Harvard and Yale, a visiting professor at Cornell, and a ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Latin America/CaribbeanResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Heather Robertson
My interest, Biological Anthropology, began during my Undergrad at Simon Fraser University in the Department of Archaeology. In 2005 I began working for that department as a technician and research assistant in the Archaeology Laboratories documenting ancestral remains for repatriation to the Haida,...Read more
Helena Zeweri
I was drawn to the field of Anthropology because of its ability to attend to how people navigate relations of power in everyday life. I believe in the power of ethnography to capture the nuances of people’s multi-layered experiences of systems, institutions, and policies. I completed my doctoral s...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: North America | Geographic Region: Pacific | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobilityResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Hugh Gusterson
Hugh Gusterson
Professor
location_onANSO2311
Hugh Gusterson (PhD, Stanford University, 1991) has a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Anthropology Department at UBC. Before coming to UBC in 2020, he taught at MIT, George Mason University, George Washington University, and the Georgia Institute of Tech...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: North America | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methods | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Jemima Pierre
Jemima Pierre
Professor, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice
emailjpierr02@mail.ubc.ca
Faculty Associate, Department of Anthropology
For full bio and courses, please visit home department at the link:
Jemima Pierre, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice
Jennifer Kramer
Jennifer Kramer
Associate Professor, Museum/Sociocultural Anthropology
phone604 827 1868
location_onAnSo 2307a
I hold a joint position as cultural anthropologist in the department of anthropology and museum curator at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC. I strive to be both a collaborative museologist and a critical museologist. In this way, I merge practitioner/curator and theoretician/critic as I partn...Read more
Karen Duffek
Karen Duffek
Curator, Contemporary Visual Arts & Pacific Northwest, MOA
Kristen Barnett
Kristen Barnett
Assistant Professor
emailkbarne04@mail.ubc.ca
Kristen Barnett (Unangax) is an assistant professor and Tier-2 CRC Chair in Indigenous Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Broadly trained in anthropological archaeology and Indigenous studies she received her PhD at the University of Montana (2015). ...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Arctic/Subarctic | Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Geographic Region: North America | Geographic Region: PacificResearch Stream
Anthropological Archeology
Leslie A Robertson
Leslie A Robertson
Professor
location_on3122- 6303 N.W. Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest CoastI've worked on a variety of academic and solutions-focused, ethnographic projects with First Nations and settler communities in Western Canada. Methodologically, I'm interested in community and academic approaches to difficult knowledge production (silenced pasts, colonial impasses, contested repr...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest CoastResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Luis Manuel González
Luis Manuel González
Adjunct Professor
Luis Manuel González is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at The University of British Columbia. He is also a Research Associate in the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto. A licensed professional archaeologist and educator trained at Universidad Nacional Mayor de S...Read more
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Mark Turin
Mark Turin
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Associate Professor
emailmark.turin@ubc.ca
phone604 827 0613
location_onAnSo 158
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyMark Turin is a socio-cultural anthropologist and an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. He is cross-appointed between the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of Anthropology. He currently serves as the Interim Editor of the journal Pacific Affairs...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Geographic Region: Canada/Northwest Coast | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: History, law, communities | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Well-being, health, technologyResearch Stream
Linguistic Anthropology | Museum and Visual Anthropology | Socio-cultural Anthropology
Millie Creighton
Sociocultural Anthropology, Japan, Japanese descent communities (Nikkei or Nikkeijin), Korea, Inter-Asian Relations, Identity, Consumerism, Popular and Mass Culture, Gender, Minorities, Work and Leisure.
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Research Interest: Digital and virtual media, performance, aesthetics | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobilityResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
ON LEAVE
On leave
Nicola Levell
Nicola Levell
ON LEAVE
On leave
Associate Professor
emailnicola.levell@ubc.ca
phone604 822 9856
location_onDept. of Anthropology, Room 2307B
Critical museology and curatorial practice; the history of museums and museum anthropology, visual and performative arts and storytelling.
Patrick Moore
After completing degrees in anthropology, linguistics and education, I worked for many years learning First Nations languages in northern Alberta and the Yukon, teaching those languages, and developing curriculum and teaching materials. In 1994, I returned to graduate study in anthropology, working ...Read more
Pilar Riaño-Alcalá
Pilar Riaño-Alcalá
Professor, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice
emailpilar.riano@ubc.ca
Faculty Associate, Department of Anthropology. Full bio available at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice. (see link below).
Rafael Wainer
Rafael has a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from UBC specializing in children's cancer experience throughout treatment. He works with health care providers, children and families in Argentina. He is interested in questions of subjectivity, capacity for action, the body, social care, and the limits t...Read more
Sabina Magliocco
Sabina Magliocco
Lecturer, Sociocultural Anthropology | Chair, Program in the Study of Religion
phone604 822 6798
location_onAnSo 3118
Sabina Magliocco, Ph.D. grew up in Italy and the United States. She received an AB from Brown University in 1980 and a Ph.D. from Indiana University – Bloomington in 1988. She has taught at California State University, where she served two terms as department chair, as well as the University of Ca...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Geographic Region: North America | Research Interest: Expressive culture, language, materiality | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methodsResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Sam Walker
Samantha Walker is an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on the social production of place and landscape. She specialized in archaeology during her BA at the University of Toronto and completed her MA at Trent University on the emergence of Late Archaic and Middle Woodland cemeteri...Read more
Research Stream
Anthropological Archeology
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Sara Shneiderman
Sara Shneiderman
ON LEAVE
until June 2025
Associate Professor
phone604 822 4387
Shaylih Muehlmann
Shaylih Muehlmann received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2008 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California Berkeley (2008-2010). She joined the anthropology department at the University of British Columbia in 2010 and was appointed the Canada Research Chair in Language,...Read more
Susan Rowley
Susan Rowley
Curator of Public Archaeology, Director of Museum of Anthropology | Associate Professor
emailsusan.rowley@ubc.ca
phone604 723 0494
location_onMuseum of Anthropology 224
Susan Rowley is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and a curator at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from Cambridge University. She first travelled north in 1974 as a field assistant on an archaeological...Read more
Terre Satterfield
Terre Satterfield
Professor of Culture, Risk & the Environment, Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability
Faculty Associate, Department of Anthropology
For full bio please follow the link to home department below.
Tracey Heatherington
location_onAnthropology & Sociology Building
I am a Sociocultural Anthropologist interested in globalization, development and political ecology. I examine environmental concerns in the context of social justice, using case studies to explore the evolving global imaginaries that beckon us to define environmental problems like biodiversity conse...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Europe | Research Interest: Identities, race, gender and sexuality, mobility | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapesResearch Stream
Socio-cultural Anthropology
Vinay Kamat
I trained as a medical anthropologist with specialization in global health, first at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and then at Emory University, Atlanta, from where I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology. Before that, I trained as a professional social worker and received my Ph.D. in Social Work f...Read more
ON LEAVE
until June 2026
Zahra Hayat
Zahra Hayat
ON LEAVE
until June 2026
Assistant Professor
emailzahra.hayat@ubc.ca
I am Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. I study pharmaceutical capitalism, intellectual property, and law. I am trained as an anthropologist and lawyer, and work at the intersection of medical anthropology and law. From 2024-26, I will be a Harvard ...Read more
Zhichun Jing
Zhichun Jing
Associate Professor
emailjingzh@mail.ubc.ca
emailz.jing@ubc.ca
phone604 822 4937
location_onANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 1204
Dr. Jing’s areas of interest include the archaeology of Shang civilization, early urbanism, culture contact, environmental archaeology, the archaeology of collapse and sustainability, archaic jades, and archaeological ceramics. He has conducted fieldwork in China, Greece, and the United States. Hi...Read more
Research Area
Geographic Region: Asia | Research Interest: Indigenous knowledge, environment, landscapes | Research Interest: Lifeways, deathways, ritual | Research Interest: Qualitative and/or quantitative methodsResearch Stream
Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology