Health, Mind, and Well-Being

From the outset, anthropology has sought to map and understand the varieties of human experience, the roots of human capacities and welfare, and their disparate sources across time, place, and culture. In addition to yielding deep historical and evolutionary insights, this quest has fostered critical inquiry into the sources of disparity, inequality, and differential well-being at present.

Tackling these issues invites multiple approaches and as such, draws together faculty and students with diverse specializations, theoretical foundations, and modes of inquiry. Approaches range from the subjective and individual to the quantitative and population or societal, from phenomenological to experimental.

The continuously evolving research foci in this dynamic arena comprise a similarly expansive range, including social and cultural production of health, embodiment, life course and life history, biocultural processes, evolution of brain and mind, cognition, cross-cultural mental and physical health, subjectivity, self, emotion, masculinity, faith and religion.