Dawn Neill

My specific areas of interest are human behavioral ecology, nutritional anthropology,  the ecology of obesity, and urban anthropology in South Asia, Fiji, and the US.  I have worked with Bengali and tribal Khasi Indians, Indo-Fijians, and public school children in Louisiana and Washington.

In teaching, as with research, I try to convey a broad interdisciplinary perspective.  I have found that contextualizing anthropology and health in terms of ecology and evolution facilitates greater learning of the specific issue at hand and also provides students a framework with which to approach learning in general.  This methodology fosters critical thinking skills and the application of a holistic framework that advances students' abilities to understand multiple perspectives and to succeed in a rapidly changing, global environment.