The way I think...
The photo above is a slide, one I use in a sweeping lecture on the history of anthropological thought. The purpose, or one of them, is to convince students that we read and write anthropology to join a conversation, not with texts but with people. And people have histories. They creatively weave together teachings and new experiences; they have reasons for joining a conversation in a particular way, or joining one conversation and not another.
Like all of us, the intellectual questions I pursue and the ways I pursue them have been profoundly shaped by mentors and colleagues. My greatest intellectual debt is to my father, David M. Hay, who taught me to think deeply and critically about ideas, and to think generously and kindly about people.
My direct anthropological 'ancestors' include Jon Andelson and Ron Kurtz who introduced me to the intellectual joys of anthropology at Grinnell College. At Emory University, I completed my MA and Ph.D. in anthropology with a biocultural focus under the direct guidance of Bradd Shore, Peter Brown, Frederik Barth, Karl Heider, and Charles Nuckolls, and was strongly influenced by Carol Worthman and Mel Konner.
My post-doctoral research at UCLA, funded by an NSF Advance Fellows award, was mentored by Tom Weisner in the Center for Culture and Health, who guided me into to mixed methods research and introduced me to the idea that scholarship is a conversation. I benefited from the additional mentoring of a number of others at UCLA: Perry Niccasio in psychoneuroimmunology, Linda Garro and Carole Browner in medical anthropology, Barbara Geisser in neurology, and Dan Furst in rheumatology.
These scholars, and many others with whom I converse over coffee at conferences or through their articles and books, continue to shape the scholarly conversations I choose to join. Indeed, it is these scholarly conversations, whether formalized in writing or causal exchanges of ideas in email, that make anthropology so enjoyable.
Like all of us, the intellectual questions I pursue and the ways I pursue them have been profoundly shaped by mentors and colleagues. My greatest intellectual debt is to my father, David M. Hay, who taught me to think deeply and critically about ideas, and to think generously and kindly about people.
My direct anthropological 'ancestors' include Jon Andelson and Ron Kurtz who introduced me to the intellectual joys of anthropology at Grinnell College. At Emory University, I completed my MA and Ph.D. in anthropology with a biocultural focus under the direct guidance of Bradd Shore, Peter Brown, Frederik Barth, Karl Heider, and Charles Nuckolls, and was strongly influenced by Carol Worthman and Mel Konner.
My post-doctoral research at UCLA, funded by an NSF Advance Fellows award, was mentored by Tom Weisner in the Center for Culture and Health, who guided me into to mixed methods research and introduced me to the idea that scholarship is a conversation. I benefited from the additional mentoring of a number of others at UCLA: Perry Niccasio in psychoneuroimmunology, Linda Garro and Carole Browner in medical anthropology, Barbara Geisser in neurology, and Dan Furst in rheumatology.
These scholars, and many others with whom I converse over coffee at conferences or through their articles and books, continue to shape the scholarly conversations I choose to join. Indeed, it is these scholarly conversations, whether formalized in writing or causal exchanges of ideas in email, that make anthropology so enjoyable.
