Thomas Leatherman

Ph.D. 1987. Anthropology  University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
M.A. 1978. Anthropology. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
B.A. 1975. Anthropology (Honors), Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

Professor and Chair

Biocultural theory and practice; political economy of health; biology of poverty; political ecology; health and nutrition; ecology and adaptability; coping with marginal conditions; seasonality; growth and development; Latin America (Andes, Yucatan). Southeast U.S..

(October 1997 – 1999) - Identifying Barriers to Prenatal Care Among Minority Women in South Carolina. Funded by South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(September 1994 - 1998) - Costal South Carolina. Research on human exposure to fumonisins (mycotoxin of common corn fungus, Fusarium). USDA funded research.

(Summer 1994, 96, 98) - Yucatan, Mexico. Investigation of dietary change in Mayan communities. "Coca-Colonization and the Political-Ecology of Junk Food". Funded by Wenner-Gren Foundation and University of South Carolina.

(Summer 1989, 1991) - Yucatan, Mexico. Investigations of women’s work and health, household health, health systems and health care utilization in contexts of tourism-led economic change.

American Anthropological Association Society for Applied Anthropology
American Association of Physical Anthropologists Human Biology Council
Society for Medical Anthropology Council on Nutritional Anthropology

1999 - ongoing. Editorial Board. Medical Anthropology Quarterly

1999 – 2000. Review Panel for the J. I. Staley Prize of the School of American Research

1997 – 1999. Nominations and Election Committee. Society for Applied Anthropology (Chair of N&E Committee, 1998-1999).

1992-1995. Executive Board, Society for Medical Anthropology

1993, 1994 - Program co-chair for AAA meetings

1995 - Chair of W. H. R. Rivers and Polgar Prize paper competetions

1991-1994. Vice President, Council on Nutritional Anthropology; Editor of the CommuNicAtor (official newsletter of the Council on Nutritional Anthropology).

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). ($20,860.00). Increasing Early Entry into Prenatal Care among Minority Women in South Carolina.

Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research ($14,500.00): Coca-Colonization: The effects of food commoditization on the diet and nutrition of the Yucatec Maya. 1996 - 1997.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Competitive Research Initiative Grants ($140,885). Human Exposure to Corn-based Fumonisin Mycotoxins in Coastal South Carolina, 1994 - 1997.

Research and Productive Scholarship Award, (SPAR) University of South Carolina ($3000.00). Dietary Change in Mayan Communities: the Political Ecology of "Junk Food". 1994-95.

Wenner-Gren International Conference ($70,000.00 est.) - Political Economic Perspectives in Biological Anthropology: Building a Biocultural Synthesis. Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico. November, 1992.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OSAP - Office of Substance Abuse Prevention), in conjunction with South Carolina Commission of Alcohol and Drug Abuse ($18,000). Ethnography of Youth Residence Homes. June 1991 - June 1992.

Research and Productive Scholarship Award, University of South Carolina ($3000.00). The Biology of Tourism: Women's Work and Health in a Changing Rural Economy. 1989-90.

Fulbright-Hays Student Fellowship (for Dissertation Research). Relationship between Health and Food Production in the Southern Peruvian Andes. August 1983-November 1984.

Sigma Xi. The Scientific Research Society, Grant-in-Aid of Research. Undernutrition and Work Among High Altitude Porters. 1982.

The Kenneth J. Opat Undergraduate Award for Honors Thesis Research. Tulane University.1975.

Outstanding Alumni Award, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

University Graduate Fellowship. University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 1985-87.

U.S. Department of Education Fellowship. Language training in intensive Quechua. Center for Latin American Studies, University of Connecticut, Storrs. Summer 1983.

Fellowship - Seminar on Nutritional Methods for Anthropologists. MIT-Harvard International Food and Nutrition Program. 1982.

SYMPOSIA AND CONFERENCES ORGANIZED

Symposium Organizer (with Alan Goodman). Social Inequalities and Human Biology: Political- Economic Perspectives in Biological Anthropology. Meetings of the American Anthropological Association. Philadelphia, PA. December, 1998.

Symposium Organizer (with Alan Goodman). Rethinking Biocultural Anthropology for the 21^st Century. 14^th ICAES, Williamsburg, VA. July-August, 1998.

Symposium Organizer (with Alan Goodman). Social and Political-Economic Perspectives in Biological Anthropology. Meetings of the American Association of Physical Anthropology. April, 1994.

Symposium Organizer (with Alan Goodman). Global Change and Human Condition: Towards Political-Economic Perspectives in Biological Anthropology. 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Mexico City, August, 1993

Conference Organizer (with A. Goodman). Political Economic Perspectives in Biological Anthropology: Building a Biocultural Synthesis. Wenner-Gren International Conference,

October 31 - November 7, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico. 1992.

Symposium Organizer (with A. Gordon). Agrarian Transformations and Health. 90th

Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, Il., 1991. 

SELECT RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Books, Edited Collections, Research Monograph

1998 Goodman, A. and T. Leatherman (eds.) . Building a New Biocultural Synthesis: Political- Economic Perspectives on Human Biology. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

1997 Leatherman, T. and A. Goodman. Edited Collection: "Social and Economic Perspectives in
Biological Anthropology". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 102(1):1-78.

1994 Leatherman, T.L. and A. Gordon. Edited Collection. Agrarian Transformations and Health. Human Organization 53(4): 345-387.

Articles, Chapters, Book Reviews

2000 Leatherman, T.L. and R, B, Thomas. Leatherman, T.L. an R.B. Thomas. " Political
Ecology and Conceptions of Environment in Biological Anthropology", in Anthropology and Environment, C. Crumley, Ed. AltaMira Press (in press)

1998 Leatherman, T. Gender Differences in Health and Illness Among Rural Populations in Latin America. In Sex and Gender in Paleopathological Perspective (A. Grauer and P. Stuart-Macadam, eds.). Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

1998 Leatherman, T. Changing Biocultural Perspectives on Health in the Andes. Social Science and Medicine 47(8): 1031-1041

1998 Leatherman, T. Illness, Social Relations, and Household Production and Reproduction in the Andes of Southern Peru. In, Building a New Biocultural Synthesis: Political- Economic Perspectives on Human Biology (A. Goodman and T. Leatherman, eds.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 245-268.

1998 Goodman, A. and T. Leatherman. Traversing the Chasm Between Biology and Culture: An Introduction. In, Building a New Biocultural Synthesis: Political- Economic Perspectives on Human Biology (A. Goodman and T. Leatherman, eds.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 3-43.

1998 Daltabuit, M. and T. Leatherman. The Biocultural Impact of Tourism on Mayan Communities In, Building a New Biocultural Synthesis: Political- Economic Perspectives on Human Biology (A. Goodman and T. Leatherman, eds.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 317-338.

1997 Leatherman, T. and A. Goodman. Expanding the Biocultural Synthesis Toward a Biology
of Poverty: Introduction. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 102(1):1-5.

1996 Leatherman, T.L.. A Biocultural Perspective on Health and Household Economy in Southern     Peru. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 10(4):476-495.

1995 Leatherman, T., J. Carey and R.B. Thomas. Socioeconomic Change and Patterns of
Growth in the Andes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 97(3):307-322.

1994 Leatherman T.L. Health Implications of Changing Agrarian Economies in the Southern Andes. Human Organization 53(4): 371-379.

1993 Leatherman, T.L., A. Goodman, and R.B. Thomas. On Seeking Common Ground Between
Medical Ecology and Critical Medical Anthropology. Medical Anthropology Quarterly7(2):202-207.