Bruce D. Roberts, Ph.D.
Department of Anthropology & Earth Science
Minnesota State University Moorhead
Moorhead, MN. 56563. USA
Phone: (218) 477-2043
Fax: (218) 477-4224
Email: robertsb@mnstate.edu
URL: http://web.mnstate.edu/robertsb
Jambo, namaste, hello! Thanks for visiting my homepage. I am a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University Moorhead. I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh, my Bachelor's degree in Sociology/Anthropology from Towson University in Baltimore, MD; and an Masters' degree in Anthropology from the University of Denver. From August 1993 to May 1999 I taught at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). In May 1999, I left USM and came to what was then Moorhead State University – now Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM). Our department, which combines anthropology with geography and geology, attracted me because of my interests in ecological and environmental matters. After arriving at MSUM, I added a number of new courses to the curriculum, including Ecological Anthropology, Peoples and Cultures of Africa, Ethnographic Research Methods, and Culture and Ecology in East Africa (more on this follows below). I was granted academic tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor in 2002 and professor in 2009.
My doctoral research in Kenya from 1990 to 1991 was supported through a Fellowship for Training and Dissertation Research from the Social Science Research Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Rockefeller Foundation. My dissertation, entitled The Historical and Ecological Bases of Economic Opportunity and Inequality in Elgeyo-Marakwet District, Kenya situated the contemporary household economy of a group of smallholder peasant farmers within both environmental and historical frameworks. In 1995 I returned to Elgeyo-Marakwet District in Kenya for further research, assisted by a Summer Faculty Research Grant and Aubrey K. Lucas Endowment for Faculty Excellence, both from The University of Southern Mississippi.
My publications include articles/chapters in: Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal (1996), Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Everyday Life (Timothy Gall, ed. 1997), Commodities and Globalization: Anthropological Perspectives (Angelique Haugerud, M. Priscilla Stone, and Peter D. Little, eds. 2000), The Globalization of Food (Leonard Plotnicov and Richard Scaglion, eds. 2002) and the Encyclopedia of the Developing World (Thomas K. Leonard, ed. 2005).
As a way of further expanding my understanding of Africa, in June 2001 I participated in the
International Faculty
Development Seminar
in South Africa,
organized by the Council on
International Educational Exchange. This opportunity was made possible
through an MSUM Faculty Development Grant, as well as through monies
generously provided by President Roland Barden, Vice President for Academic
Affairs Bette Midgarden, and College of Social and Natural Sciences Dean Ronald
Jeppson. In the summer of 2002 I visited Kogi state, Nigeria as part of a
month-long curriculum revision process with a team of faculty members from MSUM
and North Dakota State University. In Summer 2006
I traveled to India to participate in an International Faculty
Development Seminar co-sponsored by
South Dakota State University
and the
University of Hyderabad.
From January to June 2008 I was a visiting lecturer at
Guru
Ghasidas University
in Bilaspur, India as
part of a
Fulbright Teaching Award.
In 1998 I began leading short-term summer student
tours to the Republic of Kenya and Tanzania, thereby providing many American undergraduate
students with their first (and perhaps only) opportunity to experience
the
realities of life in Africa.
Culture
and Ecology in East Africa has enabled me to give a
small group of students firsthand experience with issues of enormous import for
many of the world's developing countries.
Although
circumstances* have kept me from running the program since 2005 I
hope to be able to offer some version in the near future. Stay tuned.
