Find Academic Supervisors

Jessica Hardin serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology within RIT's College of Liberal Arts, concurrently holding the Honorable Barber B. Conable Jr. Endowed Chair and directing International and Global Studies. Her anthropological work critically examines how structural inequalities manifest through intersections of medicine, religion, and chronic illness, particularly metabolic disorders in Pacific contexts. Education: PhD in Anthropology, Brandeis University (2014) Her research employs feminist methodologies to analyze moral dimensions of health risks among Pentecostal Christians in Samoa, informed by 2011-2012 fieldwork supported by Wenner Gren and Fulbright-Hays grants. She investigates how global health discourses on nutrition, fatness, and diabetes become entangled with religious identity and social visibility, revealing cultural specificities often overlooked in biomedical frameworks. Recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on medical anthropology through Pacific Islander experiences, utilizing innovative approaches like metatheme analysis to compare cross-cultural obesity narratives. Her work bridges critical nutrition studies with anthropology of Christianity, highlighting how metabolic disorders become moral projects within Samoan Pentecostal communities. Scientific Awards: Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Wenner Gren Foundation Fellowship Hardin secured an NSF grant for diabetes decision-making research in Samoa and collaborates internationally on multi-sited projects like 'Fat in Four Cultures' examining weight perceptions across Samoa, Paraguay, Japan, and the US. She mentors students through courses including ANTH-244 (Disability Studies) and ANTH-246 (Gender and Health), with recent student co-authorships on ableism in engineering education. Her research team integrates anthropologists, public health scholars, and local Samoan practitioners to examine how global health interventions interact with indigenous healing practices and religious frameworks in post-colonial contexts.

• Medical Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology
• Critical Nutrition
• +5 more

Dr. Sara Marie Conrad is an Assistant Professor in Residence of Sociology and Anthropology at Bradley University's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, affiliated with the Department of Sociology, Criminology & Social Work. She earned her PhD from Indiana University's departments of Anthropology and The Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. Her research examines transnational cultural preservation through multiple lenses: Ethnographic studies of Tibetan diaspora communities Sociology of reproduction and motherhood Religious practices in migration contexts Cultural transmission through foodways and oral history Dr. Conrad maintains active fieldwork, currently expanding her doctoral research on Tibetan women to midwestern U.S. communities through multi-sited ethnography. Contact: Bradley Hall 119 | (309) 677-2387 | sconrad@bradley.edu

• Anthropology
• Sociology
• Transnational Communities
• +5 more

Don H. Holly Jr. is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Eastern Illinois University, where he has taught since 2005. He holds a Ph.D. from Brown University and specializes in the archaeology of hunter-gatherer societies, particularly the Beothuk of Newfoundland. His editorial roles include serving on the board of Northeast Anthropology and former associate editorship at American Antiquity . His research examines: Cultural adaptations in marginal environments Impacts of European contact on indigenous technologies Settlement evolution in the Eastern Subarctic Anthropological theory through archaeological evidence Recent publications (2019-2025) demonstrate methodological diversity including: Experimental replication of indigenous metalworking Zooarchaeological analysis of subsistence patterns Reconstruction of household structures Critiques of Arctic cultural memory narratives He maintains active fieldwork in Newfoundland and mentors students through excavation opportunities and recommendation support.

• Archaeology
• Hunter-Gatherer Societies
• Indigenous Studies
• +3 more