Bartholomew Dean

Bartholomew Dean serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. He holds additional affiliations as a research associate at KU's Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, a research affiliate at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (Tarapoto, Peru) where he directs the Anthropology Section of the Regional Museum, and a Contributing Editor for Lowland South America in the U.S. Library of Congress’ Handbook of Latin American Studies.

Dean earned his MPhil from Oxford University and his PhD from Harvard University in 1995. His academic journey has led him to become a prominent figure in anthropological research, particularly in Amazonian studies.

His research interests span the ethnology of the Peruvian Amazon, health and human rights, political anthropology, social theory, and ethics. He also explores critical theory, kinship, politics, symbolic forms, and material culture within the contexts of Amazonia and Latin America. Dean is currently finalizing a monograph on social trauma resulting from political violence in the lower Huallaga Region of Peruvian Amazonia.

Dean is an active participant in human rights advocacy and has made significant contributions to anthropological literature, including the book 'Urarina Society, Cosmology and History in the Peruvian Amazonia' (2009, 2013), a co-edited volume, numerous scholarly articles, and several textbooks.

He is deeply involved with research teams at the Laboratory of Biological Anthropology at KU and leads the Anthropology Section at the Regional Museum in Tarapoto, Peru, fostering collaborative research and cultural preservation in the Amazon region.