Associate/Assistant Deans
Allan Burns Biography
CLAS Associate Dean for Research
Anthropology Professor Allan Burns served as chair of the anthropology department since 1998 and also is an affiliate faculty member with the Program in Linguistics and the Center for Latin American Studies. He chairs the Global Health Committee in the health sciences colleges and is an applied anthropologist with interests in immigration, health and human rights.
Burns received his BS in sociology from Iowa State University in 1968 and his MA and PhD from the University of Washington in anthropology in 1970 and 1973. Before coming to UF in 1977, he worked for a private research company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, conducting evaluations of bilingual education programs in the Southwest. Throughout his career, Burns' research has focused on the Mayan language and culture in the Yucatún region of Mexico, Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador, and among Guatemalan refugees in Florida. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Labor, various governments of Micronesia, the National Park Service and the Florida Humanities Council. Burns also has consulted for the National Geographic Society and several Native American tribes.