Allan F. Burns, Ph.D.

A Slashnburns home page production

Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
and an Applied Anthropologist at the University of Florida

Contents

Visual Anthropology Course, Fall 2003

Lombardi Scholars Program in the Yucatan

Yucatan 2000 Cyberethnographies

Cyberethnography project in Yucatan, summer, 1999

Here it is: Afro tropical from Peoples of Mexico Course, 1998

Fulbright Scholarships?  Honors Awards?  Visit the honors prestigious awards page

A Resume of my work

Contact Information

Visit the Yucatán Summer and Academic Year program home page NOW!

University of Florida Anthropology Department

I am a professor of Anthropology and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the University of Florida.  I am also an affiliate with the Latin American Studies program, Linguistics, the Vision Center,  and director of the Florida/Yucatan program at the University of Florida. I received a Bachelor of Science in sociology from Iowa State University in 1968, then went on to do graduate work at the University of Washington. I received an MA in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1973 in anthropology. Before coming to Florida I worked for a private research company in Cambridge, MA, Abt Associates, doing evaluation of bilingual education programs in the southwest. Throughout my career, my research has focused on the Mayan language and culture in the Yucatan of Mexico, Chiapas, Guatemala, and among Guatemalan refugees in Florida. I've also done research on migration between the U.S. and México city and within Europe. Some of the grants and contracts I have received are from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Labor, various governments of Micronesia, the National Park Service, the Florida Humanities Council, and the North South Center. I have also consulted for the National Geographic Society, Info-Tech, Incorporated, Abt Associates, Inc., several states, and several Native American tribes. I have published over ninety  articles and book chapters, two books, and quite a few applied anthropology reports.

I am a visual anthropologist, or maybe better put a "digital video anthropologist," and have produced several ethnographic videos, two of which have been shown on public television stations. My videos are on things like Mayan culture, immigrant health, historic preservation in Micronesia, and Native American cultural resistance. I was one of the original members of the board of directors of "Corn Maya," an association of Guatemala Maya people in the United States, as well as on the board of View our Voices, Inc., a community-based photography and video project in Gainesville, Florida for at-risk teenagers. I have also chaired the international meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Cancun, Mexico, and organized the 43rd annual conference of the Center for Latin American Studies on "The Wisdom of the Maya." I have been recognized by the Kanjobal Maya refugees in Florida for research and humanitarian aid, and have won five teaching awards at the University of Florida. I am a minority mentor and administrator of graduate scholarships for minority students. I work in the Honors program of the University of Florida as an awards advisor, and I am in charge of Fulbright scholarships. I am also an affiliate in the Latin American Studies Center, the Program in Linguistics, the Vision center of the University of Florida Medical School, the Center for Neuropsychology (also of the Medical School). I was a Fulbright scholar at the Copenhagen University's Institute for Anthropology (1991-92) and a visiting exchange scholar at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain (1985-86). I have also lectured and taught in Austria, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala. I speak Spanish and Yucatec Maya in addition to English, and have at times made great attempts to speak other European languages, including Lithuanian, Danish, German, and Portuguese.

My interests focus on the use of video and computers in anthropology, indigenous rights, and applied anthropology -- medical, educational, and political.  Recent projects that students and I have been working on include a study of teenage tobacco initiation and use (with Brian Page, University of Miami Department of Anthropology and  School of Medicine subcontract);  the Ethnohistory of the Kingsley Plantation (with Antoinette Jackson), National Park Service funding;  Migrant Housing Policy in Florida, funded through the State of Florida Department of Community Affairs).  I have also given workshops on visual anthropology and human rights for CIESAS-Chiapas, on visual anthropology for INAH-Mexico City, and for cultural heritage programs for many Native American groups.

I  chair about 28 MA and Ph.D. committees and direct several senior honors theses each year. Some Ph.D. projects that students are working on under my direction include religious festivals and social change in Yucatan (Alicia Peon), Music and identity among the Maya of Yucatan (Emilio Benites), Garifuna language (Santiag Ruiz), Hip Hop Nation (Dawn Elissa Banks), Effects of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras (Roberto Barrios), Sea Island culture and history (Tracey Graham ), Women dyers in Mali (Maxine Downs), Blacksmiths and the African Diaspora (Ade Offunian), Health in Guanajuato and Florida among migrants (Alayne Unterberger), among others.
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Yucatán Summer and Academic Year program home page

La Jornada This is an excellent newspaper from México City. In Spanish

Society for Applied Anthropology
 

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Contact Information

Last Revised: July 17, 2002