Lydia E. O. Light
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Teaching

Picture
Courses Taught and Sample Syllabi:
  • Introduction to Anthropology
  • Biological Anthropology
  • People, Primates, Pets & Pests
  • Primate Behavioral Ecology
  • Primates: Past & Present
  • Primate Conservation
  • Field Biology of the Primates
  • Neanderthals and Us
  • Climate Change and Human Health
  • Human-Animal Disease Transfer
  • Graduate Seminar in Evolutionary and Biological Anthropology
  • Teaching Anthropology
Courses In Development:
  • Ethnoprimatology
  • Modern Human Diversity
  • Denisovans, Hobbits, and Other Human Contemporaries
  • Nutritional and Reproductive Ecology of Human and Nonhuman Primates
  • The Anthropology of Food
  • Are Nonhuman Primates Cultural Beings?
  • GIS for Anthropology
  • Cultural Considerations for Biodiversity Conservation
  • Questioning Human Nature
  • The Myth of Monogamy

My teaching style is strongly influenced by the philosophical schools of existentialism and pragmatism. Anthropology, particularly biological anthropology, is uniquely situated for engaging in current issues from both a biological and sociocultural perspective. Through open class discussion, Socratic questioning, and small group activities, I guide students through critical and reflexive thinking about modern biological and cultural diversity. I challenge students to examine their lived experiences as we discuss the social construction of race and race relations in modern society. We also draw on public discourse of current events and exciting new discoveries in science and paleoanthropology specifically as an opportunity for critical analysis. I use my own research on white-handed gibbons to demonstrate the ancient origins of within-species variation in ecology and complex social behaviors and also as a means of highlighting the participation of women in the sciences. I strongly support hands-on experiences for undergraduates; students in my classes conduct primate behavioral observations at the local zoo, mini-ethnographic studies in their own communities, and hominid morphology comparative projects, as well as a number of other direct anthropological experiences.
All pictures © 2015 Lydia E. O. Light.