Ecology & Environment @ Stanford

[brooklyn713]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anybody might be able to give some insight into the program in Anthropology @ Stanford, in particular the Ecology & Environment track. I was an anthropology undergraduate, but have transitioned into studying infectious disease ecology & epidemiology. I'm interested in researching human modifications to ecosystems, the dynamics of these land-use changes, and how these influence behavior/immune function/parasitism in reservoir hosts of zoonotic disease and thus human heath risk. Most of my graduate applications were to Ecology programs (where there is ample cross-talk between anthropology & ecology), but as studying the human side of the above is just as important to the more zoologically oriented research, I applied to a few anthropology programs as well. Stanford's E&E track is strong on quantitative methods, remote sensing, interdisciplinary research, the Woods Institute, and collaboration with Biology + lab rotations, encouraging eco-anth students to study some anthropology and some community/landscape ecology. The PI I'd work with studies infectious disease dynamics, so everything seems pretty gold.

I've been accepted and plan to visit briefly before the end of the month, but I won't have a ton of time and certainly won't get to speak with everyone I might work with. I'm particularly interested in the research methods the program pushes, which seem far more quantitative (mathematical modeling, remote sensing, social network analysis) than traditional ecological anthropological programs. Basically, I'd love to market myself as an anthropologist and disease ecologist after my PhD and a few post-docs, which would entail either 1) graduate education in biocultural anthropology with training & field/lab methods in infectious disease ecology and epidemiology or 2) graduate education in disease ecology with training and methods in biocultural anthropology. So I'm wondering how much Stanford would help me achieve that versus perhaps a more traditional ecological education (although a more anthropological spin and understanding would be a nice niche...and the funding @ Stanford is niiiice).

As an example or two, faculty in E&E have done remote sensing of aboriginal fire practices and ground-truthed biodiversity with modeling and remote sensing, past MA students have done their thesis by bird census in anthropogenically altered/disturbed environments, and current students are studying the human behavioral ecology (and vegetation surveys) of malaria. I love all the concepts used in anthropology, but I'd like to be trained in methods used by ecologists and infectious disease specialists as well.

Any advice/insight as this all pertains to the nature of the Anthro department @ Stanford or the E&E group? Thanks!!

[nubiadoc]

My sense from visiting the department recently is that they really encourage interdisciplinarity. I know that doesn't answer your question directly but it seems there will be alot of freedom for you to piece together your classes and ultimately your committee based on the resources available at Stanford as well as in the area. You can take classes in the UC system and even have a faculty member from another institution on your committee. If you feel that the resources available to you at Stanford and in the area are enough for you to gain the types of quantitative skills you are looking for I think it might be a great place to be.