Active Faculty
Janet Benson
A field ethnographer who has worked in many settings, Dr.Janet Benson's first love is India. After learning to wear a sari and speak Telugu, she became interested in the "New Immigration" to the U.S. and as part of a Ford Foundation ethnography project, along with some fifty researchers nationally, went out to look for America. Favorite quote: "Worlds within worlds/ Each hath one, and is one." (John Donne)
Michael Finnegan
Ernest Hemingway looked a bit like Dr. Finnegan, the world-renowned forensic anthropologist a.k.a. as Dr. Bones, who analyzed the remains of bandit Jesse James.
Tiffany Kershner
Brave adventurer who survived snakes, scorpions, and sickness in Southeast Africa, Dr. Tiffany Kershner is a linguistic anthropologist who loves big cats. Having tamed leopards in Malawi, this cat whisperer can handle any wildcats in Kansas...
Brad Logan
When it comes to archaeology, Brad is strictly on the level. A native Kansan, he enjoys exploring the prehistory of the central Plains. He also loves to teach students field and lab methods and tells them they can be applied anywhere, as he did here (many moons ago) in southwestern France.
Harald E.L. Prins
Born in the Netherlands, this prof has the foreign accent and genes to prove it. His Batavian forefathers were seafarers since the 1500s, and probably much earlier. He still speaks and sometimes dresses like his stout ancestors across the ocean.
Lauren W. Ritterbush
Sifting the soil of mother earth Dr. Ritterbush searches for broken pottery, stone tools, and treasures unknown (not dinosaurs) in order to understand the human past.
Michael Wesch
As a cultural anthropologist, Prof Wesch is a participant observer in New Guinea and New Media. With his laptop he turns into a magic trickster and practices cyber sorcery.....
Adjunct and Emeritus Faculty
Bunny McBride
Bunny McBride discovered cultural anthropology while traveling to China, Gambia, Morocco, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Seychelles, and many other distant places in the world. Originally trained as a painter and sculptor, she became intrigued by all that fascinating stuff so far abroad. Her favorite place in the world is the sandstone cliffs in the desert of Mali where the Dogon live. Famous for their masks, they honored her by performing the Dogon Rabbit dance....
Patricia O'Brien
Better known as "Pat," this daughter of an Irish vaudevillian with a dance school in Chicago began her career as a telephone operator. Bored stiff, she dreamed about Annie Oakley and escaped from Windy City to the Great Plains. Instead of a gun and bullet, she chose pen and trowel as her weapons of choice. Now an emerita professor, Dr. O'Brien earned an international reputation as an archaeologist specialized on the Pawnee......
Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer
Before embarking on an academic career in linguistic anthropology, Harriet Joseph sang and played in New York cafes and clubs. Bored by cantos, canticles, and cantatas, she discovered bliss in Blues. Inspired by vaudeville singer Esther Bigeou, she moved to New Orleans and became friends with Cousin Joe. Her coffeehouse was raided and she ran off to Kansas… How she found time to get a doctorate, a husband, two sons, and several sailing championships is a mystery to those who don’t know what drives emirita prof Harriet J. Ottenheimer...
Martin Ottenheimer
As successor of legendary anthropologist Ibn Battuta, emeritus professor Martin Ottenheimer brings international fame to our program. An avid sea sailor, this cultural anthropologist often returns to the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean where he enjoys great respect as Omar Abudavi....
Michie, Barry; Adjunct Faculty sikarraj@ksu.edu
Roper, Donna; Adjunct Faculty droper@ksu.edu
West, Dixie ; Adjunct Faculty dlwest@ksu.edu