SCHOLAR
Ryan A. Brown, PhD
Ryan Brown comes to UCSF/UCB from Emory University, where he received a PhD in biocultural anthropology in 2006. Ryan’s dissertation examined how Cherokee Native American and Anglo youth in the rural Appalachia negotiate life course opportunities and constraints under conditions of high endemic poverty and psychosocial risk. Conducted via the Laboratory for Comparative Human Biology at Emory, this research involved the development of a novel field instrument that allows individuals to narrate life course perspectives, producing quantitative data for integration with longitudinal epidemiological studies of mental health (in this case, Duke University’s Great Smoky Mountains Study). As such, Ryan’s methodological interests lie in the translation of qualitative findings into quantitative assessment tools. Topically, he is interested in the life course trajectories of youths who participate (or avoid participating) in socially organized forms of violence and risk-taking. While at UCSF/UCB, he will develop and implement methods for assessing how cultural processes and individual developmental paths intersect to produce the conditions necessary for recruitment into such groups and behaviors, including the embodiment of hopelessness, thwarted life course goals, and the perception of membership in such groups as the best of all possible worlds. This will involve drawing upon findings from behavioral ecology, developmental psychology / psychobiology, and cultural anthropology, among many other fields. Ryan also received his MA from Emory and a B.A. in anthropology from UNC-Chapel Hill. Ryan plans to develop his interests in snowboarding and indulge his tastes in Indian, Thai, and Japanese food while in the Bay Area.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2006 PhD, Anthropology, Emory University
2002 MA, Anthropology, Emory University
1998 BA, Anthropology (Minor in Folklore), Summa cum laude
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
AFFILIATIONS
American Anthropological Association
Evolutionary Anthropology Society
New York Academy of Sciences
Society for Anthropological Sciences
Society for Medical Anthropology
Society for Psychological Anthropology
Society for Research on Adolescence
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
PubMed Link
Please note that PubMed searches may display results referencing
different authors with identical names.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Center for Health and Community
University of California at San Francisco
3333 California, Suite 465
Campus Box 0844
San Francisco, CA 94118
Phone: 415.994.2417
Fax: 415.502.1010
E-mail: ryan.brown@ucsf.edu
[back to top]
[back to SCHOLARS]