Discipline(s):
Anthropology, Population health
Area(s) of Expertise:
Life Course, Mixed Methods, Cultural Epidemiology, Cross-Cultural Methods, Psychophysiology, Emotion, Violence & Risk-Taking
E-Mail:
rbrow11@gmail.com
Background:
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.
Journal Articles:
Click here for a list of Ryan Brown's available publications in PubMed.
