Perspective...

This is the first entry for a new course,"Perspectives in Human Ecology," which is being offered by the University of New Mexico for Fall 2007. The class is team-taught and multi-disciplinary. The instructors are: Jordan Okie (ecology), Bill Burnside (ecology), and myself Oskar Burger (anthropology). This class seeks a macroecological perspective on human ecology - in the ways humans organize themselves, process energy, alter their environments, and follow basic biogeographic patterns in some cases while being exceptions in others. UNM is an ideal setting for such a course because numerous faculty members here have made pioneering contributions to the theoretical and empirical foundations that this course is based upon. In the social and natural sciences UNM has professors who have sought fundamental explanations for complex phenomena while using and encouraging crossdisciplinary collaborations (e.g., James H. Brown, Hilly Kaplan, Ric Charnov, FA Smith, Bruce Milne, Jim Boone, Kim Hill, Stephanie Forest, Melanie Moses). Check out the wiki for the Program in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Science. However, while on campus resources here are strong, the goal of this blogspot is to invite further contribution from experts around the globe in the hopes that this will broaden the perspective of the course and foster a collaborative and diverse atmosphere.

The course will begin on Tuesday, August 21. We hope this blog takes on a life of its own and that many contribute.

Cheers,
Oskar