Rate My Professor Greg Downey

Greg Downey is Professor in the School of Communication, Society and Culture within the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1998, followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University and a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame. He joined Macquarie University in 2006, where he has served in leadership roles including Head of the Department of Anthropology and Interim Dean of the Macquarie School of Social Sciences. Downey's research centers on biocultural anthropology and neuroanthropology, exploring how cultural practices, skill training, and bodily disciplines modify human motor control, sensory perception, and neural plasticity. His fieldwork spans Brazil, the United States, and the Pacific, with projects on capoeira practitioners, Muay Thai coach-athlete interactions, echolocation among the vision-impaired, freediving experts, men's therapy groups, and community acceptance of agricultural technologies. He also investigates cross-cultural learning experiences for university students studying abroad.

Downey has authored and co-edited seminal works, including Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art (Oxford University Press, 2005), The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology (MIT Press, 2012, co-edited with Daniel H. Lende), and Frontiers of Capital: Ethnographic Reflections on the New Economy (Duke University Press, 2006, co-edited with Melissa Fisher). Recent publications include 'Coach–athlete interaction in Muay Thai: a microethnographic analysis of skill learning in a real-world combat sport' (2026) and 'Decolonising the psychology curriculum: perspectives from faculty at a UK university' (2026). He served as Editor-in-Chief of Ethos, the journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, from 2018 to 2023, and received the Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013. As a pioneer in neuroanthropology, Downey integrates neuroscience and cultural studies, advancing understanding of embodied learning and cultural influences on the brain. He maintains the Neuroanthropology weblog and supervises graduate research in psychological anthropology.