Rate My Professor Mary Courtis

Mary Courtis is an Instructor of Anthropology at Portland Community College, where she serves as full-time faculty. She earned a BA in Psychology from Rocky Mountain College in Montana, an MA in Anthropology from the University of Montana, and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oregon. Courtis teaches a broad range of anthropology courses, including ATH 101 Introduction to Biological Anthropology, ATH 103 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, ATH 104 Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, ATH 207 Culture Concepts, and ATH 212. She regularly offers both online and on-campus classes and has collaborated with library staff to develop research resource guides for her courses. As former chair of the Anthropology Subject Area Committee (SAC), she contributed to curriculum updates, program assessments, and the adoption of free online open educational resources, such as cultural anthropology texts, to reduce student costs.

Courtis has led innovative pedagogical initiatives to foster cultural awareness and equity at PCC, including 'speed culturing' exercises in ATH 103 where students discuss values, marriage, kinship, and economic practices across cultures, as well as assignments requiring students to violate U.S. cultural norms and reflect on social sanctions. She incorporates community-based learning through events like the PCC Winter Pow Wow, Sami storytelling performances, and international student dialogues. Courtis planned and led a faculty-led Education Abroad program to Ireland for ATH 103, emphasizing anthropological fieldwork methods such as life histories, interviews, surveys, and participant-observation. Her research involves multiple trips to Europe to study Celtic and Norse culture and cosmology. Additionally, she served on Districtwide SAC committees designing PCC's cultural literacy and social science/critical thinking rubrics, and presented new anthropology courses as part of internationalization efforts.