Rate My Professor Michael Harris

Michael S. Harris is an Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University. He earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University in 1989, with a dissertation titled Diminishing Resources: Land Fragmentation and Inheritance in a Bangladeshi Village. He also holds an M.A. in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University (1986) and a B.A. in Mathematics and Anthropology from Macalester College (1982). Harris's academic career at Florida Atlantic University began in 1993 as Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998. He has served as Department Chairperson since August 2003 and as Interim Chair of the Philosophy Department from May 2012 to May 2017. Prior positions include Research Specialist and Anthropologist at the Texas Department of Health (1992-1993) and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota (1990-1992). Since 1997, he has been Faculty Supervisor and Instructor of Record for the FAU Department of Anthropology Archaeological and Ethnographic Field School in Ecuador, training over 600 students from the U.S., Europe, and South America in field methods related to subsistence practices and ecosystems from 5000 years ago to the present.

Harris's research specializes in socio-cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, cultural ecology, and political economy, with emphases on human-environment interactions, land use in subsistence practices, household life cycles, inheritance, economic and political processes, and health issues such as childhood disease and mortality. His fieldwork spans Bangladesh, coastal Ecuador, and South Florida, focusing on refugees, immigrants, indigenous knowledge systems, Islam, and Hinduism. He has authored publications including The Complex Interplay of Culture and Nature in Coastal South-Central Ecuador (Expedition 46(1): 38-43, 2004), a chapter in Anthropology and Archaeology in Ecuadorian Ecosystems (2007), and papers such as Anthropological Engagements and People-Making: El Pueblo Manta and the Politics of Anthropology in Coastal Ecuador (2013) and Resident Reactions to Tap Water Testing in South Florida (2018). Harris has secured major grants, including the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation ($110,000, 2018 co-PI for Pueblo Manta archaeological heritage project), Ambassador’s Fund for Overseas Development ($78,980, 2008), and multiple Florida Public Archaeology Network grants totaling over $600,000. He received the Morrow Research Professor award in 2008-2009 and 2019. Harris contributes extensively to university service, including as University Faculty Senate Senator since 2003, member of the University Research Council (2009-2012), and Institutional Review Board (2005-2013).