Rate My Professor Michael Harris

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).