Presenter

Trevor J. Durbin is broadly trained in the biophysical and human sciences. He holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Rice University (2015), where he focused on environmental studies, medical anthropology, and science and technology studies.

In his applied research, Dr. Durbin works closely with diverse, multidisciplinary teams to identify, clarify, and solve pressing problems in agriculture, healthcare, safety, and environmental policy. He has worked with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Program (Apia, Samoa), the Cook Islands Environment Service (Rarotonga), and Conservation International Pacific Islands Program. He is currently an external investigator for the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS) and is an ethnographic and qualitative methods consultant for the Human Factors Team at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. This applied work serves as a vehicle for methods training and publishing with undergraduate anthropology students.

In addition to his applied projects, Dr. Durbin maintains a program of concept-driven writing and primary research. A long standing concern revolves around how communities (from extended families to nation-states) establish and maintain legitimate authority, especially in times of uncertainty and change. He has published work on the positive role of scandal in nation building, the interactions of charismatic authority and statecraft, and the complementarity between conservative and progressive values in the maintenance of family tradition. He is currently working on two public-facing writing projects. The first draws on an anthropological perspective to argue for the importance of living tradition in education and parenting. The second explores the limits of academic anthropology in thinking about anthropos (the human).