Associate Professor of Anthropology

Education
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Kentucky, 1987
M.A. Applied Social Anthropology, University of Kentucky, 1983
B.A., German; Foreign Service, Baylor University, 1979

Major Area of Research
Third World development process with emphases on livelihood security and vulnerability, food security, human dimensions of climate change, ecotourism, natural resource management, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic

Current Courses

• ANT 3320 Environment and Human Behavior
• ANT 4311 World Food Problems
• ANT 4312 Societies and Cultures of Africa
• ANT 4321 Climate Anthropology
• ANT 4350 Indigenous Peoples & Development
• ANT 4362 Applied Anthropology

Biography

I am an applied social anthropologist working in Central America (most recently Belize and Costa Rica), in West and East Africa, and in Appalachia. My research interests broadly focus on the Third World development process with emphases on livelihood security and vulnerability, food security, ecotourism, natural resource management, human dimensions of climate change, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I recently completed a two-year field study (funded by NOAA) in several coastal communites in the Meso American Barrier Reef System to examine resilience of vulnerable households to climate-related events and shocks. These data are being used to develop a Resiliency Index. The project continues fieldwork this year to facilitate new coalitions within and outside communities to identify linkages that could be enhanced to increase resilience at household and community levels.

I have also been an advisor to a number of NGOs – Save the Children, CARE, World Vision, and the World Food Programme – on various programs and projects over the last fifteen years. I recently completed a review of CARE's new Rapid Environmental Assessment method and am currently writing Guidelines for WFP addressing sustainability issues around food aid programming for the use of food aid to address impacts of HIV/AIDS in eastern and southern Africa.

Selected Publications

Alexander, Sara E. and Jennie Whitehouse. In press. "In the Eye of the Storm: Exposing the Social and Economic       Costs of Hurricane Iris" Disasters: The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management

Alexander, Sara E. 2008. The Resilience of Vulnerable Households: Adjusting to a Newly Constructed Ecotourism in the Aftermath of Hurricane Iris. In Capitalizing on Catastrophe: The Globalization of Disaster Assistance,       Nandini Gunewardena and Mark Schuller, eds. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.

Alexander, Sara E. and Jennie Whitehouse. 2004. "Challenges for Balancing Conservation and Development       through Ecotourism: Insights and Implications from Two Belizean Case Studies." In Sustainable Tourism 2004,       F.D. Pineda and C. A Brebbia, eds. Southampton, UK: Wessex Institute of Technology Press, pp. 129-142.

Golembeski, Leicia and Sara E. Alexander. 2004. The Effective Promotion of Environmentally Responsible       Citizenship: A Belizean Case Study. Journal of Belizean Affairs19(1): 5-26, November.

Alexander, Sara E. and Kristine M. Gentry. 2004. The Social Carrying Capacity of Ecotourists Visiting Cayo District, Belize. Belizean Studies 26(1): 3-14, April.

Alexander, Sara E. 2001. Resident Attitudes Toward Conservation and Black Howler Monkeys in Belize: the       Community Baboon Sanctuary. Environmental Conservation 27(4): 341-350.