Curriculum vitae
Personal
Don Mitchell
Hilo, Hawai’i / Colden, New York
Education
Ph.D. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (1972, anthropology)
B.A. Stanford University, Stanford, CA (1964, anthropology)
Grants and Fellowships
1969 - 1971 National Institutes of Mental Health Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
1968 Harvard University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Fellow
1967 Harvard University Dept. of Anthropology Grant – photographic craniometry
Positions Held
2006- Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Buffalo State College
1999 - 2006 Professor of Anthropology, Buffalo State College
1981 - 1999 Associate Professor of Anthropology, Buffalo State College (tenured)
1974 - 1981 Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Buffalo State College
1972 - 1974 Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, New Guinea Research Unit, Institute of Advanced Studies, The Australian National University
1971 - 1972 Visiting Research Fellow, New Guinea Research Unit, Institute of Advanced Studies, The Australian National University
Teaching Experience
1974 - 2006 At SUNY College, Buffalo: physical anthropology, archaeology, ecological anthropology, urban anthropology, Oceania, paleoanthropology, research methods, computer use, alternative ethnography
Miscellaneous Positions
1983 - 1988 System manager, FNSS DEC-PDP11/44 computer system
1981 - 1985 Secretary-Treasurer, Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
1980 Women's Track Coach, SUCB (initiated the Women's Track Program)
1980 Organizer, SUNY Conversations in the Disciplines: Social Science and Running, SUCB (with J. Stetar and D. Broad)
Research Experience
2001 Brief fieldwork in Nagovisi; ethnographic video
2000 - Ethnographic video
1991 - Alternative presentations of ethnographic material (poetry, fiction)
1988 - Computer-based quantitative archaeology
1981 - Software development for road race computing system (PDP-11, VAX, Alpha, Intel, and Macintosh platforms)
1988 - 1989 Computer simulation of tropical root crop agriculture
1986 – 1988 Computer-aided mapping
1978 - 1983 Long distance running and body composition; human bipedal speed and endurance variation
1971 - 1974 Field research on Bougainville Island, North Solomons Province, Papua New Guinea; land use patterns, transition to cash cropping from subsistence agriculture, demography, economic and political change, exchange and traditional valuables; physical anthropology
1969 - 1970 Doctoral research on Bougainville; similar to 1971 - 1974
1968 Physical anthropology on Malaita, Solomon Islands: skin color, anthropometry, photography, somatotyping
1967 - 1968 Anthropometry of aging (VA Normative Aging Study)
1965 - 1968 Anthropometry of body form and growth at adolescence (Harvard University School of Public Health)
1967 Photographic craniometry (Harvard University)
1965 Hawaiian ethnohistory (B.P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu)
Consulting Experience
2007-2009 Consulting photographer, YogaMa Studio, East Aurora NY
2001 “Corrector of English” for Beeld voor Beeld, a Dutch ethnographic film festival
1981 - 2006 Timed and scored over 1,000 road race events in New York state, Ontario, Washington DC, Pittsburgh PA, and Honolulu HI, operating as Runtime Services (Bipedal Locomotion, Inc.)
1993 Developed Paradox database system, Headquarters, Army Recreation Services, The Pentagon, Washington, DC
1992 Developed Macintosh database system, Utica Boilers, Utica, NY
1986 Developed and wrote user documentation for VAX FORTRAN, Computing Services, SUCB
1984 Configured and installed PDP-11 computer systems for quality control and testing, Alar Products, Macedonia, OH
Writings
Forthcoming
2011 “Old LaHonda Road,” and “Rabbit Hole,” to appear in Opium Magazine
Published
2011 “More Men Run Relatively Fast in U.S. Road Races, 1981-2006: A Stable Sex Difference in Non-Elite Runners. Evolutionary Psychology 9(4):600-621 (Robert O. Deaner, senior author)
2009 “Have You Seen Wanawo?” Anthropology and Humanism, v. 34 no. 1 (fiction)
2009 “Tsunami!,” in Social Issues Firsthand: Disasters. Gale, Cengage Learning (creative non-fiction)
2008 “Slip Pivot,” New Millennium Writings, 18 (fiction)
2000 “Dog Food,” Green Mountains Review, v. 12, no. 2 Fall/Winter1999/ 2000 (fiction)
1999 “Life Lines” review of In Place (Toni Flores), Anthropology and Humanism, v. 24
1998 “John Brown’s Body,” Anthropology and Humanism, v. 23 no. 2 (fiction)
1996 “Hyphenated Poets,” Review of Lingua Franca (Napoli and Rando) and Speaking in Tongues (Napoli, Rando, and Strahan). Anthropology and Humanism, v. 21, no. 2
1996 “Burials,” Anthropology and Humanism, v. 21 no. 1 (fiction)
1995 “Confessions of an Ethnographic Poet”, Anthropology and Humanism, v. 20, no. 1 (essay)
1994 “The Domestication of a Bush Demon”, Anthropology and Humanism, v.19, no. 2 (personal narrative/fiction)
1993a “Shifting Agriculture," Anthropology and Humanism, v. 18, no. 2 (poetry)
1993b “Sightlines," Anthropology and Humanism, v. 18, no. 2 (poetry)
1991 “And Still More on Computer Timing for Road Races," TacTimes, v. 5, no. 3 (with P.F. Meyfarth)
1987a “Ethnographic Description and Recent Histories of the Survey Groups," with J. Nash, E. Ogan, H. Ross, T. Bayliss-Smith, R.M. Keesing and J.S. Friedlaender, in The Solomon Islands Project: A Long-term Study of Health, Human Biology, and Culture Change, ed. J.S. Friedlaender, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 28-60.
1987b “Profiles of the Survey Samples," with J. Nash, E. Ogan, H. Ross, T. Bayliss-Smith, R.M. Keesing and J.S. Friedlaender, in The Solomon Islands Project: A Long-term Study of Health, Human Biology, and Culture Change, ed. J.S. Friedlaender, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 28-60.
1982 “Frozen Assets in Nagovisi," Oceania, v. 53, no. 1
1980 Review of Taim Bilong Mani (J. Connell). Journal of the Polynesian Society, v. 87.
1979 Review of Highland Peoples of New Guinea (P. Brown). Human Ecology, v.7 no. 2.
1976a Land and Agriculture in Nagovisi, Papua New Guinea. Institute for Applied Social and Economic Research, Monograph 3. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea:IASER.
1976b “Culture Change and Fertility in Two Bougainville Populations” In E. Giles and J.S. Friedlaender (eds) The Measures of Man. Cambridge:Peabody Museum Press. (with J. Nash and E. Ogan)
1973 “A Note on Some Chipped Stone Objects from South Bougainville,” Journal of the Polynesian Society 82:209-212 (with J. Nash)
1971 Gardening for Money: Land and Agriculture in Nagovisi. Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University
Web Publications
Irving Feldman’s 80th Birthday Celebration site (webmaster, creator, coder, editor, photographer)
The Nervous Breakdown www.thenervousbreakdown.com
2012 “Harmonium”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2012/01/harmonium/
2011 “Convergence: Ed and Me”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2011/10/convergence-ed-and-me/
2011 “Script Carrera”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2011/10/script-carrera/
2011 “Blue Light”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2011/10/blue-light/
2011 “The Persistence of the Green Condom”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2011/08/the-persistence-of-the-green-condom/
2011 “Boom Box”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2011/05/boom-box/
2011 “Quark-Gluon Plasma”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2011/02/quark-gluon-plasma/
2010 “Trespassers Will”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/12/trespassers-will/
2010 “Voices Return at the Vernal Equinox”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/12/voices-return-at-the-vernal-equinox/
2010 “A Modest Response”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/10/a-modest-response/
2010 “I Like Your Shoes”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/09/i-like-your-shoes/
2010 “Nuclear Families”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/08/nuclear-families/
2010 “Cutting Up a Pig With a Founding Father”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/07/cutting-up-a-pig-with-a-founding-father/
2010 “Hot Pants”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/06/hot-pants/
2010 “Transit of Venus”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/05/transit-of-venus/
2010 “Isabella in the New World”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/03/isabella-in-the-new-world/
2010 “Tsunami 2010”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/02/tsunami-2010/
2010 “The Dump”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/02/the-dump/
2010 “Baby Clothes, Ulua Poles”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2010/01/baby-clothes-ulua-poles/
2009 “Is There Really a Hawaiian Word for Christmas?”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/12/is-there-really-a-hawaiian-word-for-christmas/
2009 ”Tighty Whities”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/12/tighty-whities/
2009 “Trolling”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/11/trolling/
2009 “Beaten by a Fairy”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/10/beaten-by-a-fairy/
2009 “Looking Good”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/10/looking-good/
2009 “Tsunami!”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/09/tsunami/
2009 “.308 Winchester”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/09/308-winchester/
2009 “Pictures of Makis”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/09/pictures-of-makis/
2009 “Badass Pink Chevy”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/08/badass-pink-chevy
2009 “My Rolex”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/08/my-rolex/
2009 “Heavy Duty Natural People”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/07/heavy-duty-natural-people/
2009 “Posing”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/07/posing/
2009 “I Don’t Brake for Mongoose”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/dmitchell/2009/07/i-dont-brake-for-mongoose/
Public Readings
2011 Wordflight (featured reader, October) Buffalo NY
2011 Center for Inquiry/Just Buffalo Literary Cafe Series (featured reader, July) Amherst NY
2010 Gray Hair Reunion (Hallwalls/Just Buffalo Literary Center/Earth’s Daughters, June) Buffalo NY
2010 Center for Inquiry/Just Buffalo Literary Cafe Series (featured reader, May) Amherst NY
2009 TNB Literary Experience (The Nervous Breakdown, December) New York, NY
2008 Gray Hair Series (Hallwalls/Just Buffalo Literary Center/Earth’s Daughters featured reader, October) Buffalo NY
2007-8 Tru-Teas Poetry Readings (Buffalo NY)
1997 Tufts University English Department / Anthropology Club (Medford MA)
Papers or Readings Presented at National Meetings
2008 Reading of prize-winning fiction (AAA, San Francisco, CA) Society for Humanistic Anthropology session (read by Ayala Emmett)
1998 Reading of prize-winning fiction (AAA, Philadelphia, PA) Society for Humanistic Anthropology session (read by G. Reck)
1994 Three Pieces in War Time (AAA, Atlanta, GA)
1993 Reading of prize-winning poetry (AAA, Washington, DC) Society for Humanistic Anthropology session
1981 Frozen Assets in Nagovisi (ASAO, San Diego, CA)
1980 Human Bipedal Speed and Endurance: Implications for Early Hominid Evolution (Am. Assn. Physical Anth, Niagara Falls, NY)
1980 Today We'll Eat Rice: Dependence and Independence in Nagovisi (ASAO, Galveston, TX)
1979 Nagovisi Women in Food and Cash Crop Production (ASAO, Clearwater, FL)
1976 Nagovisi Cacao Agriculture (ASAO, Charleston, SC)
Miscellaneous
Western NY Running Hall of Fame, Inaugural Class, 2011 http://wnyrunninghof.com/
Fiction Prize Co-winner, 2008, Society for Humanistic Anthropology
“Slip Pivot” second place, New Millennium Writings Contest, 2007
“Malaita Man,” photographic print exhibited at Stanford University 40th Reunion (1964) Art Exhibition (juried)
“Dog Food” (2000) was nominated for inclusion in Pushcart 2001
Fiction Prize Winner, 1998, Society for Humanistic Anthropology
Poetry Prize Winner, 1993, Society for Humanistic Anthropology
Published photographs
Book cover for “What the World Sees” (Perry S. Nicholas, Saddle Road Press 2011)
“Malaita Man” Anthropology and Humanism, cover, v. 19 no.2
"Solomon Islands Ceremonial Canoe" (American Anthropological Association; Temple University Alumni Review)
"Nagovisi Men Building Funeral Pyre" (anthropology textbook front cover)
"Solomon Islanders" (Discover magazine)
“Trashcan Dog,” Boston Phoenix
Video on the Web
“The Seasons: Spring,” a performance by Ruth Thompson, Gene Tamashiro, and Shizuno Nasu
“The Seasons: Summer,” a performance by Ruth Thompson, Gene Tamashiro, and Shizuno Nasu
Teaching Interests
Introductory prehistory, alternative ethnography, computing, research methods, ecological anthropology, Oceania
Anthropological Research Interests
Alternative ethnography, ethnographic video, computer simulation and instruction, quantitative archaeology, agrarian societies in transition to cash economies, population
Non-anthropological Expertise and Interests
Poetry, fiction, and non-fiction writing
Professional-level Fortran programmer
Still photography
Digital video
Road race and finish line management; ChampionChip and traditional technologies