ALEXANDRA A. BREWIS, PH.D.

School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
Tel (480) 727-9879 office
Alex.Brewis@asu.edu

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

Biocultural Anthropology

Medical Anthropology, Human Health & Disease

Demographic Anthropology, Population Studies

Nutrition, Growth, & Development

Human Reproduction

Human Adaptation

Life History, Evolutionary Ecology, Darwinian Medicine, Medical Ecology

Research Design & Methods

The Americas: fieldwork in urban Mexico and urban & rural USA

The Pacific: fieldwork in rural Kiribati, Samoa & Fiji, and urban New Zealand

EDUCATION

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship in Anthropological Demography, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, 1992-1994

Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Arizona, 1992. Biological Anthropology major, Medical (Cultural) Anthropology minor. Dissertation title: "Aging and Infertility: An ethnographic-demographic study from Butaritari Atoll." Committee: Jane H. Underwood (Chair), William Stini, Hermann Bliebtreu, Jerrold Levy, Mark Nichter, Marcia Inhorn

Master of Arts in Anthropology (1st Class Honors), University of Auckland, 1988

Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1985

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT (Post Ph.D.)

Professor of Medical Anthropology, Arizona State Univeristy, 2006-present

Professor of Anthropology, University of Georgia, 2004-2005

Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Georgia, 1998-2004

Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Georgia, 1997

Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1992-1997 (tenured 1995)

Andrew W Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropological Demography, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, 1992-1994

HONORARY ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

Associated Faculty, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, 1998-2005

Affiliated Faculty, Women's Studies Program, University of Georgia, 1998-2005

Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of New Orleans & University of Innsbruck, Austria, 1999 & 2002

MAJOR FIELD RESEARCH PROJECTS

Biocultural Constructions of Obesogenic Childhood Ecologies:

1. Parental Strategies of Young Child Feeding vs Children's Strategies for Eating in an Ecology of Extremely High Obesity Risk, 2003-2005. Based fieldwork in Washington-Wilkes County, GA
2. School and Home as the Developmental Contexts of Mexican Children's Growing Obesity Rates, 2001-2003. Based on fieldwork in Xalapa, Mexico

AWARDS

Sandy Beaver Award for Outstanding Teaching, University of Georgia, 2001

Sarah Moss Fellowship, University of Georgia, 2000-2001

International Development Fellowship, University of Georgia, 2000-2001

MG Michael Award for Excellence in Research, University of Georgia, 1999

Summer Fellowship in Mexico, University of Georgia, 1998

Andrew W. Mellon Post-doctoral Fellowship, in Anthropological Demography, 1992-1994

Ales Hrdlicka Prize for Best Student Presentation, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 1992

Rockefeller Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Population Sciences, 1990-1992

Women's Studies Advisory Council Travel Award, University of Arizona, 1989 and 1990

P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship, 1989-2000

University of Arizona Graduate Fellowship, 1988-1989

NZ Medical Research Council, Young Investigator Award, 1988

Australian National University Vacation Scholarship in Prehistory and Demography, 1986

EXTERNAL GRANTS (as PI)

Health and Nutritional Outcomes of Children's Provisioning Behavior in a Marginal Urban Environment (Mexico), National Science Foundation Dissertation Project to support Sarah Lee, 2004 ($6,850)

Gender & Population Variation in Children's Hyperactive, Inattentive, and Impulsive Behavior, National Science Foundation (Physical & Cultural Anthropology Programs), 2001-2004 ($255,207)

NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate Students Supplemental Grant (Physical Anthropology Program), 2001 ($2,900)

NSF Research Experience for Graduate Students Supplemental Grant (Cultural Anthropology Program), 2001 ($4,288)

Population Variation in ADHD-type Behavior, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 2001 ($19,900)

Reproductive Ecology in Pacific Island Women, Marsden Foundation, 1995-1998 ($114,000)

Reproductive Ecology in Pacific Island Women, Auckland University Research Committee, 1995 ($5,840)

Social Interaction in Pacific Island Families and Implications for Household Production of Health, Health Research Council, to support Helen Mavoa, 1995 ($5,000)

Reproductive Health of Pacific Island Women, New Zealand Medical Research Council, 1989 ($4,800)

EXTERNAL GRANTS (as Co-PI)

National Science Foundation (Cultural Anthropology Program) Ethnographic Research Training Grant, 2000-2005 ($50,000)

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Cambie, C., and A. Brewis. 1997. Anti-fertility Plants of the Pacific. CSIRO Press: Melbourne.

Brewis, A. 1996. Lives on the Line: Women and Ecology on a Pacific Atoll. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: Fort Worth.

Refereed Journal Articles

Brewis, A, and M Gartin. 2006. Biocultural constructions of obesogenic ecologies of childhood: Parental feeding versus young child eating strategies. American Journal of Human Biology 18:203-213.

Brewis, A. and M. Meyer. 2005. Demographic evidence that human ovulation is undetectable (at least in pair bonds). Current Anthropology 46:465-471

Brewis, A and M. Meyer. 2005. Marital coitus across the life course. Journal of Biosocial Science 37:499-518.

Brewis, A., and K. Schmidt. 2003. Gender variation in the identification of Mexican children’s psychiatric symptoms. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 17:376-393.

Brewis, A. 2003. Biocultural aspects of obesity in young Mexican schoolchildren.American Journal of Human Biology 15: 446-460.

Brewis, A., K Schmidt, and C Amira Sanchez. 2003. Cross-cultural study of the childhood developmental trajectory of attention and impulse control. International Journal of Behavioral Development 27:174-181.

BBrewis, A. 2002. Social and biological measures of hyperactivity and inattention: Are they measuring the same underlying constructs of child behavior? Social Biology 27:174-181.

Brewis, A., M. Meyer, and K Schmidt. 2002. Does school, compared to home, provide a unique adaptive context for children's ADHD-associated behaviors? A cross-cultural test. Cross-cultural Research 36 (4): 303-320.

Brewis, A., K. Schmidt, and M. Meyer. 2002. On the biocultural study of children's hyperactive and inattentive behavior. American Anthropologist 104(1):287-90.

Brewis, A. 2001. Gender conflict and co-operation in reproductive decision-making in Micronesia. Journal of the Polynesian Society 110(4):391-400.

Brewis, A., and D. Piñeda. 2001. Population variation in children's behavioral symptomatology. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 114(1):54-60.

Brewis, A., K. Schmidt, and M. Meyer. 2000. ADHD-type behavior and harmful dysfunction in childhood: A cross-cultural model. American Anthropologist 102(4)823-28.

Brewis, A., and S.T. McGarvey. 2000. Body image, body size, and Samoan ecological and individual modernization. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 39(2)105-120.

Brewis, A. 1999. Accuracy of attractive body judgment. Current Anthropology 40:548-53.

Brewis, A., S.T. McGarvey, and N. Tu'u'au-Potoi. 1998. Structure of family planning in Samoa. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 22(4)424-27.

Brewis, A., S.T. McGarvey, J. Jones, and B. Swinburn. 1997. Perceptions of body size in Pacific Islanders. International Journal of Obesity 22:185-89.

Brewis, A., J. Laycock, and J. Huntsman. 1996. Birth non-seasonality on the Pacific equator. Current Anthropology 37(5)842-51.

Underwood, J., and A. Brewis. 1996. Coital rates, sex-selective infanticide and sex ratios at birth. Social Biology 43(1-2):134-35.

Brewis, A., P. Schoeffel-Meleisea, H. Mavoa, and K. Maconaghie. 1996. Gender and non-communicable disease in the Pacific. Pacific Health Dialog 3(1):107-112.

Brewis, A., G. Irwin, and J. Allen. 1995. Patterns of colonisation and the "thrifty genotype" in Pacific prehistory. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 4:361-65.

Brewis, A. and G. Regmi. 1995. Post partum amenorrhoea differentials in a rural Pacific island population. Perspectives in Human Biology 1:37-51.

Brewis, A., and C. Cambie. 1995. Anti-fertility plants in traditional Pacific medicine. Australasian Science 16(4):40-43.

Brewis, A. 1995. Fertility and analogy in Pacific prehistory. Asian Perspectives 34(1):1-20.

Brewis, A., and J. Underwood. 1995. Sex ratios in Micronesia. Social Biology 41:280-82.

Brewis, A. 1994. Reproductive ethnophysiology and contraceptive use in a rural Micronesian population. Journal of the Polynesian Society 103:53-74.

Brewis, A. 1994. Secondary sex ratios and patterns of sexual behavior: A test of James' proposition. In K. Campbell and J. Wood (eds), Human Reproductive Ecology: Interactions of Environment, Fertility, and Behavior. Proceedings of the New York Academy of Sciences 703:225-6.

Brewis, A., and J. Allen. 1994. Biological anthropological research in the Pacific. Journal of the Polynesian Society 103:7-10.

Brewis, A. 1993. Sex ratios at birth in a Micronesian atoll population. Social Biology 40:207-14.

Brewis, A. 1993. Age and infertility in a Micronesian atoll population. Human Biology 65:593-609.

Brewis, A. 1992. Sexually transmitted disease risk in a Micronesian population. Health Transition Review 2:195-213.

Brewis, A., M. Molloy and D. Sutton. 1990. Modeling the prehistoric Maori population. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 81:343-56.

Brewis, A. 1989. Reconstructions of prehistoric fertility: The Maori case. Man and Culture in Oceania 5:21-36.

Brewis, A. 1988. Assessing infant mortality in prehistoric New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 10:73-82.

Book Chapters

Brewis, A. and M. Meyer. 2006. Child obesity in global perspective: Emergent risks related to social status, urbanism, and poverty. In Richard K. Flamembaum (editor), Global Dimensions of Childhood Obesity. Nova Science Publishers.

Crismon, S. and A. Brewis. 2006. Shared and divergent histories, geographies, and ecologies of “new” sexually transmitted infections in the Pacific region. In L. Butts (ed.),AIDS in the Pacific. University of Hawaii Press.

Papers in Preparation

Brewis, A., D Mahabit, S Lehman, M Meyer, and R Lewis. Internalizing and externalizing symptomatology and social and academic functioning in Trinidadian adolescents.

Brewis, A. and I. Pike. Stress, depression, and women’s status in a post-Soviet Muslim state.

Brewis, A. and M. Jehn. Relative wealth, urbanism, and the emergence of nutritional paradox: Overweight mothers with underweight children and global economic development.

Non-referred Journal Articles

Brewis, A. 1992. Anthropological perspectives on infanticide. Arizona Anthropologist 8:103-119.

Encyclopedia Entries

Brewis, A., and S. Crismon. 2001. Kiribati. In Countries and Their Cultures, edited by M. Ember and C. Ember. Macmillan Reference USA, NY, pp. 1195-1201.

Letters

Brewis, A., and K. Peddie. 1996. Hydatidiform mole pregnancy in Micronesian women. New Zealand Medical Journal, 9 February, 38-39.

Reviews

Brewis, A. Review of Smith, Malcolm (ed.), Human Biology and History, Society for the Study of Human Biology Series 42. In Press, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.

Brewis, A. 2001. Review C. Panter-Brick and C. Worthman (eds), Hormones, Health, and Behavior: A socioecological and lifespan perspective, Cambridge University Press. The Quarterly Review of Biology 76:273-74.

Brewis, A. 2000. Review of G. Herdt, Sambia Sexual Culture: Essays from the Field, University of Chicago Press (1999). American Anthropologist 102:392-93.

Brewis, A. 1999. Review of J. Early and T. Headland, Population Dynamics of a Philippine Rainforest People: The San Ildefonso Agta, University of Florida Press (1998). American Anthropologist 101(1):206-207.

Brewis, A. 1994. Review of J. Birdsell, Microevolutionary Patterns in Aboriginal Australia, Oxford University Press (1993). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 93:139-40.

Brewis, A. 1994. Review of Ian Pool (1992) Te Iwi Maori: A New Zealand Population Past, Present, and Projected. Journal of the Polynesian Society 103:107-108.

Theses and Monographs

Brewis, A. 1996. Knowledge, attitudes and practices study of family planning in Kiribati: Report and recommendations for family planning services and health message delivery. Report prepared for FSP/Kiribati and the Republic of Kiribati Ministry of Health and Family Planning.

Brewis, A. 1992. Aging and infertility: An ethnodemographic study from Butaritari Atoll, Kiribati. Ph.D dissertation in Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson. Published by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Brewis, A. 1991. Family Planning Behavior in Cultural and Demographic Context: A Report to the Kiribati Ministry of Health and Family Planning. Tarawa, Kiribati. (Monograph, 70pp.)

Brewis, A. 1988. Palaeodemographic models for New Zealand: Statistical approaches to the problem of non-representative demographic samples. M.A. thesis, University of Auckland. Abstracted in Archaeology in New Zealand 32:33.

Refereed Abstract Citations

Tarrant, M.A. and A. Brewis. 2003. Creating a mega international course in sustainable development. Book of Abstracts: The Wildlife Society 10th Annual Conference, Bethesda, MD: The Wildlife Society, p. 258.

Brewis, A. and K. Schmidt. 2002. Childhood developmental trajectory of attention and impulse control. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 34:48.

Brewis, A., K. Schmidt, and M. Meyer. 2001. Adaptive explanations of ADHD: An empirical test. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 32:43-44.

Brewis, A., and R. Kamphaus. 1999. Population variation in characteristic aspects of children's behavior and frequency of child behavior problems: Colombian and US samples. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 28:97.

Brewis, A. 1998. Contraceptive strategy and reproductive outcome in Micronesian couples. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 26:114.

Brewis, A., S. McGarvey, B. Parker, J. Jones, V. Reddy, and B. Swinburn. 1996. Body size, body image and modernization in Samoan women. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 22:73.

Brewis, A., J. Laycock, and J. Huntsman. 1995. Birth seasonality on the Pacific equator. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 20:67-8.

Brewis, A., and G. Regmi. 1994. Post partum resumption of menses in a Micronesian sample. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 18:59.

Brewis, A. 1993. Infertility and fertility-inhibiting disease in a Micronesian atoll population. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 16:62.

Brewis, A. 1992. Femaile infertility and reproductive behavior on Butaritari Atoll, Republic of Kiribati. American Journal of Physical Anthropology supplement 14:53-4. (Awarded the Ales Hrdlicka Prize.)

Brewis, A. 1990. Induced abortion and fertility regulation in early historic Pacific Island populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 81:199.

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS

Brewis, A. and M. Meyer. 2004. Human ovulation is behaviorally undetectable: Demographic evidence. Human Biology Association Meetings, Tampa, April.

Tarrant, M.A. and A. Brewis. 2003. Creating an international mega-course in sustainable development. The Wildlife Society 10th Annual Conference.

Brewis, A. and K. Schmidt. 2002. Childhood developmental trajectory of attention and impulse control. Paper presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Buffalo, NY, April.

Brewis, A., K. Schmidt, and M. Meyer. 2001. Adaptive explanations of ADHD: An empirical test. Poster presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Kansas City, March.

Brewis, A. 2000. Developing effective health education using evolutionary approaches: The case of men's participation in family planning in Micronesia. Paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, March.

Brewis, A., and R. Kamphaus. 1999. Population variation in characteristic aspects of children's behavior and frequency of child behavior problems: Colombian and US samples. Poster presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Columbus, OH, March.

Brewis, A. 1998. Contraceptive strategy and reproductive outcome in Micronesian couples. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Salt Lake City, April.

Brewis, A. 1997. Sex differences in family planning strategy in Micronesia. Paper presented at Human Behavior and Evolution Society annual meeting, Tucson, AZ, April.

Brewis, A., S. McGarvey, B. Parker, J. Jones, V. Reddy and B. Swinburn. 1996. Body size, body image and modernization in Samoan women. Paper presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Raleigh-Durham, April.

Brewis, A., J. Laycock, and J. Huntsman. 1995. Birth seasonality on the Pacific equator. Paper presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Oakland, April.

Irwin, G., and A. Brewis. 1994. The biology of Polynesian colonization. Paper presented at the Thrifty Genotype Symposium, University of Auckland Medical School, December.

Brewis, A. 1994. Entangling behavior-biology-culture: Reproductive health and female infertility on the Pacific equator. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Australasian Society for Human Biology, Perth, December.

Wiley, A., and A. Brewis. 1994. Biocultural anthropology and demography: Beyond "culture" in anthropological demography. Paper presented at Population Association of American Annual Meeting, Miami, May.

Brewis, A., and G. Regmi. 1994. Post partum resumption of menses in a Micronesian sample. Paper presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Denver, March.

Brewis, A. 1993. Marital coital activity and fertility in a Micronesian atoll population. Paper presented at the Population Association of America Meeting, Cincinnati, May.

Brewis, A. 1993. Secondary sex ratios and patterns of sexual behavior: A test of James' proposition. Poster presented at the New York Academy of Sciences conference on Human Reproductive Ecology, North Carolina, May.

Brewis, A. 1992. Female infertility and reproductive behavior on Butaritari Atoll, Republic of Kiribati. Paper presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Las Vegas, April. (Awarded the Ales Hrdlicka Prize.)

Brewis, A. 1990. Induced abortion and fertility regulation in early historic Pacific Island populations. Paper presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Miami, April.

Brewis, A., M. Molloy and D. Sutton. 1988. Modelling the prehistoric Maori population: Implications for the date of first settlement of New Zealand. Paper presented at the Origins of the First New Zealanders Conference, Auckland, May.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Society for Medical Anthropology

Council on Nutritional Anthropology/Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition

American Anthropological Association

Human Biology Association

American Association of Physical Anthropologists