ALEXANDRA A. BREWIS, PH.D.

Abbreviated CV


Associate Director
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

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, Georgia.
  2. School and Home as the Developmental Contexts of Mexican Children's Growing Obesity Rates, 2001-2003. Based on fieldwork in Xalapa, Mexico.
  3. Latino/a Obesity in Low Income Neighborhoods. 2007-present. Based on fieldwork in Phoenix, Arizona.

Biocultural Contexts of Population & Gender Variation in Children's Problem Inattentive, Hyperactive, and Impulsive Behavior, 1999-2004. Based on fieldwork in elementary schools in Mexico & U.S. (MG Michael Award for Excellence in Research Design)

Transforming Body Image, Adiposity, & Health in Pacific Islanders, 1993-1993 Based on fieldwork in American Samoa, Western Samoa, and with New Zealand Samoans

Ecology of High Fertility & Reproductive Health in the Island Pacific:

  1. Aging, Infertility, & Reproductive Health, 1990-1993, based on fieldwork on Butaritari Atoll, Republic of Kiribati, Micronesia
  2. Couple Conflict and Cooperation in Family Planning Decision-Making, 1996-1999. Based on fieldwork on Onotoa Atoll, Maiana Atoll, and Betio Island, Republic of Kiribati, Micronesia

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Brewis, A. 2010. Culture and Obesity. Book under contract with Rutgers University Press.
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 S. Lee. Children's work, earning, and nutrition in urban Mexican shantytowns. American Journal of Human Biology, in press.
Hadley, C., A. Brewis, and I. Pike. Does less autonomy erode women's health? Yes. No. Maybe. American Journal of Human Biology, in press.
Jehn, M., and A. Brewis. 2009. Paradoxical malnutrition in mother-child pairs: Untangling the phenomenon of over- and under-nutrition in underdeveloped economies. Economics & Human Biology 7:28-35.
Brewis, A. and M. Meyer. 2007. 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, pp. 51-68.
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.

Brewis, 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.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Society for Medical Anthropology

Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition

American Anthropological Association

Human Biology Association

American Association of Physical Anthropologists