Harry James Birx (born June 1, 1941 in

Canandaigua, New York Canandaigua (; ''Utaʼnaráhkhwaʼ'' in Tuscarora language, Tuscarora) is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,545 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrat ...

), is an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and a professor of Anthropology at

Canisius College Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master's ...

in Buffalo, New York. He is a distinguished research scholar at the

State University of New York at Geneseo The State University of New York College at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo State College or, colloquially, "Geneseo") is a public liberal arts college in Geneseo, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The colle ...

Life

Birx spent his childhood on the combination farm and travelers motel operated by his parents in the small town of Bloomfield in the

Finger Lakes Region The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Graduating from Bloomfield Central High School in 1959, Birx completed his undergraduate studies at the nearby

SUNY Geneseo The State University of New York College at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo State College or, colloquially, "Geneseo") is a public liberal arts college in Geneseo, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The colle ...

before moving on to complete his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in anthropology and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, both from the

SUNY Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. As of 2019, he currently serves as a full

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

, where he lectures on anthropology in film and early biological anthropology. He is also a distinguished research scholar in the

's Department of Anthropology and he regularly holds a winter semester course entitled "Human Culture and Evolution" for the doctoral program of the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-b ...

in Serbia. He has been a visiting professor at the

Friedrich Schiller University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, twice a visiting scholar at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and has lectured at universities around the world. He received the 2003 Professional Achievement Award from the

. Birx has written eight books and edited six more, and is the editor of the five-volume ''

Encyclopedia of Anthropology The ''Encyclopedia of Anthropology'' is an encyclopedia of anthropology edited by H. James Birx of Canisius College and SUNY Geneseo. The encyclopedia, published in 2006 by SAGE Publications, is in five volumes, and contains over 1,200 articles b ...

'' (2006). He is also the editor of the World Lecture Series in Anthropology.

Honors

* Dr. H. James Birx Scholarship, State University of New York College of Arts and Sciences at Geneseo"Scholarships and Awards", SUNY Geneseo
pg. 54

Books

*''Theories of Evolution'', Charles C Thomas Pub Ltd, 1984. *''Craniometry of the Orchid Site Ossuary Buffalo,'' Persimmon Press, 1991. *''Interpreting Evolution,'' Prometheus Books, 1991. *''Science and Society,'' Russian Academy of Sciences St. Petersburg, State University St. Petersburg, Russia, 2000 *''Advances in Evolution & Paleontology,'' University of Zaragoza, Spain, 2001. *''Values, Society & Evolution,'' Legend Books, 2002.

Dissertation

*Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Philosophy of Evolution, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1971. (author named as Birx, Harry James). 267 pages.

References

External links

Website at Canisius College
1941 births Living people American anthropologists Canisius College faculty Harvard University staff Cultural anthropologists Physical anthropologists University at Buffalo alumni {{US-cultural-anthropologist-stub