Brian J. Spooner is a Professor of Anthropology, Undergraduate Chair at Department of

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 be ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

and Curator of Near Eastern Ethnology at the Penn Museum. His many works are on subjects including Cultural and social anthropology;

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

, Islam,

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

; social organization,

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural ...

, ethnohistory,

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

, non-industrial economies.

Scientific career

Professor Spooner joined the faculty at

in 1968. He served as the Department of Anthropology's graduate chair 1985-8 and the University's Middle East Center Director from 1986-1995. He was Interim Co-Director of the Lauder Institute 2010 -2012, and is a Fellow at the Penn Institute of Urban Research and Affiliate Faculty at Penn's Graduate School of Education program on International Education Development. He has worked in Afghanistan, northwest China, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan,1997-2005 Editor, Pakistan Studies News (PSN), the biannual newsletter of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies. Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. His current research focuses on social change under globalization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spooner, Brian Living people People from Ilford University of Pennsylvania faculty Alumni of the University of Oxford British anthropologists Year of birth missing (living people) British curators University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Cultural anthropologists