David Turkon

As an instructor in sociocultural anthropology I strive to provide students with an appreciation for applied anthropology by focusing on ways that anthropological theories and methods are used to understand and help solve contemporary problems. I am especially interested in ways that globalization affects people who live on the margins of the modern world. At right is a photo of me visiting with my old friend Morena (Chief) Lerotholi of Motsitseng, Lesotho during May, 2007. 

I have been teaching since 1986. Courses that I teach at Ithaca College include Introduction to Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology, Ethnographic Methods, Survey of Africa, Comparative Religion, and Theory and Practice in Anthropology. In my classes I stress the value of anthropology as an applied social science. While I draw heavily on examples from across the discipline, I also draw on my own research projects as examples of how anthropological theories and methods can be applied toward helping to mitigate social problems.

My primary research interests are with southern Africa. My field site is in the rural, mountainous Mokhotlong District of Lesotho, where I have been carrying out field research since 1987. My research explores how centralized government and integration into the global economy affects the lives of Basotho (ethnic Sotho people who live in Lesotho) who live in this rugged and isolated area of the Maluti Mountains, where many try to farm and raise livestock in an environment ill-suited to these survival strategies. I am presently participating in an interdisciplinary, collaborative research project with scholars from the National University of Lesotho, the University of South Florida and the University of Toronto. The project explores the impact of HIV/AIDS in rural Lesotho, with the goal of establishing a culturally specific intervention aimed at education, improving nutrition as a means of preventing infection and prolonging life, and community capacity building. Lesotho's HIV/AIDS infection rate is among the highest in the world and the pandemic is affecting virtually every aspect of life there. As one of the poorest countries in the world, Lesotho does not have the resources to deal with the problem. Consequently, a stigma exists around HIV/AIDS that has the effect of muting open discussion about it. Innovative, community based approaches that promote education, behavioral modification, good nutrition and poverty reducton have the potential to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, prolong the lives of those living with the disease, and ease the burden on families that are caring for an afflicted member.

One of the largest construction projects in sub-Saharan Africa is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which involves building a series of dams along the Senqu River (which becomes the Orange River when it enters South Africa). Captured water is sold to South Africa for agricultural and industrial uses while the flow of water over turbines generates electricity for Lesotho. While the program arguably does have its benefits, it has its critics as well. When completed, LHWP will have led to the forced relocation of some 30,000 Basotho and flooded vast amounts of arable and pasture lands. Click here or at the above link to see some of my photos of Lesotho.

During the Spring of 2003 I began volunteer work and research with Sudanese refugees in Phoenix, Arizona. As a result of the civil war that continues in Sudan, these "Lost Boys" have been dislocated, brutalized, and many have had their families murdered by marauding agents of the government. This war is a result of the government of Sudan trying to eliminate any group that might pose a threat to their dominance. Thus, it pits the Arab Muslims of northern Sudan, who control the government,  against Animists, Christians and African Muslims in the southern and western parts of Sudan. This work led to my becoming involved with the AZ Lost Boys Center (AZLBC), where I served as a cultural adviser, mentor, and eventually as an elected member of the board of directors. When I arrived at Ithaca College I reached out to the substantial Lost Boys community in the Syracuse area. I now serve as a Senior Advisor for the Central New York Lost Boys Foundation. In Ithaca I have served as a member of the steering committees for the Samaritan Resettlement Center for refugees and the Immigrant Rights Coalition. I also serve my academic discipline as an elected board member and co-program editor for the Association for Africanist Anthropologists, and as an elected Steering Committee member for the AIDS and Anthropology Research Group. I provide motivated students with research and service opportunities in Ithaca's minority, immigrant and refugee communities, and plan to bring students with me to Lesotho in the future.

My earliest research was an outgrowth of my interests in environmental anthropology. In 1985 I explored some of the ways that acid rain was affecting the lives of people who lived in Big Moose, NY, an area that is highly impacted. Most residents initially denied that there was a problem only to later confide in me fears about potential health threats. Also of great concern to residents was the possibility that acid rain would degrade the environment to the point that the tourism based economy would be in jeopardy. Local folks had developed a body of folklore that attributed changes that they were witnessing in the environment to causes other than acid rain.