Bilinda Straight

Bilinda Straight
Professor of Anthropology
Office: 
(269) 387-0409
Location: 
1005 Moore Hall, Mail Stop 5306
Mailing address: 
Department of Anthropology
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5306 USA
Education: 
  • Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1997
Research interests: 
  • Warfare understood culturally, evolutionarily and biologically
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Anthropology of emotion and lived experience
Bio: 

Dr. Bilinda Straight is a professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Western Michigan University. She works with pastoralists in northern Kenya on issues relating to warfare, gender, and emotion.

Straight works at the intersection of the traditional four subfields of anthropology, collaborating with scholars in other subfields and in other disciplines, including psychology, biological sciences, and public health. As of 2016 she is a PI on two collaborative projects—one with Ivy Pike (University of Arizona) on pastoralist teen health funded by National Science Foundation. The second project (a pilot funded by WMU) examines the biocultural and epigenetic dimensions of Samburu pastoralist warfare.

In addition to the research interests noted above, she researches oral history.

Regional focus: East Africa and the U.S.

Straight's home page