Anthropology & Sociology
James P. Hurd
Email: hurd@bethel.edu
Blog: https://blogs.bethel.edu/blog/~hurd/
Dr. James Hurd, chair of the department, specializes in Amish and Mennonite studies, sociobiology, human origins, and South American studies. He has done fieldwork in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and rural Pennsylvania. Before teaching at Bethel, he flew airplanes for Mission Aviation Fellowship in South America.
He is co-author of the book Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites: Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World (Penn State Press, 2006), and recently published a major article on horse-and-buggy fertility (Annals of Human Biology).
He is chair of the Anabaptist Sociology and Anthropology Association:
http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/anthropology/asaa/index
Dr. Hurd sees his calling to anthropology as an opportunity to help prepare students to understand and serve in a culturally-complex world.