College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

Behavioral and Social Sciences Distinguished Alumni

1994 Distinguished Alumni

Barry S. Hewlett

MA General Anthropology, Class of 1971

Honor Year: 1994

Barry S. Hewlett is currently a professor at WSU-Vancouver. He received his A.B. in Cultural Transmission (a self-designed major) from California State University, Chico in 1971 and his M.A. in Anthropology from the same institution in 1977. After working several years for child development and social service agencies, he returned to graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara and obtained his Ph.D. in 1987. His dissertation became the basis of a monograph, Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care (1991). His current research interests include the cultural nexus of the Aka and Ngandu infant development, the cultural contexts of various tropical diseases, the impact of new African tropical forest parks and reserves on the local people, and cultural transmission and biocultural evolution.

Dr. Hewlett was the first medical anthropologist invited to participate in Ebola control efforts in 2000 in Uganda and has recently appeared on national news outlets to discuss the Ebola outbreak of 2014. Read about Dr. Hewlett's publications here.