Patricia Johnson

Professional Bio

Research Activities and Interests:

Dr. Johnson's research focuses on socioeconomic change, particularly as it affects women in developing nations.  Her interests include kinship and social organization, household structure, fertility, gender systems, women's labor, and the local effects of global systems.  She has worked on these questions in highland Papua New Guinea, and more recently in Bangladesh, where she has explored the political economy of contraceptive choices and the quality of women’s well-being.

Dr. Johnson has recently begun research in Orkney Scotland on household adaptation to economic change over time.

Fieldwork:

2004-Research on population history, Orkney, Scotland; 2003-Research on access to health care among women in a squatter settlement, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 1998-Research on Contraceptive Variability in Matlab, Bangladesh; 1994-Preliminary Research, ICDDRB, Bangladesh; 1991-Research on fetal loss, nutritional change, Gainj Census Division, Madang (summer) Province, Papua New Guinea; 1982-83-Research on economic development, social change and fertility, Gainj Census Division, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea; 1977-78-Research on social organization, Demography, gender, ideology, Gainj Census Division, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea.

Courses Taught:

• ANTH 045 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
• ANTH 083s Freshman Sminar
• ANTH 241 Peoples and Cultures of Highland New Guinea
• ANTH 445W Anthropology of Film
• ANTH 450W Comparative Social Organization
• ANTH 476W Anthropology of Gender
• ANTH 541 Cultural Journal Club
• ANTH 556 Social Organization of Traditional Societies

Recent Publications:

• Johnson, P.L. 1993. Education and the "new" inequality in Papua New Guinea. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 24(3):183-204.
• Johnson, P.L., (1996) Changing Household Composition, Labor Patterns, and Fertility in a Highland New Guinea Population. In Bates, D. and Lees, S. (eds.) Case Studies in Human Ecology. New York: Plenum Press, pp. 237-250.
• Johnson, P.L., (2001) Male Migrants' Return, Women's fertility and HIV Status in Bangladesh.  Journal of Bangladesh Studies 3, No. 1: 38-39.
• Johnson, P.L., forthcoming, Spring 2002. The Women Left Behind: Potential Effects of Male Migrants' Return on Women's Fertility and Health in Bangladesh. In Cohen, Jeffrey H. and Norbert Danhaeuser (eds.) Development In The New Millennium: A Positive Place For Economic Anthropology. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
• Johnson, P.L. (2003) Male Migrants as a High-Risk Group: Harm Reduction and HIV/AIDs in Bangladesh. Asian Affairs 25, No. 3: 5-29.