Paul Shankman
Professor of Anthropology Emeritus
Anthropology and Jewish Studies

ÌýOffice: HALE 447
ÌýOffice Hours: by appointmentÌý

Paul Shankman is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in Samoa, economic anthropology, political anthropology, theory, and Margaret Mead. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1973 and has been a faculty member at the University of Colorado Boulder since then. He has conducted fieldwork in Samoa since 1966 and has also worked with Pacific Islanders in the United States. For the past few decades, he has been involved in the Mead-Freeman controversy, written a number of articles on it, and authored a book titledÌýThe Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of and Anthropological ControversyÌý(2009). He has also authored a recent biography of Mead simply titledÌýMargaret MeadÌý(2021). Shankman is featured in a BBC documentary on the Mead-Freeman controversy (Tales from the Jungle: Margaret Mead) available on YouTube and in the recentÌýSapiensÌýpodcast series on Margaret Mead. He has also taught a course on the Holocaust for decades.