Biographical Sketch of Mary Howard

    Mary Howard’s special areas of interests include psychological and medical anthropology which stem from 16 years of work in mental and medical health care settings. This includes 5 years of research and work in East Africa which was the basis of her 1997 co-authored book, Hunger  and Shame: Poverty and Child Malnutrition on Mt. Kilimanjaro. She has completed a manuscript called Home, which details four years of her life managing a group home for people with mental and physical disabilities.  Since coming to Ohio Wesleyan in 1985,  Dr. Howard has been involved with problems of poverty in Columbus, Ohio, and has filmed two documentaries, Cloud People and Outreach, which examine the city's response to homelessness.  She has also finished a feature length draft of a film called Outsiders, which tells the stories of hundreds of Columbus citizens who survive outside in their cars, under highway overpasses and in tent and shanty communities near downtown.

     Dr. Howard has lived for extended periods in Taiwan, China, Afghanistan, South Africa, India and Bolivia.  She has led student trips to Haiti, The Dominican Republic, India and Mexico and has traveled in Europe, Pakistan, Nepal, Brazil, Peru and throughout the African continent.   These experiences have enhanced her cross-cultural comparisons in the classroom and have inspired many students' career interests in public health and international development work.

     Ohio Wesleyan has honored Dr. Howard with the following awards:

1992

The Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for teaching excellence.

2003

The Andrew Anderson Campus and Community Conscience Award. 

2007

The First Annual President's Commission on Racial and Cultural Diversity Award for "making a difference in the racial and cultural climate of Ohio Wesleyan".

Courses taught: Cultural Anthropology; Health, Illness, Disability, Death and Dying; Perspectives on Africa; Population Problems; Appalachian and Amish Cultures; Caribbean Seminar; Gender in Cross Cultural Perspective; Self and Society; Feminist Anthropology; Senior Seminar; Ethnographic and Documentary Film and Filmmaking