Roy Richard Grinker

Professor of Anthropology, International Affairs, and Human Sciences
Editor-in-Chief, Anthropological Quarterly
Director, GW Institute for Ethnographic Research
E-mail rgrink@gwu.edu
Office: 2112 G St., 202 / (202) 994-6984

Dr. Grinker is a cultural anthropologist specializing in ethnicity, nationalism, and psychological anthropology, with topical expertise in autism, Korea, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Research

Dr. Grinker has conducted research on a variety of subjects: ethnic relationships between farmers and foragers in the Ituri forest, Democratic Republic of Congo; North and South Korean relations, with special emphasis on North Korean defectors' adaptation to South Korea life; the epidemiology of autism. In addition, he has written about the life of the anthropologist, Colin M. Turnbull.

Current Research Projects

The Epidemiology of Autism in South Korea. Dr. Grinker is conducting the first-ever prevalence study of autism spectrum disorders in South Korea. The research involves screening all 45,000 children, ages 6 through 12, in the city of Ilsan, with confirmatory diagnoses of all screen positive children. The research is funded by Autism Speaks and the Children's Brain Research Foundation (Grinker, PI; co-investigators: Young-Shin Kim, M.D. Ph.D., Yale University; Eric Fombonne, M.D., McGill University; Bennett Leventhal, M.D., University of Illinois, Chicago; Yun-Joo Koh, Ph.D., Yonsei University, Korea; Dong-Ho Song, M.D., Yonsei University, Korea).

Selected Publications

Books

2007	Grinker, R. Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism. NY: Basic Books.
2000	Grinker, R. In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1998	Grinker, R. Korea and its Futures: Unification and the Unfinished War. NY: St. Martin's Press.
1997	Grinker, R., and C.B. Steiner, eds. Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Blackwell.
1994	Grinker, R. Houses in the Rainforest: Ethnicity and Inequality among Farmers and Foragers in Central Africa. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Courses Taught

Anth 002: Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology
Anth 153: Psychological Anthropology
Anth 156: Politics, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
Anth 178: Cultures of Africa
Anth 201: Proseminar in Sociocultural Anthropology
Anth 250: Nationalism and Ethnicity
Anth 251: National Mythologies
Anth 801: Autism across Cultures

Education

Ph.D. 1989, Harvard University
M.A. 1985, Harvard University
B.A. 1983, Grinnell College