Christopher Morris

Associate Professor

Anthropology: Medical anthropology, environmental anthropology, extractive industries, indigeneity, ethnicity, colonial and postcolonial histories, governance, im/material properties, southern Africa

I received my PhD in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. My research interests center on pharmaceutical politics, extractive economies, environmental governance, indigeneity, ethnicity, colonial and postcolonial histories, and property. My research on these topics has focused geographically on southern Africa.

My recent work particularly examines the emergence of environmental, Indigenous, and spatial subjectivities in the context of contestation over biological resources in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The resources are removed and marketed around the world as medicines by multinational companies. My book Biotraffic: Medicines and Environmental Governance in the Afterlives of Apartheid (University of California Press, 2024) highlights the relationship between the global governance of biodiversity conservation and commercialization and explosions in Indigenous rights consciousness. In another recently completed study, I used interviews with medical doctors and researchers to examine a unique clinical trial in South Africa that assessed the safety and efficacy of an African medicine in HIV-seropositive persons.

My research has been published in venues like American Ethnologist, Medical Anthropology, and Journal of Southern African Studies, among others. I have received fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and the National Science Foundation.

In addition to my research, I am committed to teaching and mentoring students. At Mason, I teach a wide range of anthropology courses and have been honored with multiple nominations for the George Mason Teaching Excellence Award (including once as a finalist).

Selected Publications

2024. Biotraffic: Medicines and Environmental Governance in the Afterlives of Apartheid. University of California Press. Use source code UCPSAVE30 to save 30% at checkout.

2024. "Rhythms of Pollution and Power: Investigating the Environmental Impact of Chemicals During South Africa’s Energy Crisis." Anthropology Now 16 (2): 1-12.

2023. Invited Review of Contested Properties: Peoples, Plants, and Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa, by Britta Rutert. Anthropos 118 (2): 658-660.

2019. "A 'Homeland's' Harvest: Biotraffic and Biotrade in the Contemporary Ciskei Region of South Africa." Journal of Southern African Studies 45 (3): 597-616.

2017. "Biopolitics and Boundary Work in South Africa's Sutherlandia Clinical Trial." Medical Anthropology 36 (7): 685-698.

2016. "Royal Pharmaceuticals: Bioprospecting, Rights, and Traditional Authority in South Africa." American Ethnologist 43 (3): 525-539.

2012. “Pharmaceutical Bioprospecting and the Law: The Case of Umckaloabo in a Former Apartheid Homeland of South Africa.” Anthropology News 53(10): 6-7.

2010. “The Anthropology of Globalization,” in H. James Birx (ed) 21^st Century Anthropology. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Courses Taught

ANTH 114 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

ANTH 320 - Global Africa

ANTH 330 - Peoples and Cultures of Africa

ANTH 370 - Environment and Culture

ANTH 376 - Food and Culture

ANTH 381 - Medical Anthropology

ANTH 490 - Theories, Methods, and Issues II

ANTH 535 - Anthropology and the Human Condition I

ANTH 650 - Methods in Anthropology