Adjunct Professor of Anthropology
Biography
- Brazil Study Abroad video!
- Food Culture
- Medical Anthropology
- Spirituality
- Globalization
Dionisios Kavadias specializes in different cultural understandings of the body and family life by studying local practices of healing and food. He currently runs the SMCM Brazil study abroad program (Food & Culture: Food Systems of Brazil). He has a master’s degree in social science from the University of Chicago and a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Virginia for research on the economic, medical, and religious uses of family-made olive oil among farmers in southwestern Greece.
Given a former career in archaeology, he studies these interests largely through material culture. Drawing from nearly ten years of teaching in anthropology, and study abroad programs in places such as India, South Africa, and Brazil, his courses on food culture, medical anthropology, spirituality, and globalization (to name a few) emphasize the relationship between global systems and personal experiences, especially as a way “to understand the box we try so hard to think outside of.”
Dionisios has been recognized for achievements in both writing and teaching, but music and food are his favorite forms of communication.