HR-Dr. Paul “Jim” Roscoe

Office of Human Resources

Dr. Paul Roscoe work and interest in the Department of Anthropology and the Climate Change Institute reflect his truly interdisciplinary scholarship and the broad impact of his teaching and research. Jim’s grasp of the social complexities of climate change within modern cultural society is integral for our understanding of policy implementation on a world-wide scale.

Jim’s research in cultural diversity of Papua New Guinea has led to some of the most important theories with regards to origins of war, incest taboos, and cultural understanding and reactions to climate change. Overall, Jim has published 35 peer reviewed journal articles, 32 book chapters, and two edited volumes. Jim’s publications represent scientific data collected on modern cultural populations during over 26 months of field work living with the Yangoru Boiken of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Jim was awarded the CLAS Research and Creative Achievement Award in 2008.

Jim takes his research interests and applies them within a broader construct for student understanding in his classes. Jim’s teaching evaluations are of the highest in the University, and he teaches a wide range of class sizes from Introduction to Anthropology, to anthropology’s writing intensive theory course for majors, to anthropological statistics, to an upper level Climate Change seminar. Jim’s excellent teaching abilities earned him the University’s Presidential Teaching Award in 1996 and since that time, his teaching abilities have remained strong as his student evaluations attest.

Thank you, Jim, for your teaching excellence and for your wonderful 25 years of tireless work on behalf of the University of Maine!