Hi everyone! This is an announcement for a Tropical Ethnobotany Field Course I am teaching this Summer in beautiful Bocas del Toro, Panama. The course runs from July 15, 2012 - August 9, 2012. Please forward this information on to any other students who may be interested! You can find additional details on the course website and the ITEC website.
COURSE WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/site/tropicalethnobotany/ ITEC WEBSITE: http://www.itec-edu.org/info.html COURSE DESCRIPTION: This 4 week course will emphasize Tropical Ethnobotany in the context of rainforest and island ecosystems. The material covered is equivalent to an upper level university course in Ethnobotany. Readings and lectures will focus on the plant use and traditional cultures of Panama and the surrounding regions of Central and South America and the Caribbean, as well as innovative methodologies and current theory in the discipline. Much of the course will be spent learning field techniques and carrying out various class activities and exercises in the surrounding rainforest and local communities. The course will include demonstrations by local healers, artisans and other specialists who utilize plants. Students will each complete a course project, based on their individual interests, in local Ethnobotany or Ethnoecology. The fieldwork for these projects will be carried out with a small group of other students, with each student having their own focus. COURSE LOCATION: Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC), Bocas del Toro Biological Station, Boca del Drago, Isla Colon, Republic of Panama. The biological station is located on a beach facing the Caribbean Sea. Coral reef and seagrass ecosystems lie out in front of the station and lowland tropical rainforests lie directly behind. This juxtaposition of the two most biologically diverse ecosystems provides tremendous opportunities for education and research. Panama's rich cultural diversity includes the Ngobe and Teribe indigenous peoples of the Bocas del Toro region, the indigenous Kuna of the San Blas Islands, Afro-Caribbeans, Mestizos, and many other ethnic and cultural groups. See http://www.itec-edu.org/index.html for more details and photos of the biological station and Isla Colon. INSTRUCTOR: Jillian De Gezelle, PhD Candidate and Lecturer, The New York Botanical Garden & The City University of New York. Email: [email protected]
