My Biography
Dr. Townsend’s areas of expertise are environmental and medical anthropology; Papua New Guinea with a special focus on lowland subsistence, sago palm; and public participation in projects dealing with toxic and nuclear waste. She wrote her dissertation research in 1966-67 in upper Sepik, with artifacts, phots and notes being transferred to Buffalo Museum of Science. Dr. Townsend also worked on applied research in medical anthropology at the PNG Institute of Social and Economic Research (1980-84) and research on the involvement of religious organizations at toxic waste sites (2000-01). As a senior, Dr. Townsend attended her first annual meeting at the University of Michigan in 1962.