Department of Anthropology

Education:

Ph.D. 2024 Tulane University
M.A. 2018 Tulane University
B.A. 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Areas of Research/Interest:

Cultural and environmental anthropology, ethnicity, ethnohistory, historical ecology, traditional ecological knowledge, mobility and migration, and indigenous historicities with a focus on Chicham-speaking Shiwiar and Achuar, and Kichwa-speaking Runa and Andwa of Ecuador and Peru.

Dr. Fink is a cultural and environmental anthropologist who primarily works with the Shiwiar, a Chicham-speaking people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. He has conducted long-term field work in the Ecuadorian Amazon focusing on understanding the fluidity of ethnicity and indigenous understandings of history in the Pastaza-Bobonaza-Corrientes-Conambo River regions. His dissertation explores the development of the Shiwiar ethnic identity and its relationship with Achuar and Runa ethnic identities in the late twentieth century.

Dr. Fink is currently initiating research projects exploring the role that the Shiwiar, a relatively small and recently formed group, play in political and environmental movements in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and how indigenous groups like the Shiwiar mediate disputes with indigenous neighbors and outsiders over access to territory and resources.

Scholarship:

(2024) “Shiwiar Winiáwai (The Enemies are Coming): Shiwiar Identity Formation and
Transformation in the Ecuadorian Amazon” Dissertation, 2024.

Teaching Experience:

Environmental Anthropology, Ethnobiology and Ethnobotany, Anthropology of Migration and Diasporas, Anthropology of Gender, Anthropology of South America, Anthropology of Native North America, Cultural Diversity of the United States, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Languages of the World, Introduction to Environmental Studies

Teaching Appointments:

Visiting Instructor/Visiting Assistant Professor: Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) 2023-2024