Donna Hart
phone: 314/516-7197
e-mail: hartd@umsl.edu
Education: Dr. Donna Hart received her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Washington University in 2000. She joined the UM – St. Louis Anthropology Department in the same year. She is also on the faculty of the Pierre Laclede Honors College at UM – St. Louis.
Research and Teaching: Dr. Hart has carried out primate research in both Africa and Asia. Her primary research interest is predation on primates, including ecological and behavioral interactions between primate prey and carnivores, reptiles, and raptors. Specific sites include Rukomechi Reserve in Zimbabwe and Yala National Park in Sri Lanka. Many aspects of biological anthropology are of interest to Dr. Hart, reflected in courses that she teaches, such as Human Variation, Human Diversity and Concepts of Race, Introduction to Non-Human Primates, and Primate Behavior Research and Methods. In the field of cultural anthropology, she teaches honors courses in ethnopediatrics and cross-cultural comparison of adolescence.
Personal History: Dr. Hart has had a life-long interest in wildlife and the environment. She began her academic studies in the field of biology which launched a twenty-year professional career in wildlife conservation. Her area of expertise was international treaties, such as the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), International Whaling Commission, Bonn Convention on Migratory Species, and the Convention on Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Since most wildlife problems are essentially human problems, she turned to the study of anthropology with its holistic approach when pursuing graduate degrees.
Professional Activities: Dr. Hart has recently coauthored a book (Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution, 2005, Westview/Perseus Press) concerning the role of predation as a factor in human evolution. She is particularly involved with the set up of the new Biological Anthropology Lab at the Honors College and with the UM – St. Louis Undergraduate Research Symposium.