Associate Professor-Environmental Studies & Anthropology
Department Chair of Environmental Science and Studies
Dr. Campbell engages in the propagation, saving and distribution of open-pollinated, “heirloom” seeds and the care and observation of an array of small livestock through the ABC Project and in the documentation of environmental problems and solutions through film-making. His research engages the intersection of human and environment, focusing on strategies and traditional practices for sustainable co-existence. Campbell’s film production venture, Ozarkadia Films allows him to collaborate with students and independent film-makers in the production of ethnographic films related to environmental anthropology and sustainable land management. Campbell has produced five independent documentary films that have screened in film festivals: To Kingdom Come (2019) won the Rome International Film Festival Audience Award for feature films, Damn de Dam (2019) screened at multiple film festivals, Seed Swap (2010) screened on public television (AETN, PBS affiliate), The Natural State of America (2011) won the 2011 Society for Applied Anthropology Film Award and The Night the Blackbirds Fell (2013) received funding from the Arkansas Humanities Council, UCA Foundation, and Inspired Media and screened in four states, including a Georgia premiere at the 2014 Rome International Film Festival. Campbell serves as a dedicated community partner to the Davies Shelters and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Chieftains Museum, Major Ridge Home.
Education
- 2005 Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Concentrations: Agricultural Anthropology, Environmentalism, Ethnoecology - 2002 Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development, Graduate Certification
University of Georgia Institute of Ecology - 1994-1998 B.A., Summa Cum Laude, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO
Majors: English, Anthropology Minors: Spanish, International Studies - 1996 Attended Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Heredia, C.R., Central America
Teaching Interests
- Anthropology of Food
- Applying Anthropology
- Applied Agroecology
- Cultural Anthropology
- Environmental Anthropology
- Environmental Classics
- Environment, Society & Culture
- Visual Anthropology
Research Interests
- Agrarianism
- Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation
- Agroecology
- Community-Based Conservation
- Ethnoecology
- Food Sovereignty
- Political Ecology
- Visual Environmental Anthropology
Field Experience
DOCUMENTARY FILM PRODUCTION
To Kingdom Come (2019)
An Ozarkadia Production, co-produced by Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI)
Collaboration with Berry College students: Terrell Case, Editor
Rome International Film Festival Audience Award Features
The Night the Blackbirds Fell (2013)
Experimental Documentary Film, Researcher, Writer, and Producer
Collaboration with former students: Will Scott, Director, Gustav Carlson, Co-writer and Artist, Terrell Case, Editor and Animator
The Natural State of America (2011)
Documentary Film Researcher, Writer and Producer
Directed by former students: Terrell Case, Matthew Corey Gattin and Timothy Wistrand
Seed Swap (2010)
Documentary Film Researcher, Producer, and Co-Writer
Directed and co-written by former student: Zachariah McCannon
Selected Publications
- 2019 The Reluctant Farmer: The Role of Multimedia in USA’s 20th Century Agricultural Transformation, Visual Anthropology, 32: 240-264
- 2019 Book Review in Peer-Reviewed Journal, Environmental History, Oxford University Press: A History of the Ozarks. Volume 1: The Old Ozarks. By Brooks Blevins, https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emz055
- 2016 In Search of Arcadia: Agrarian Values and the Homesteading Tradition in the Ozarks, USA, Environmental Values, Volume 25, Issue 2.
- 2015 Brian C. Campbell and James R. Veteto. 2015. Free seeds and food sovereignty: anthropology and grassroots
agrobiodiversity conservation strategies in the US South. Journal of Political Ecology 22: 445-465.
http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_22/CampbellVeteto.pdf - 2015 Confrontations On Karst: Anti-Biocide Activism in the Ozarks, U.S., Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFÉ), Volume 37, Issue 2. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%292153-9561
- 2014 “Just Eat Peas and Dance”: Field Peas (Vigna unguiculata) and Food Security in the Ozark Highlands, Journal of Ethnobiology, Volume 34, Issue 1, pp.104-122
- 2013 Growing an Oak: An Ethnography of Ozark Bioregionalism, in Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia: Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillages, edited by Joshua Lockyer and James R. Veteto, published by Berghahn Books, pp. 58-75
- 2012 Open-Pollinated Seed Exchange: Renewed Ozark Tradition as Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation, Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, Volume 36, Issue 5, pp. 500-522
- 2010 “Closest to Everlastin’”: Ozark Agricultural Biodiversity and Subsistence Traditions., in Southern Spaces, An Interdisciplinary Journal about the Regions, Places, and Cultures of the American South, published September 20, 2010, http://southernspaces.org/2010/closest-everlastin-ozark-agricultural-biodiversity-and-subsistence-traditions
Professional Associations
- Fellow, Society for Applied Anthropology
- Member, Board of Directors, Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies (AIMS)
- Member, Board of Directors, Chieftains Museum, Major Ridge Home
- Member, Georgia Organics