Stepp, John Richard

Dr. Stepp has conducted biocultural conservation research over the last two decades primarily in the Maya Forest (working with Highland Maya and Lowland Maya and Garinagu) and in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia along with shorter research trips in several other countries worldwide. His research explores persistence, change and variation of traditional ecological knowledge and ethnobiology. Much of this work has focused on wild food plants and medicinal plants.

Dr. Stepp’s work has also focused on patterns in the distribution of biological and cultural diversity (biocultural diversity) on a global scale. Other interests include the anthropology of food, medical anthropology, visual anthropology, social science research methods, GIS and land use change and human perceptions of climate change. He is also involved in documentary and ethnographic film production on topics both related and unrelated to his primary research.