Rob Efird, PhD

Rob Efird CV (PDF)

Teaching and Research Interests

I am an applied cultural anthropologist with a special interest in environmental education and collaborative research with community partners. My current research is focused on children’s environmental learning both in China and here in the Pacific Northwest.

Recent Activities and Key Publications

• R. Efird and L. Lynn, eds. "Indigenous Perspectives and Environmental Education: Connecting Youth with Plants, Places and Cultural Traditions." Clearing: Journal of Environmental Education in the Cascadian Bioregion (Summer 2022).
• Efird, R. 2020. “Nature for Nurture in Urban Chinese Childrearing.” A. Esarey, M.A. Haddad, S. Harrell and J. Lewis, eds. Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-Developmental State. Seattle: University of Washington Press
• National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectual Program Fellow (2014-2016)
• Fulbright Senior Research Scholar-China (2011-2012)
• Co-creator of Seattle University's taqwsheblu Vi Hilbert Ethnobotanical Garden: https://www.seattleu.edu/artsci/departments/ipi/taqwsheblu-vi-hilbert-ethnobotanical-garden/
• Efird, R. "Nature for Nurture: Environmental Education, Nature Experience and the Healthy Child." Harvard University: Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. September 13, 2018.
• Efird, R. "Perceiving Nature's Personhood: Anthropological Enhancements to Environmental Education." Kopnina H. and Shoreman-Ouimet E., eds. Handbook of Environmental Anthropology. (New York: Routledge, 2016).
• Efird, R. "Learning Places and 'Little Volunteers': An Assessment of Place- and Community­-based Education in China." Environmental Education Research. Vol. 21, No. 8 (2015): 1143- 1154.
• Lee, J. C.-K . and Rob Efird, eds. Schooling for Sustainable Development across the Pacific. (Dordrecht: Springer, 2014).
• Efird, R. "'Learning the Land beneath Our Feet: The Place of NGO-led Environmental Education in Yunnan Province." Journal of Contemporary China. Vol. 21, No. 76 (2012).
• Efird, R. "Learning By Heart: An Anthropological Perspective on Environmental Learning in Lijiang." Kopnina and Ouimet, eds. Environmental Anthropology Today (London: Routledge, 2011).
• Efird, R. "Guest Editor's Introduction: NGOs and Institutions of Higher Education in China's Environmental Learning." Chinese Education and Society, Volume 43, Number 2 (March/April 2010).
• Efird, R. "Distant Kin: Japan's War Orphans and the Limits of Ethnicity.'' Anthropological Quarterly (Summer 2010).
• Efird, R. "Japan's 'War Orphans': Identification and State Responsibility." Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2 (2008): 363-388