Hawk Ventures undertakes a number of anthropological initiatives. Its owner Seth Hawkins is currently Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Anthropology at Wake Forest University. He received his undergraduate anthropology training at Yale University and is currently a graduate student in the dual degree MA-MPH program at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is a professional member of the American Anthropological Association and a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology. His general area of specialization is medical and cultural anthropology, with particular research interests in the anthropology of pain, medical humanities, Middle Eastern cultures, and expeditionary anthropology. He also has an avocational interest in Archaeology.
The Anthropology of Pain
Hawkins has been developing a model for a unified Anthropology of Pain since 1993, when he submitted an original treatise as a senior thesis for his bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. His work in this area is currently under revision and was presented as a combined Department of Anthropology-Department of Emergency Medicine Grand Rounds at Wake Forest University in 2016. Publication of the thesis is anticipated in the future.
Medical Humanities
Hawkins’ essay Emergency Medicine Narratives: A Systematic Discussion of Definition and Utility, published in Academic Emergency Medicine in 2004, has been described as a landmark study in emergency medical humanities. Hawkins is a founding member of the Medical Humanities Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians and has published humanities works in multiple emergency medicine journals. Medical Humanities serves as a fertile ground to explore the humanistic elements of medical anthropology, in the medical terrain of both familiar and unfamiliar cultures.
Middle Eastern Cultures
هوكينزهو الطالب للغة العربية ، و مازال مفتونا الشرق الأوسط.
Further Middle Eastern projects are under development.
Expeditionary Anthropology
Hawkins has taught and traveled around the world, with various medical and academic appointments. He was a Visiting Professor at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom in 2013 and was a staff physician at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Thimphu, Bhutan in 2011. In 2009 he was a member of a formal Wilderness Medical Society delegation to the People’s Republic of China. Via Hawk Ventures and other academic and expeditionary relationships, Dr. Hawkins continues to explore the world with an anthropological filter and with various research interests.
Archaeology
Hawkins has numerous interfaces with the archaeology community. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Exploring Joara Foundation, a public archaeology non-profit organization. This organization supports educational and research endeavors at western North Carolina archaeological sites. It has a particular focus on Joara and Fort San Juan, the first inland European colony in the United States. Joara and Fort San Juan’s discovery and excavation was named one of the top 100 discoveries of 2013 by Discover Magazine. Hawkins and Hawk Ventures are avid supporters of cutting edge archaeological research in the Americas and elsewhere. This work includes developing and supporting initiatives for medical training in support of archaeological expeditions and archaeologists. Hawkins lectured on this topic at the 2019 Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting in New Mexico and has published pieces in the archaeology peer-reviewed professional literature on medical training for archaeology fieldwork and on the cognitive and material medical support of archaeology expeditions.
Field Scientist First Aid
Hawk Ventures is currently developing a field scientist first aid curriculum in conjunction with a national panel of experts. The pilot version of this course is being conducted at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and concludes in May 2023.