Maria Grace Fadiman (born July 4, 1969) is an American ethnobotanist and Professor of Geosciences at Florida Atlantic University.[1][2]

Maria Fadiman
BornMaria Grace Fadiman
(1969-07-04) July 4, 1969 (age 55)
OccupationProfessor
NationalityAmerican
Genreethnobotanist
EmployerFlorida Atlantic University
RelativesJames Fadiman (father)
Dorothy Fadiman (mother)
Anne Fadiman (first cousin once removed)
Clifton Fadiman (granduncle)
William James Sidis (first cousin twice removed)

Biography

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Fadiman is the daughter of documentary filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman and psychologist and author James Fadiman.[3] Clifton Fadiman was her granduncle.[4][5][6] She is a distant cousin of Anne Fadiman and of William James Sidis, a child prodigy.[7]

Education and career

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Fadiman received her BA from Vassar College,[8] her MA from Tulane University and her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. She was the recipient of an NSF Grant in 2000–2001, which she used for her dissertation research in Ecuador.[9]

Fadiman joined the faculty at Florida Atlantic University in 2004. Before her appointment at FAU, she served as part-time faculty at Sonoma State University.

Since 2006, Fadiman is recognized as an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic.[10] [11] She was one of only eight Explorers honored by National Geographic in 2006.

Fadiman's research specializes in Latin American and African ethnobotany, with a focus on rainforest cultures.[1] Her research and publications examine the various ways that indigenous peoples interact with plants in their daily lives, with particular emphasis on the economy and on gender roles.

In Starbucks The Way I See It No 233 she said, "I used to think that going to the jungle made my life an adventure. However, after years of unusual work in exotic places, I realize that it is not how far off I go, or how deep into the forest I walk that gives my life meaning. I see that living life fully is what makes life – anyone’s life, no matter where they do or do not go – an adventure."[12]

Recent publications

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  • 2005, Cultivated Food Plants: Culture and Gendered Spaces of Colonists and the Chachi in Ecuador. Journal of Latin American Geography 4(1): 43-57.
  • 2004, Management, Cultivation and Domestication of Weaving Plants: Heteropsis and Astrocaryum in the Ecuadorian Rain Forest. The California Geographer 44:1-19.
  • 2001, Hat weaving with Jipi, Carludovica palmate, (Cyclanthaceae) in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. The Journal of Economic Botany 55(4):539-544.

References

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  1. ^ a b Fadiman, Maria, Professor Maria Fadiman's FAU Page, Boca Raton, Florida: Florida Atlantic University, Department of Geosciences, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, retrieved October 7, 2017
  2. ^ Fadiman, Maria (2020), Maria Fadiman, Ph.D., on Promotion to Professor, Boca Raton, Florida, retrieved May 26, 2020{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ "Concentric Media - The Film Team". Concentric Media. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  4. ^ Wolfe, Tom (1968). The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Farrar Straus Giroux. p. 6.
  5. ^ "William Fadiman, 90, Writer and Producer". New York Times. 7 August 1999. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  6. ^ "Obituaries : William Fadiman; Hollywood Producer". Los Angeles Times. 3 August 1999. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  7. ^ "The Prodigy". Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  8. ^ "Maria Fadiman '91 Where Humans and Plants Connect". Vassar College. 2017. Retrieved Mar 1, 2017.
  9. ^ Fadiman, Maria (August 2003), The Committee-Approved Version of Maria Grace Fadiman's Dissertation Entitled: "Fibers from the Forest: Mestizo, Afro-Ecuadorian and Chachi Ethnobotany of Piquigua (Heteropsis ecuadorensis, Araceae) and Mocora (Astrocaryum standleyanum, Arecaceae) in Northwestern Ecuador"(pdf) (PDF), Austin, Texas: University of Texas, Austin, p. 6, retrieved Mar 29, 2012
  10. ^ "National Geographic Explorer Directory - Maria Grace Fadiman, 2006 Emerging Explorer". National Geographic. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  11. ^ "Grantee 2022 - present, Maria Grace Fadiman". National Geographic. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  12. ^ "Early Morning Starbucks", Life in the Vast Lane, April 2, 2007, retrieved March 29, 2012
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