Background

Roy Grinker was born in 1961, in Chicago. He is the son of Roy R. Grinker, Jr., a psychiatrist.

Education

Graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1979, Grinker planned on a career in music and played jazz piano, including a stint with Willie Pickens in Chicago, but while at Grinnell College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts, Roy discovered his true calling, anthropology. Some time later, at Harvard University, he got a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.

Career

At the beginning of his career, Roy Grinker worked at George Washington University as an associate professor of anthropology and international affairs. He also taught at Harvard University and Carleton College and was a cultural consultant for media and organizations, including the Smithsonian Institution. Nowadays Roy is a professor of anthropology at The George Washington University. He is also the director of GW's Institute for Ethnographic Research and editor-in-chief of the journal Anthropological Quarterly.

Achievements

• Roy Richard Grinker is the author of Houses in the Rainforest: Ethnicity and Inequality among Farmers and Foragers in Central Africa; Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation; and Korea and its Futures. He was a senior Asian fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States and has numerous grants for research and teaching.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism

    (Unstrange Minds documents the global quest of Isabel's fa...)

    2007
  • Isabel's World: Autism And The Making Of A Modern Epidemic

    ("Isabel's World" is a powerful testament to a father's qu...)

    2009
  • In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull 2000
  • Houses in the Rainforest: Ethnicity and Inequality Among Farmers and Foragers in Central Africa 1994
  • Korea and Its Futures: Unification and the Unfinished War 1998

Connections

Roy Grinker married Joyce Chung, a psychiatrist. They have two children - Isabel and Olivia.

Father:

Roy R. Grinker, Jr.

Spouse:

Joyce Chung

child:

Olivia Grinker

child:

Isabel Grinker

Grandfather:

Roy R. Grinker

Roy R. Grinker studied with Sigmund Freud in Vienna from 1933-1936 and was considered to be one of the preeminent psychiatrists in the world.