Patricia Gilman
Academic Chair and Associate Professor,
Anthropology

Human beings are perhaps the most complex and fascinating creatures on the planet. This is a point Dr. Patricia Gilman likes to illuminate each year in her Anthropology 1113 class and is largely the reason she has spent most of her life as an archaeologist.

"There are cool parts to anthropology, thinking about other people's lives, how and why their lives are different," Gilman says. " Anthropology looks at the whole of human beings."

The chair of OU's anthropology department, Gilman admits that outside of the classroom, traveling is a big plus for her field.

"I love the places I work because it's stunningly beautiful," Gilman says. " Oklahoma has the big sky, but these places in New Mexico and Arizona have no trees and hardly any vegetation, so it is big wide expanses of land and the big sky and you have mountains in the distance.

"Probably one of the most important experiences for me was when I spent a season in Peru . It was the first time to any degree that I had been in a developing country and I spent two months there. I learned how different, how really different other people's lives are and how fortunate we are in the developed world to be born where we were born. Equally smart, equally hard working people to any of us, have a very different life."

One of Gilman's simpler pleasures she says is walking her dog on campus. OU's landscaping is perhaps the most unique and equally striking collection of flora in the state. Gilman says she likes discovering hidden spots on campus, especially the fountain outside Evans Hall.

Gilman splits her time between teaching and research and says she loves both aspects of her job equally. It is not only the intellectual study of human beings that drives her, but the day-to-day interactions as well.