Barton A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Affiliated Scholar
Barty Thompson helped to found both the Environmental Studies and the Anthropology programs which he has directed at Albright College for the last 25 years. His research reflects the interdisciplinary perspectives that he has developed through the diverse range of courses that he has taught in these and other programs. He has focused on how humans interact with non-human animals and the land that they inhabit.
He has conducted research in the sub-arctic, the mid-Atlantic, the Rocky Mountains, and the Peruvian Amazon and written papers which investigate the underlying psychology that governs the way humans engage in their environments. This has involved cross-cultural studies on topics ranging from our human sense of place to the degree to which we feel empathy for animals. His latest research has focused on hate for wolves that is found in the northern Rocky Mountain region of the United States.
In his research, Dr. Thompson utilizes an evolutionary approach to understand the evolved psychology that directs our understanding of our surrounding environment and governs our interactions with it and the resident animal agents.