WADE DAVIS is professor of anthropology and the B.C. Leadership
Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of
British Columbia. Between 1999 and 2013 he served as
Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and is
currently a member of the NGS Explorers Council and Honorary
Vice-President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Named by
the NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, he has been
described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and
passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” In 2014,
Switzerland’s leading think tank, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
of Zurich, ranked him 16th in their annual survey of the top 100
most influential global Thought Leaders.
An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, Davis holds
degrees in anthropology and biology and received his PhD in
ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the
Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent over three years in the Amazon
and Andes as a plant explorer, living among fifteen indigenous
groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6000
botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to
investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of
zombies, an assignment that led to his writing The Serpent and the
Rainbow (1986), an international best seller later released by
Universal as a motion picture. In recent years his work has taken
him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali,
Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Australia, Colombia, Vanuatu, Mongolia and
the high Arctic of Nunavut and Greenland.
Davis is the author of 275 scientific and popular articles and 20
books including One River (1996), The Wayfinders (2009), The Sacred
Headwaters (2011), Into the Silence (2011) and River Notes (2012).
His photographs have been widely exhibited and have appeared in 30
books and 100 magazines, including National Geographic, Time, Geo,
People, Men’s Journal, and Outside. He was the co-curator of The
Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes,
first exhibited at the National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution. In 2012 he served as guest curator of No
Strangers: Ancient Wisdom in the Modern World, an exhibit at the
Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.
His many film credits include Light at the Edge of the World, an
eight-hour documentary series written and produced for the National
Geographic. A professional speaker for 30 years, Davis has lectured
at over 200 universities and 250 corporations and professional
associations. In 2009 he delivered the CBC Massey Lectures. He has
spoken from the main stage at TED five times, and his three posted
talks have been viewed by 3 million. His books have appeared in 20
languages and sold approximately one million copies.
Davis is the recipient of 11 honorary degrees, as well as the 2009
Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for his
contributions to anthropology and conservation, the 2011 Explorers
Medal, the highest award of the Explorers Club, the 2012 David
Fairchild Medal for botanical exploration, the 2013 Ness Medal for
geography education from the Royal Geographical Society, and the
2015 Centennial Medal of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
Harvard University. His recent book, Into the Silence, received the
2012 Samuel Johnson prize, the top award for literary nonfiction in
the English language. In 2016 he was made a Member of the Order of
Canada.
...[Davis] does a solid job of debunking the notion that Western
rationalism, espoused from the Enlightenment through to the
present, is the only-or even the best-model for humanity.
*Walrus*
...cogent, fierce and provocative...
*Montreal Gazette*
Davis writes powerfully and emotionally.
*Quill & Quire*
In The Wayfinders, Davis presents an eloquent and persuasive case
for the contemporary value of these ancient cultures, not least
because of what we might learn about how human societies can live
sustainably on the planet.
*Canadian Geographic*
This year's Massey Lecturer presents his refreshing view, of
examining ancient wisdom and indigenous cultures to help us find
our own path, and it demands to be read.
*National Post*
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