Quick Facts
Biography
J. Christopher Kovats-Bernat (born 1970) is an American cultural anthropologist with a specialization in Haiti.
Early life and education
Kovats-Bernat was raised in Kensington, a Philadelphia neighborhood, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy and anthropology from Muhlenberg College in 1993, and his Ph.D. in anthropology from Temple University in 2001, with a dissertation on street children in Port-au-Prince.
Career
Kovats-Bernat has worked as a faculty member at Muhlenberg College since 2001 and has been a visiting assistant professor at Shippensburg University. His recent research has focused on Voudoun and Haitian witchcraft; in 2014 he received a grant from the National Geographic Society for fieldwork in Haiti about the rites of zombification,
He has also been a Consultant on Civil Affairs (Officer Grade P-5, Civilian) for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, and Distinguished Visiting Research Affiliate and Ethnologist-in-Residence (Distingué Invité des Adjoints de Recherche et Ethnologue en Résidence) with the Faculty of Ethnology at the State University of Haiti.
Publications
In 2006 he published Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince: An Ethnography of Street Children and Violence in Haiti.
Personal life
Kovats-Bernat is married to Dina, whom he met at Muhlenberg College.
