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About the Authors

  • Page ID
    322662

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    OER author

    jeffrey mccully, phd

    Image of jeffrey in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico (December 2025) with a stone wall of skull sculptures in the background

    jeffrey in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico (December 2025)

    jeffrey mccully is a Professor of Sociology and an Anthropology Faculty Affiliate at Moraine Valley Community College. jeffrey attended Illinois Central College before earning a BA in Sociology from Western Illinois University with a minor in Religious Studies. jeffrey then pursued a PhD in Sociology at the University of Missouri, while also earning a graduate minor in College Teaching and a graduate minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. jeffrey’s doctoral training unfolded within a sociological tradition committed to critical inquiry with the responsibility to interrogate social arrangements rather than affirm them. dr. mccully’s teaching and scholarly interests include social control, gender and sexuality, colonial studies, and the sociocultural study of death.

    jeffrey has conducted ethnographic fieldwork throughout central and southern Mexico, with repeated long-term stays in Jalisco and Michoacán. This work has primarily focused on learning about pre-Hispanic and modern Purépecha culture, including aspects of religion, art, community organization, and resistance to cartel violence. Across Mexico, jeffrey has visited 28 official Pueblos Mágicos—and counting. These experiences allow jeffrey to bring rich, firsthand examples into the classroom, which are particularly relevant at a Hispanic-serving institution. This work was supported by a faculty development sabbatical.

    Image of jeffrey at El Antiguo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Michoacán, Mexico (January 2020)

    jeffrey at El Antiguo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Michoacán, Mexico (January 2020)

    dr. mccully also participated in a faculty development seminar in Palestine, with additional independent study in the occupied West Bank and Israel. This work focused on learning about the institutional barriers and everyday realities of Palestinians living under a military occupation. In addition to this work, jeffrey was able to explore the region’s landscapes and sociocultural sites, including major historical, religious, and tourist destinations, providing a broader context for understanding the contested spaces of the region.

    Image artist

    R. Gary Raham, a short biography

    R. Gary Raham expresses his visual art using a palette informed by his love of nature and academic studies in the sciences. He defines his business, Biostration, as the place where science, art, and education synergize. Raham loves working with pencil, pen & ink, scratchboard and acrylics.

    Raham has had a long-time interest in human evolution since obtaining degrees in biology at the University of Michigan and has kept up with current discoveries over the intervening decades. This assignment to illustrate a broad sampling of fossil discoveries in the human family tree helped rekindle his love and fascination for the subject.

    As an author of more than twenty books of science fact and science fiction, Raham likes to enthuse readers not only with the discoveries of science, but how the human experience might take those discoveries to build an exciting and fulfilling future. Learn more about his work at rgaryraham.com(opens in new window).

    A full list of images created by R. Gary Raham included in the Detailed Licensing section of the Back Matter.

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