Biography of Linda Watts

Linda Watts

Linda

Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology

(University of Colorado @ Colorado Springs)

Dr. Linda Watts (b. 1954) is a cultural and linguistic anthropologist and author who has served as a professor at the University of Colorado since 1993. She has published widely including an academic book, The Social Semiotics of Relational Terminology at Zuni Pueblo (Mellen Press, 2000), along with several academic journal articles, research reports, and creative memoir stories. Linda's professional research has centered around the idea of "cultural models" or "cognitive schemas": how people think about their lives and their world affects how they LIVE in that world. She has pursued this topic in relation to Native American 'family ties' and social organization, Native American cultural models of substance dependency and recovery, and more recently in relation to Life Course Studies that include Joseph Campbell's works about personal mythology, 'the Hero's Journey' and rites of passage that Dr. Watts has applied in her own studies to recent scholarship on "Managing Life's Transitions". Since 2000, Linda has engaged in a series of in-depth interview studies in the area of "Cultural Models of the Life Course". Based on findings from these studies she has developed a complete personal development toolkit which she calls the Life Path Mapping Process. Linda worked with over 200 persons in developing this heartful, fun and creative approach which she now provides both to individuals in Life Maps Coaching sessions and to workshop groups internationally. "Life Mappers" who engage in the Life Maps Process are able to easily discover the patterns, themes, and archetypes that have been active in their own Life Story. The Life Maps Process can help you to Reclaim your LIFE DREAM and to Re-Model your own Life Path in order to REALIZE your highest goals in harmony with your deepest values, beginning NOW!