Dr. Joseph Nevadomsky has an extensive and varied background in anthropology, sociology, education, and photography. After graduating with a B.A. in English and History, he spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer at a teachers training college in Nigeria, West Africa. Upon his return to the United States he sought an M.A. degree in Education at UC Berkeley. During this time he received a Fulbright/Professional Studies Program award and spent the academic year 1967-68 in Delhi, India at the Delhi School of Economics where he conducted survey research on university students. After returning to Berkeley, he was accepted into the Anthropology Ph.D. program.

For his fieldwork, Dr. Nevadomsky received a National Institute of Mental Health grant and spent 15 months in Trinidad and Tobago in the predominantly East Indian village of Felicity where he focused on changing patterns in marriage and the family. This community had been studied 15 years earlier by another anthropologist who emphasized cultural retention rather than social change. From 1973-75 he taught African Societies and Cultures at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. From 1975-89 he worked at the University of Benin, Nigeria, first in the fledgling Faculty of Education (where he taught Sociology of Education & Research Methods), later in the newly established Center for Social, Cultural, and Environmental Research (censer), and finally, in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology. Dr. Nevadomsky's interests include art, material culture, ritual, and symbolism. 

He has documented the installation rites for the King of Benin, the first such documentation since the kingdom was founded in the 13th century. At present he is researching vernacular architecture and religious cults in Benin City, Nigeria. Dr. Nevadomsky has also written extensively on marriage, family, education, and social change. His articles and commentaries have appeared in the Journal of Anthropological Research, Ethnology, Anthropology Quarterly, Anthropos, Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Current Anthropology, and African Arts. In 1982, Dr. Nevadomsky was a visiting scholar at the University of Kansas and in 1991 he had an appointment as a visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at UCLA where he taught courses in African art and architecture. During 1993 he served as Director of International Programs in Zimbabwe.