Joel M. Halpern (b. 1929), American anthropologist, was professor of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1968 until his retirement in 1992. Throughout his career he conducted field research in many countries, including the U.S. (Alaska), Yugoslavia, Sweden, the Soviet Union, Greece, Israel, India, Bulgaria, Canada, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. In 1953-54 and again in 1961-62, 1964, 1978 and 1986, Halpern and his wife Barbara Kerewsky-Halpern traveled to and resided in various parts of the former Yugoslavia, where they studied Serbian village folk life.