Welcome to Medical Anthropology at UCL

COVID-19 in Cuba: Some Reflections At The Beginning Of The Crisis.

SAHRA GIBBON I have just returned from the Society for Medical Anthropology meeting in Havana which went ahead just days before the bans and restrictions on travel intensified. Going to Cuba after nearly a 12 year absence was not only an opportunity to reflect personally on the changes that have happened there since my last…

Book Launch: “Critical Medical Anthropology: Perspectives in and from Latin America”

You can Download this book for free here. We are pleased to announce the publication of the edited volume “Critical Medical Anthropology: Perspectives in and from Latin America”, edited by academics from UCL Anthropology, UCL Global Health, and CIESAS Mexico. Critical Medical Anthropology presents inspiring work from scholars doing and engaging with ethnographic research in…

Excavating and recreating the biosocial; birth cohorts as ethnographic object of inquiry and site of intervention

Sahra Gibbon & Michelle Pentecost Longitudinal birth cohorts are increasingly recognised as important for understanding how biological, social and environmental processes interact over time and contribute to health inequalities. Birth cohorts have also become part of global assemblages of knowledge production, particularly in the field of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD, Gluckman…

“Remodelling a medical brain: Thinking Anthropologically”…

Paulina Pérez-Duarte Mendiola MSc Medical Anthropology & Pediatrician DR KELEKIAN: This treatment is the strongest thing we have to offer you. And, as research, it will make a significant contribution to our knowledge. VIVIAN: Knowledge, yes. W;t A Play by Margaret Edson I entered the room a paediatrician and left ninety minutes later… as someone…

A multi-perspective of global mental health: A summary and reflection on the seminar

Yifan Lu, MSc Medical Anthropology On October 15th 2019, a seminar on mental health and International Development took place at the UCL Department of Anthropology. Five contributors to the newly published book, The Routledge Handbook of International Development, Mental Health and Wellbeing, gave talks on mental health, drawn from their research. This volume intends to…

“Promoting Social Embeddedness of New Biotechnologies”

Rebecca Irons Attendance to the public’s engagement with, and acceptance of, biotechnologies is undoubtedly an important issue to breech for ‘scientists’, STS scholars, and anthropologists alike. However, this still remains only an emergent topic of discussion in China – an omission that the Newton Fund workshop “Promoting Social Embeddedness of New Biotechnologies”, held in October…

“Let Them Talk About Stillbirth: Assessment on Societal Knowledge and Attitude Towards Stillbirth in Harar City”

Simegn Tadesss and Eyoel Taye, CHAMPS Ethiopia The incidence of stillbirths in Ethiopia is as high as 30 per 1000 births, being the highest rate in the world. Factors associated with stillbirth are hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, intrauterine growth restriction, infection, and cord around the neck. In spite of these known causes of stillbirth, communities…

“Health-seeking behavior and community perceptions of childhood Malnutrition in Children under five in the Case of Eastern Hararghe: Kersa District”

Ketema Degefa and Adugna Tadesse, CHAMPS Ethiopia The magnitude of child malnutrition including severe child malnutrition is especially high in the rural areas of Kersa district and one of the major causes of death among children in the study area (KHDSS, 2016). This study explored health seeking behaviour and community perceptions in addressing malnutrition. Mixed…

“Neonatal Danger Signs Knowledge and Health Care Seeking Behavior among Mothers in Gasera District, Bale Zone, Ethiopia”

Fikadu Nugusu, Madda Walabu University The majority of new born deaths occur at home where few families recognize signs of newborn illness. Thus, this study was intended to assess the level of knowledge and health care seeking behavior about neonatal danger signs and associated factors among mothers in Gasera district, Ethiopia. Community based cross sectional…

“Qualitative to clinical: Community perceptions of causes of child death and approaches to sensitization of biomedical interventions in Eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia”

Berhanu Damise & Ketema Degefa, CHAMPS Ethiopia Caroline Ackley, University of Sussex In Eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia, verbal autopsy (VA) has been used as the primary method of determining causes of under-5 child death where the definitive cause of the death is still unknown due to lack of reliable data (HDSS, 2016). Therefore, providing accurate and…

Anthropological Approaches To Understanding Child & Maternal Mortality

Yenenesh Tilahun The Anthropological Approaches to Understanding Child and Maternal Mortality, and Recommendations for Improving Health Outcomes Symposium invited social science researchers to share their evidence-based insights on maternal and child health in Ethiopia. They were also encouraged to provide recommendations on ways to improve health outcomes. The symposium aimed to understand child and maternal…

Global Engagement Fund takes UCL Anthropology to Ethiopia

Caroline Ackley, Timothy Carroll, Aaron Parkhurst In January 2019, Timothy Carroll (UCL) and Aaron Parkhurst (UCL) – funded by the UCL Global Engagement Fund – partnered with Caroline Ackley (LSHTM, now Sussex) to establish a network, focusing on issues of medical materiality within maternal and infant health. The Engagement programme included a short series on…

Venezuelan Refugee access to Reproductive and Sexual Health Services in Peru: Understanding and Addressing the Need

Rebecca Irons One of the fantastic opportunities that has accompanied studying at UCL with a Wellcome Trust Doctoral Studentship has undoubtedly been the prospects for further career development. On this, I have been lucky to recently receive a Secondment Fellowship award to work with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Peru on an important…

“Higher Education and Societal Transformation: Decolonisation and Racial Equality” Workshop, June 2019 Brasilia

Rebecca Irons The modernist architect’s dream-city of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, was the location for the workshop “Higher Education and Societal Transformation: Decolonisation and Racial Equality” in June 2019. An event for early career researchers (ECR), funded by the Newton Fund and organised by Professor Shirley Tate (Leeds Beckett University) and Dr. Breitner Tavares…

MSc in Biosocial Medical Anthropology- Student Reflections

I joined the MSc Biosocial Medical Anthropology after working for two years at a small education charity in London. I had really enjoyed studying anthropology at undergraduate, particularly as my course had offered modules in both social and biological anthropology. I found the point of interaction between the sub-disciplines really interesting, and was keen to…

Type 2 diabetes: It’s time for a justice-based model of prevention: Insights from ethnography

Dr. Laura Montesi In May 2019, an interdisciplinary conference that explores the history, cultures and sociopolitical configurations of the Americas will take place in Perugia, Italy. Drawing on my ongoing ethnography of diabetes in Mexico, particularly among rural, indigenous communities, I will participate with a conference paper entitled “Type 2 diabetes: It’s time for a…

Reproductive Health Policy in Conference: The 2018 International Conference on Family Planning, Rwanda.

Rebecca Irons The 2018 International Conference on Family Planning, held in Kigali, Rwanda, was framed as an all-round celebration for the advancements made to family planning in recent years. Supported by development-world giants such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and Johns Hopkins, and with speakers including Bill Gates and Jane Goodall, feeling a…

If Mindfulness is the Answer, What is the Question?

Dr. Joanna Cook “If mindfulness is the answer, what is the question?” was a talk given by Dr Joanna Cook, UCL (Presentation with Q&A) as part of the Round Table “Mindfulness in Public Discourse” which was held at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, SOAS University of London on 8 December 2018. In the UK, mindfulness…

Rebecca Skloot & the Lacks Family on Communication in Science and Medicine

By Rebecca Irons Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is one that many of us may be familiar with. An exploration of the human story behind the HeLa cells, the book deals with more than simply an historical account of biomedical research; it is essentially a book about race, bioethics, and…

Female Tristeza in Santa Cruz La Laguna, Guatemala: How Sadness Maps Onto Depression

By Elizabeth Markowitz “As always, as people, there are problems … perhaps they happen [as depression] but one does not know the form…” – Tzununá woman How does major depressive disorder exist in a society lacking a word for it? I studied this question through the lens of the female experience of tristeza (sadness) in…