Welcome

What's up now is the place to find my recent activities. Here is my ASU faculty page and current cv. But more details on my current research, teaching, publication, current activities, and so on can be found across this website using the tabs above.

Some basic background stuff about me: I am a Regents Professor and a President's Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University (ASU), where I previously directed the School for many years and founded the Center for Global Health. At ASU, I teach undergraduate anthropology and global health and train advanced students interested in careers in or beyond the academy.  I am also Senior Editor (Medical Anthropology) for the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Trained in human biology, demography, and medical anthropology, I usually describe myself as  a "biocultural" anthropologist. My research is based in the fundamental recognition that all sustainable solutions for complex global health and environmental challenges require new ways of deploying anthropology, mostly in transdisciplinary, collaborative spaces that bring us together with communities but also other academic and applied experts.

My current research and outreach efforts are focused on finding better solutions to three key challenges:

•  Interrogating when and how we should - or shouldn't - be tackling the "problem" of "obesity." Much of this effort is currently focused on understanding how people are using the new GLP-1 RA "weight loss drugs" (like Ozempic and Wegovy).
• Establishing the mechanisms that link improving household water insecurity to better mental health and food security. This empirical research into under-recognized drivers of population health demonstrates why household water interventions fundamentally matter to global health intervention, and is establishing the best points for effective intervention.
• Establishing and explaining -- from the perspective of those affected -- how the emotional effects of stigma embedded in health care practices undermine health and healing. This includes testing the efficiacy of new approaches to medical training.

 

The header is a painting by Odra Noel, courtesy of Wellcome Collections. It shows the tissue of the major diseases in different world regions