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Alexandra Brewis (Slade) -- Biocultural Anthropologist
Regents Professor & President's Professor at Arizona State University

Author: alexbrewis

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Our new blog – Diagnosis: Human

November 19, 2019 alexbrewis

Our blog has now permanently moved to Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/diagnosis-human. Following are copies of older posts from our previous blog,…

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Posted in: Uncategorized
A man and woman dancing on the beach.

Sweaty and disgusting: More thoughts on how hygiene norms work to maintain the social order.

August 17, 2019 alexbrewis

Today it is HOT in Arizona, like most summer days. But in August the monsoon rolls in and so does…

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Posted in: Uncategorized

From Samoa to Japan: Narrowing body norms and expanding anxieties.

April 17, 2019 alexbrewis

Sophie To, an undergraduate student at Yale, is just finishing up her thesis work from data collected in Samoa under…

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A group of people walking down the street holding umbrellas.

Citizen Social Science as a tool to study urban stigma

December 26, 2018 alexbrewis

In Fall 2018 I had the joy of getting back to classroom teaching after an extended leave to focus on…

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Posted in: Uncategorized Filed under: citizen science, collaboration, discrimination, diversity, exclusion, linguistics, social science, stigma, urban

Hygiene-related stigma is an under-recognized problem for sanitation interventions

alexbrewis

The Global Ethnohydrology project began in 2006, imagined by Amber as a postdoc when she first came to ASU. We…

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Posted in: Uncategorized Filed under: hygiene, sanitation, stigma
A display case with some cookies on it

Nothing sweet about it: Stigma and living with diabetes

May 19, 2018 alexbrewis

This week I began teaching on online class on poverty and global health. The first assignment was for students to…

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Posted in: Uncategorized Filed under: diabetes, india, stigma, US

Gender Norms, Stressful Stigma, and the “Critical” Role of Families.

April 14, 2018 alexbrewis

The Global Impact Collaboratory has had a very busy month. The core team (Roseanne Schuster, Peggy Ochandarena, and me) have been…

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Posted in: Uncategorized Filed under: GBV, gender, gender-based violence, Palestine, stigma, transgender
A group of people sitting in front of an old fashioned covered wagon.

Those “dirty people” often aren’t: Our lesson from Ireland

January 6, 2018 alexbrewis

“ In 2015, we were invited to friendly Dublin, Ireland to collaborate on a new project focusing on the social…

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Posted in: Uncategorized Filed under: hygiene, Ireland, sanitation, stigma, water

Haiti, Cholera, and the Downhill Flow of Blame

November 17, 2017 alexbrewis

On two visits his year, I have been working out of an office in a beautiful colonial era villa in…

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Posted in: Uncategorized Filed under: Caribbean, cholera, disease, Haiti, stigma, water

Boys will be boys? ADHD and “normal behavior”

September 23, 2017 alexbrewis

Between us, Amber and I are raising three elementary-middle school sons. We counter our very busy professional lives with weekends…

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India, HIV, and Stigma Marsala

July 25, 2017 alexbrewis

Chennai (Madras) in Southern India has long been a hot spot for HIV, but rates of new infection there (as…

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A painting of a monk and a priest

Public breastfeeding, purity, and the Prado

June 25, 2017 alexbrewis

The Prado gallery in Madrid is splendid and powerful, full of historical paintings that lift the spirit and energize the…

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Posted in: Late Lessons, Stigmabusters Filed under: breastfeeding, stigma
A young boy wearing a hat and holding something.

The Source of “Stigma”

March 24, 2017 alexbrewis

The cliche in stigma scholarship: first, cite Goffman. Like this. And this. His work on stigma is mentioned so often, he…

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Posted in: Stigmabusters Filed under: Goffman, stigma

Food insecurity, depression, and 20-20 hindsight

February 8, 2017 alexbrewis

In a university has large and diverse as some cities, health disparities emerge on campus communities just as they do…

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Posted in: Uncategorized, Work in Progress Filed under: food banks, food insecurity, hunger, stigma

The Other Reason Carrie Fisher is My Hero

December 28, 2016 alexbrewis

This week Carrie Fisher passed away. I was 13 when I first saw Star Wars. A Princess who didn’t wear…

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Posted in: Ripped from the Headlines, Stigmabusters Filed under: biopolar disorder, destigmatization, mental illness, stigma

Shit shame? Addressing open air defecation in Mozambique

December 11, 2016 alexbrewis

Climate problems may not be the top priority of the incoming US administration. But their effects are pretty darn obvious…

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Posted in: Uncategorized, Work in Progress Filed under: climate change, disease, hygiene, Mozambique, open defecation, sanitation, stigma

The Global Heart-ache of (In)fertility

August 26, 2016 alexbrewis

The statistics say that at any time some 1.5 million married women in the US are struggling with infertility (technically…

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Posted in: Uncategorized

Welcome to *Beautiful* South Korea!

May 20, 2016 alexbrewis

South Korea is a land of great physical beauty. If you aren’t born with it, you are meant to create…

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Posted in: Passing Fancies, Work in Progress Filed under: Asia, body image, cosmetic surgery, fat-talk, Korea, obesity, South Korea

The Cutting Edge of Weight Stigma Research

April 29, 2016 alexbrewis

Last weekend I holed up with top scholars who study weight stigma — in lovely B and B in central…

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Posted in: Deep Thoughts, Uncategorized, Work in Progress Filed under: body norms, hunger, obesity, undernutrition, weight discrimination, weight stigma

“Poverty porn” doesn’t raise awareness—it stigmatizes people who deserve better

March 29, 2016 alexbrewis

–By Amber Wutich — There’s a dirty secret that all scholars who study poverty know: it’s really hard to get…

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Posted in: Uncategorized

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