“Medical Anthropology in the Age of Paul Farmer,” panel discussion

Monday, October 2, Whitley Auditorium, 7 p.m.

A panel of five medical anthropologists will discuss their scholarship and the work of
Paul Farmer. Panelists will be Joan Paluzzi (UNC Greensboro), who worked for three years for Farmer’s organization, Partners for Health; Patricia Whelehan (SUNY-Potsdam,
whose scholarship focuses on human sexuality and HIV+/AIDS); Kaja Finkler (UNC Chapel Hill), who has investigated narratives of women in pain in Mexico and biotechnology and kinship in North Carolina; Samantha Solimeo (Duke University), a feminist medical anthropologist who studies aging as acultural process; and Cassandra White (Georgia State University), whose scholarship explores medical discourses in Brazil.

Sponsored by the General Studies Program, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies (PERCS), the Women's/Gender Studies Program, and Project Pericles

Ticket Information

This program is free and the public is invited. No ticket is required.

Panelist biographies and online resources:

Cassandra White (Georgia State University)

Medical Anthropology Field School in Rio http://monarch.gsu.edu/anthropology/People/images/fieldschool.swf

Biographic Sketch from GSU Anthropology Department website: http://monarch.gsu.edu/anthropology/people/white.html

Samantha Solimeo (Duke)

Dr. Solimeo is a feminist medical anthropologist who studies aging as a
cultural process. She is particularly interested in how our ideas about
growing older come to shape and inform the ways in which we experience our bodies in later life. She has conducted extensive ethnographic research on aging in the case of Parkinson's Disease and is currently at work on a new study of the gendered experience of osteoporosis among older male sufferers. Dr. Solimeo's work integrates theories of embodiment, narrative, and aging with contemporary public health concerns regarding access, utilization, and quality of life. In addition to being an anthropologist, Dr. Solimeo is a Pennsylvania native, a novice knitter, an amateur birdwatcher, and mama.

She is the editor of the Anthropology and Aging Quarterly: http://artsci.wustl.edu/%7Eaage/quarterly.htm

Organized by AAGE (Association of Anthropology and Gerontology): http://artsci.wustl.edu/%7Eaage/

Kaja Finkler (UNC Chapel Hill)

Kaja Finkler is professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Her specialties include Medical Anthropology/ Anthropology of Biomedicine/Comparative Medical Systems/ Gender, Health and Illness/ New Reproductive Technologies/ Family and Kinship/ The New Genetics/ Latin America/ Mexico. Anthropology of Bioethics.

Professor Finkler is the author of five books, including her last one Experiencing the New Genetics. Family and Kinship on the Medical Frontier, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2000.  She has also published numerous articles dealing with her specialties, including the new genetics.

She has done extensive field research in Mexico and the United States. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and department of Health and Human Services., as well as grants from University of North Carolina. 

She has lectured extensively in various parts of the world, including Australia, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Sweden, England and Israel. 

Women in Pain: Gender and Morbidity in Mexico by Kaja Finkler http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/590.html

Experiencing the New Genetics: Family and Kinship on the Medical Frontier by Kaja Finkler http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/13382.html

UNC Chapel Hill website info: http://anthropology.unc.edu/people/faculty/faculty.2005-09-30.6828412942

Patricia Whelehan (SUNY Potsdam)

AIDS Education Group of SUNY Potsdam (Dr. Whelehan maintains this site.) http://www2.potsdam.edu/aeg/index.html

An Anthropological Perspective on Prostitution The World's Oldest Profession by Dr. Whelehan: http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=609&pc=9

Joan Paluzzi (UNC Greensboro)

Worked for Partners in Health for 3 years: PIH website: http://www.pih.org/index.html

Co-edited 2 volumes related to Millennium Project: http://styluspub.com/books/AuthorDetail.aspx?id=9835