Elon students Dominique Derbigny, Virginia Rodgers, Glenn Butera, Sarah Seabrook, and Kristen Bulow presented five scholars at the medical anthropology panel on Monday night in Whitley Auditorium. These students were selected by Kim Jones, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, and their peers in the course: Culture, Health and Illness.
After a welcoming statement from Jones, Dominique Derbigny presented Joan Paluzzi (UNC Greensboro faculty member). Paluzzi had returned from a Partners in Health (PIH) weekend conference in Boston with Paul Farmer the night before. Farmer is a renowned Harvard physician and medical anthropologist who has devoted his life to addressing global health disparities. He founded the non-profit organization Partners in Health to support this work. He is also the main subject of the Elon common reading this year, Tracy Kidder’s “Mountains Beyond Mountains”. On Sunday, Oct. 1, shortly before catching her flight back to Greensboro, Paluzzi was able to videotape a short interview with Farmer. She began her presentation by playing his five minute videotaped response for the audience.
Paluzzi’s question was the following: “Students at Elon University and UNCG have read ‘Mountains Beyond Mountains.’ The history of your work, the work of your PIH associates, and our PIH partners around the world engages many of these students in a way that is personally meaningful for them. What advice would you have for a person who is seeking a way to integrate a social justice perspective and social justice action into their lives and careers?”
Paluzzi is an expert in international health and among numerous projects throughout the world, was a co-editor of two volumes put out by the United Nations Millenium Project, which focused on access to healthcare and the worldwide incidence of tuberculosis. Paluzzi’s most recent project was in Venezuela this past summer. She asked the audience about their knowledge regarding what was happening in Venezuela, and responded “They have that crazy president, right?” She went on to explain how media coverage of Hugo Chavez’s recent exploits during a recent session of the United Nations are being portrayed out of cultural and historical context.
Why is Chavez so arrogant? The reality he is coming from is what Paluzzi called “a major social revolution” in Venezuela, a social revolution where 100% literacy is nearly a reality and all citizens are getting access to primary healthcare. She showed slides of octagonal shaped health clinics where in-residence physicians (often from Cuba, which is receiving petrol in return) live in the second floor of these structures, that are dispersed throughout communities (making then within walking distance of people’s homes). Paluzzi explained that this revolution is being funded by petrol dollars. Perhaps the next time we are at the pump, we can be comforted by the knowledge that more babies are alive in Venezuela for some part of what we are paying.
Glenn Butera presented the second speaker, Kaja Finkler (UNC Chapel Hill). Finkler’s texts and numerous articles are standard reading in medical anthropology classes. Finkler told the story of how she came to be a medical anthropologist. She developed a profound interest in Mexico after spending several months there after her undergraduate graduation. She later was trained as a spiritualist healer in Mexico over a period of two
years, during which time she interviewed over 1200 people who had sought spiritualist healing (usually after a lack of relief with biomedical treatments). Finkler explained how experiences of illness are defined within diverse contexts of disease and illness.
Sarah Seabrook presented the third speaker, Cassandra White (Georgia State University). White discussed her work on the experience of patients with Hansen’s Disease (commonly known as Leprosy) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. White interviewed over 40 people with this disease regarding their experience of the social and biological implications of their illness and its treatment. White explained that since leprosy is a disease of the poor, many Brazilian physicians are not properly trained to recognize it. Despite slow but steady social development in Brazil, the socio-economic disparities between the rich and the poor are reflected in medical colleges that have rigorous programs to teach the latest techniques in plastic surgery in a country where in 2004 there were 41 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. However, White also pointed out that this was not true of all Brazilian physicians while showing a slide of a friend and research participant, a physician who recognized and worked to meet the health needs of poor Brazilians.
Krista Bulow presented the fourth speaker, Samantha Solimeo, a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Aging at Duke University. Solimeo discussed her dissertation research on experiences and meaning of Parkinson’s Disease in a community of aging in the Midwest. Solimeo also discussed her current project on the experiences of osteoporosis in elderly men in central North Carolina. Solimeo discussed how the holistic and human-centered approaches of medical anthropology can be applied to better meet the health needs of elders in our own society. A book based on her work on Parkinson’s Disease was accepted for publication just last week!
Virginia Rodgers presented Patrician Whelehan (SUNY Potsdam). Whelehan is a close friend and colleague of Elon faculty member Anne Bolin, who is Ginny’s undergraduate advisor. As Bolin’s research intern, Ginny has assisted with the proofreading the second edition of a text Bolin and Whelehan are currently completing titled: “Perspectives on Human Sexuality.” Whelehan explained how her career as an academic anthropologist and her own life experiences led her to becoming a licensed sex therapist (in CA and NY). In addition to her teaching, research, and university service commitments, Whelehan has a private practice that serves the sexual health counseling needs of her university and the surrounding region. She practices in the rural area of upstate New York, where there are virtually no other practicing sex therapists between Canada
and Syracuse. Whelehan explained that being a sex therapist required that you become comfortable being very straight-forward and open about discussing sex.
Following these discussions of their research, there was a question and answer session, during which time several undergraduates including Ariel White, Kathleen Lance, and Virginia Rodgers all asked substantive questions. Jones, who is also a medical anthropologist, joined her colleagues in this discussion.
The panelists all had lunch with several students, received tours, and spoke in various classes during their visit to our campus. During the course of the day and in subsequent e-mails, they have all expressed how impressed they were with our campus environment and community, and especially with the consistent good manners and sometimes very insightful questions of Elon undergraduates.
Kimberly M. Jones
Assistant Professor of Anthropology