ABOUT THE EVENT

A decade ago, an outbreak of Zika virus in northeastern Brazil spurred an international public health emergency. Zika’s urgency came in large part from its link to congenital malformations in thousands of babies born across the Americas, many of whom have grown up with multiple disabilities. In the years since the outbreak, affected families in Brazil, most of whom are racially and economically marginalized, have been working to forge infrastructures of care and  fighting for health justice for their children. In this Think Global event, medical anthropologist Eliza Williamson, PhD, will discuss insights from ten years of research on lived experiences of disability and caregiving in the aftermath of the Zika crisis in Bahia, Brazil. DGHI professors Harris Solomon, PhD, MPH, and Aunchalee Palmquist, PhD will provide comments and lead a discussion on the importance of ethnographic research for global health equity.

SPEAKERS

K. Eliza Williamson, PhD, (moderator), is a medical anthropologist whose research focuses on questions of care in contexts of crisis and social inequality, primarily in Brazil. Eliza is currently finishing a book on disability and the social impacts of the Zika virus epidemic in Bahia, Brazil. Her research has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Fulbright-Hays program, and the Fulbright IIE, among other grants and fellowships. Eliza is currently a Postdoctoral Associate at the DGHI, where she is working with Harris Solomon to establish a research-driven initiative in Global Social Medicine and Health Humanities. 

Aunchalee Palmquist, PhD, MA, IBCLC, is a Thai-American medical anthropologist, with over 20 years of experience applying anthropological theory and methods to advance health equity. Her research related to breastfeeding bridges critical biocultural anthropology and global public health. Dr. Palmquist has previously served on the WHO/UNICEF Global Breastfeeding Collective, the global Emergency Nutrition Network IFE Core Group, and the United States Breastfeeding Committee as Co-Steward of the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Constellation.  

Harris Solomon, PhD, MPH, is interested in the dynamic relations between medicine and everyday social and political life. His most recent work is a book project, entitled Lifelines: The Traffic of Trauma (Duke University Press, 2022), an ethnographic study of road and railway injuries and trauma surgery. Based on his research in the Mumbai trauma ICU, he is writing a collaborative ethnography entitled Distressed Medicine, funded by a National Science Foundation RAPID Award. He situates both his research and teaching at the interdisciplinary intersections of medical anthropology, South Asian studies, science and technology studies, the medical humanities/social medicine, and global health.

This is a hybrid event with both in-person and remote attendance options. Attendance in person is encouraged. Lunch will be available.