Newsletter: January 2006
Janelle S. Taylor, Contributing Editor
We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 2005 prize competitions held by the Society for Medical Anthropology and its interest groups, the Critical Anthropology of Health Caucus and the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction. Congratulations!
SMA Awards
The Lifetime Achievement Award has been awarded to George M. Foster (UC Berkeley) for his foundational work in establishing the field of medical anthropology, his creation of the joint medical anthropology program at UC Berkeley and UCSF, and his voluminous writings including classic works on field methods, peasant economics, economic development, applied anthropology, folklore, medicine and public health, and social structure and symbolic systems.
The Practicing Medical Anthropology Award went to Merrill Singer, who was recognized for his pioneering work in critical medical anthropology, his many publications, and his work with the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, CT on issues of drug use among Latino populations.
The Anthropology Graduate Student Mentor Award, created two years ago to recognize excellence in graduate student mentorship and acknowledge the important contributions of medical anthropologists who have provided exceptional guidance and outstanding support to graduate students, goes to Mark Nichter (U Arizona).
The Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, for excellence in research on gender and health, goes to João Biehl (Princeton U) for his book Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment, published by the University of California Press in 2005.
The Steven Polgar Professional Paper Prize for the best paper published in the SMA’s journal Medical Anthropology Quarterly during the most recent complete volume year, has been awarded to Michele Rivkin-Fish (U Kentucky), for her article “’Change Yourself and the Whole World Will Become Kinder’: Russian Activists for Reproductive Health and the Limits of Claims Making for Women,” MAQ 18(3): 281-304.
The Charles Hughes Graduate Student Paper Prize goes to Jennifer Liu (UCSF/UCB) for her essay entitled “Governing Adherence: Medications, HIV, and Power.” Jennifer Liu’s advisor for the paper was Philippe Bourgois. Honourable mentions go to three others: Pierre Minn (McGill U), for “Medical Humanitarianism and Health as Human Right”; Aaron Denham (U Alberta), for “Reconceptualizing Historical Trauma”; and Michael Westerhaus (Harvard U) for “Abandonment through Zones of Inclusion: The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights.”
The WHR Rivers Undergraduate Student Paper Prize goes to Amy Saltzman (Princeton), for her paper “Postpartum Cases: Tadoka and Mental Health.” Amy Saltzman’s advisors on the project were João Biehl and Anne Becker.
Critical Anthropology of Health Caucus, Rudolf Virchow Awards
In the professional category, there will be two awards as they were so closely tied:
(1) Paul Farmer (Harvard U, Partners in Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) and Arachu Castro (Harvard U, Partners in Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital) for “Pearls of the Antilles? Public Health in Haiti and Cuba,” pages 3-28 in Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination, edited by Arachu Castro and Merrill Singer, published by AltaMira Press in 2004.
(2) Joao Biehl (Princeton U) for his article, “The Activist State: Global Pharmaceuticals, AIDS, and Citizenship in Brazil,” Social Text 80, Vol 22(3):105-132, Fall 2004.
In the graduate student category, the award went to Michael Westerhaus (Harvard U) for the paper, “Everyday Violence in Northern Uganda: War, AIDS, and Interventions,” written for a class with Professor Kimberly Theidon while completing master’s studies in medical anthropology. Mr. Westerhaus will return to Harvard Medical School for his final year of training in August 2005.
Council on Anthropology and Reproduction Awards
Most Enduring Edited Collection was awarded to Fetal Subjects, Feminist Positions, edited by Lynn M. Morgan (Mount Holyoke C) and Meredith W. Michaels (Smith C), published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1999.
Best Current Edited Collection was awarded to Consuming Motherhood, edited by Janelle S. Taylor (U Washington), Linda L. Layne (Rensselaer) and Danielle F. Wozniak (U Connecticut), published by Rutgers University Press in 2004.
The Graduate Student Paper Prize has been awarded to Susi Krehbeil (Brown U) for her essay “ ‘Women Do What They Want’: Islam and Permanent Contraception in Northern Tanzania.”
Please send column contributions to the SMA Contributing Editor, Janelle Taylor (jstaylor@u.washington.edu)