Medical Anthropology at Washington University is diverse and wide-ranging.  Faculty members are engaged in exploring a variety of health-related issues in domestic and international contexts.  A common theme linking all of our research is the focus on individuals in population-level context, and the examination of health and illness within networks of family, community, and society.
Bradley Stoner’s work focuses on the interface between anthropology, clinical medicine, and public health.  A physician-anthropologist, Brad’s current research addresses the ethnographic dimensions of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.  He holds a joint appointment in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington Univ. School of Medicine. As a medical anthropologist, Carolyn Sargent has conducted research on reproduction and midwifery, medical decisions, clinical communication, and bioethics. She has worked with local midwives in rural West Africa, in maternity hospitals in the West Indies, West Africa, and in France, and on ethical dilemmas in the practice of biomedicine in the U.S. As a medical anthropologist, Rebecca Lester is interested in cross-cultural psychiatry and the medicalized production of “healthy selves” in different cultural contexts. Peter Benson studies cultural, experiential, and political economic dimensions of suffering and health. He is completing a book on public health issues related to the tobacco industry and farm labor. He is also interested in cultural competency in medical and public health research and practice (see a recent article in PLoS Medicine). Lewis Wall is a OB-GYN surgeon and medical anthropologist specializing in West Africa. Puneet Sahota is currently conducting dissertation field research on the uses and abuses of medical and genetics research among Southwest American Indians.  Her project, focusing on conceptions of research, its applications, and unintended consequences, was funded by NSF and Wenner-Gren Foundation.