Infectious Change: Reinventing Chinese Public Health After an Epidemic
Posted: 10/2/2017 (Local Events)
On Wednesday 4 October 2017, the Medical Anthropology and Global Health Seminar Series is pleased to present:
“Infectious Change: Reinventing Chinese Public Health after an Epidemic”
Katherine Mason, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Brown University
Wednesday October 4, 2017
3:30 – 4:50 PM
Kane Hall, Room 110
Abstract
In this talk, Dr. Mason discusses how the 2003 SARS epidemic led to a transformation in China in how public health is understood, formulated, and performed. She explores how the Chinese public health system, once famous for its grassroots, low-technology approach, was transformed into a globally-oriented, research-based scientific endeavor – and how local communities may be suffering as a result.
Dr. Mason is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Brown University, and is affiliated with the Population Studies and Training Center, and the Program in Science and Technology Studies, both at Brown University. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University. Her research brings together insights from medical anthropology, population health, global health, China studies, and gender studies, among other disciplines. In her work, Mason focuses on understanding how “populations” and “communities” are created and conceptualized, especially in the field of public health, and how people form relationships with these kinds of abstract entities. In 2016, she published her book, titled Infectious Change: Reinventing Chinese Public Health after an Epidemic (Stanford University Press). Mason’s work has appeared in many journals, such as American Ethnologist, Medical Anthropology, Focaal, and The China Journal.
Next speaker: 11 October –Janelle S. Taylor, Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington
“Engaging with Dementia: Friendship and Abandonment at the Margins of Social Personhood”
For more information about the speaker series, please contact the coordinator: Marieke van Eijk (mariev2@uw.edu)
Date: 10/04/2017
Time: 3:30-4:50 PM
Location: Kane Hall, Room 110