Alexandra Brewis
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Phone: 480-727-9879
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School of Human Evolution and Social Change (SHESC) Room 276 900 S Cady Mall TEMPE, AZ 85287-2402
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Mail code: 2402Campus: Tempe
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Alexandra Brewis (Slade)*, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and Regent's Professor & President’s Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. She is senior editor (Medical Anthropology) for Social Science and Medicine, and recently served as President of the Human Biology Association. As an ASU administrator, she founded the Center for Global Health in 2006 and served as Director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (2010-2017) and Associate Vice President for Social Sciences (2014-2017).
Brewis' research is focused on solutions to complex global health and environmental challenges. Current efforts based on field research coalesce around three primary problems.
- When and how we should - or shouldn't - be tackling the "problem" of "obesity."
- Improving household water insecurity for the millions of households globally that do not have adequate and safe access.
- Reducing unintentional stigma in global health practice.
Trained in human biology, demography, and medical anthropology, she typically works in large, diverse, collaborative teams – including academics in other fields, local communities, international development agencies, and private institutions like hospitals or NGOs. Her projects are based in many parts of the globe, including recently in Ethiopia, Haiti, Zambia, and close to home in Arizona.
Her research program has produced 8 authored books, 5 edited volumes, and over 200 journal articles. One recent book is the prize-winning Lazy, Crazy, and Disgusting: Stigma and the Undoing of Global Health, described in reviews as a "boundary-breaking book that should be required reading for anyone interested in public health, medicine, and anthropology. It stands as an exemplar for public scholarship."
Recognitions include election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Conrad M. Arensberg Award of the American Anthropological Association honoring an individual who has furthered anthropology as a natural science, and the Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award of the Human Biology Association.
Visit Professor Brewis' personal web page for much more detail about her bio/background, lab, research, teaching, and outreach activities.
*Alex prefers to go professionally by Alexandra Brewis, but her legal name is Alexandra Slade. Various hiccups in techno-bureaucracy means her name turns up variously in different systems as Brewis, Brewis Slade (no hyphen), Brewis-Slade (hyphen), and Slade. She happily answers to them all.
- Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Arizona 1992
- M.A. Anthropology, University of Auckland 1988
- B.A. Anthropology, University of Auckland 1986
- Consequences of stigma for health and human biology
- The intersection of poverty, gender, and vulnerability
- Biological, medical, demographic, and nutritional anthropology.
- Social dimensions of weight gain and obesity.
- Biocultural consequences of water insecurity
- Mixed method community-based research design and implementation.
- Program monitoring and evaluation innovation for improved international development implementation in low-resource settings.
- Cross-cultural, comparative, multi-sited research.
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Field experience: Pacific islands (Kiribati, Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji), Mexico (Xalapa, Veracruz, and Mexico-US border towns), the US (rural Georgia, urban Arizona), and clinical settings (Mayo Clinic). Current and recent collaborations in Ethiopia, India, Haiti, and Zambia.
Much of my research activity is based in the Culture, Health and Environment Laboratory (CHELab) which I co-lead with three other anthropologists. Some of our current and recent collaborative research efforts are listed below; more detail on research and training activities in the CHELab detailed at alexbrewis.org. I am always exploring new ideas and collaborations or branching off to learn new skills, so the research foci shifts from year to year. Here are some of our core lab projects that are ongoing efforts:
The Global Ethnohydrology Study is a multi-year transdisciplinary project based in our lab using data collected with local communities from around the globe, drawing on the water expertise of Amber Wutich. The goal is to better theorize how people understand and adapt to the everyday challenges of climate changes, such as getting enough safe water, and to explicate the health and psychological impacts of that struggle. This is one of the primary projects students in our lab collaborate on, learning social science research skills, and also where we test new methods to systematically collect varied forms of cultural data.
Global Impact Collaboratory (GIC) is about testing of new methods how we know when development projects are actually “working” from the perspectives of the people on the ground they are meant to serve. The GIC was designed with Peggy Ochandarena, former Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning at Chemonics International. Our signature test-bed activities conducted in collaboration with USAID projects to date include: coastal Mozambique on climate change adaptation, Haiti on advancing access to justice, the West Bank on gender-based violence, and Zambia on wildlife conservation and community wellbeing. The GIC allows me to experiment with how anthropology can really "make a difference" in real world applications.
HWISE: Household Water Insecurity Experiences is a large international research collaborative examining water insecurity and its impacts across the globe. HWISE is led by funded by Texas A & M geographer Wendy Jepson, and funded by NSF. My research focus is the contexts and consequences of household water sharing, the connections between food and water insecurity, and other stress related health issues associated with insufficient water. I have been partnering in this field research with Haramaya University in Ethiopia. I also serve on the HWISE steering committee with responsibilities for early career mentoring. Much of my collaborations on policy work is in the space.
Rethinking Stigma and Global Health is a major synthetic project that explores how stigma is deployed accidentally and purposefully as a public health tool, using cases of hygiene, mental health, and obesity. This is about revealing the unintended consequences for creating illness and reinforcing poverty around the globe, and identifies strategies to address it. Much of my media/public science communication work is in this area.
Small World/Big Bodies is a cross-cultural, comparative, multi-phased, data-driven study of how and why stigma toward obesity is spreading globally, even as body weights increase, and the consequences of this powerful process. The first community-based phases of the project were in Phoenix, Arizona in 2006-7. To date, we have collected data in 19 countries, and produced three books and myriad journal articles. We recently completed a longitudinal ethnographic study, in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, on the social dimensions of weight loss surgery. Other activities include newer studies of global “fat-talk”, comparing its’ linguistic and social functions and meanings in diverse countries, and local Arizona-based citizen science project on bodies, fat-talk, and aging (both following the lead of linguistic anthropologist Cindi SturtzSreetharan). Other recent activities include completed analyses of large secondary datasets from around the globe, including Norway, Korea, and Guatemala. Much of my student training in research methods in is this area.
Teaching Better Anthropology. Working with multiple colleagues in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, I am engaged in a long-term effort to innovate, test, and improve the teaching of anthropology as a relevant, impactful discipline. This includes collaboration on efforts to test which innovations in courses and training activities can improve structural competency of pre-health students and clarify the long-term impacts of study abroad and other forms of experiential education and how to best advance ethnographic methods training as a field, and developing a Introduction to Anthropology textbook (with me as lead author, with WW Norton Publishers) that reflects and synthesizes recent innovations across the four-fields on how an engaged and responsible anthropology should and can be done. I follow the lead of educational anthropologist Alissa Ruth in much of this work.
For a list of publications, see the CV on the Biography page.
Courses
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 373 | Applying Anthropology |
ASB 373 | Applying Anthropology |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 484 | Internship |
2024 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 443 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
ASB 443 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
SSH 403 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
SSH 403 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 370 | Ethics of Eating |
ASB 370 | Ethics of Eating |
ASB 302 | Ethnographic Field Study |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
2023 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
AML 592 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASM 414 | Urban, Envir & Hlth Challenges |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
2023 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 443 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
ASB 443 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
SSH 403 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
SSH 403 | Cross-Cultrl Studies Glbl Hlth |
ASB 301 | Global History of Health |
ASB 301 | Global History of Health |
ASM 414 | Urban, Envir & Hlth Challenges |
ASM 414 | Urban, Envir & Hlth Challenges |
ASB 353 | Death&Dying Cross-Culturl Prsp |
ASB 353 | Death&Dying Cross-Culturl Prsp |
SOC 353 | Death&Dying Cross-Culturl Prsp |
SOC 353 | Death&Dying Cross-Culturl Prsp |
2023 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2022 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
AML 592 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 305 | Poverty and Global Health |
ASB 305 | Poverty and Global Health |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 373 | Applying Anthropology |
ASB 373 | Applying Anthropology |
2022 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
2022 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 484 | Internship |
2021 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
AML 592 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 484 | Internship |
ASB 394 | Special Topics |
ASB 394 | Special Topics |
2021 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 305 | Poverty and Global Health |
ASB 305 | Poverty and Global Health |
2021 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 584 | Internship |
2020 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 452 | Commnty Partnrshps Global Hlth |
2020 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
2020 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 300 | Food and Culture |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 584 | Internship |
2019 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
ASB 584 | Internship |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 492 | Honors Directed Study |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASM 414 | Urban and Environmental Health |