Margaret Everett: Bio

Research Interests: Health and Migration, Diabetes, Nutrition, Medical Anthropology, Latin American Studies, Health Policy, New Genetics

Projects: Recent and ongoing projects include:

Research Interests: Health and Migration, Diabetes, Nutrition, Medical Anthropology, Latin American Studies, Health Policy, New Genetics

Projects: Recent and ongoing projects include:

1) Community-Based Participatory Research with the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) coalition in north Portland. The HEAL Program is a community-based effort to improve access to healthy food and recreation, led by the Multnomah County Health Department since 2006. My role on the coalition is to assist with the design and implementation of needs assessment and evaluation research to support the coalition in identifying opportunities and barriers for healthy eating and physical activity. The coalition is currently focusing on a healthy retail initiative, working with Latino parents and Latino corner store owners to improve the food environment in the Portsmouth neighborhood.

2) The role of healing in women’s conversion to Pentecostalism in Oaxaca, Mexico. With my colleague, Michelle Ramirez (University of the Sciences, Philadelphia), I am currently researching the role that healing beliefs and practices play in women’s experiences with Pentecostalism. Pentecostal growth has been dramatic in many areas of Latin America, including Mexico, but the role of healing, a central activity for Pentecostals, has been less explored. This is a long-term study is based on interviewing and ethnographic methods.

3) Research on the social determinants of diabetes in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the relationship between local beliefs and practices around diabetes management and the biomedical model. During summer 2007 and 2008 I conducted interviews with diabetics and doctors in a low-income clinic near the city of Oaxaca in order to better understand patient and physician “Explanatory Models” of the disease.

4) Social and cultural implications of the New Genetics. I have written several articles about the rise of genetic privacy concerns in the U.S., including Oregon’s landmark Genetic Privacy Act. The mapping of the human genome has been accompanied by a proliferation of genetic explanations for everything from heart disease to mental illness and has sparked both hope for new medical treatments and anxiety about discrimination and loss of privacy.

Courses Taught:

SOC 463: International Health Inequalities
SOC 330: Sociology of Food Inequalities and Obesity
International Capstone: Health and Migration in Oaxaca (faculty-led study abroad program for PSU seniors)
SOC 410/510: Health, Sustainability and Neighborhoods
ANTH 103: Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 304: Social Theory
ANTH 311u: Peoples and Cultures of Latin America [Latin American Studies]
ANTH 325u: Culture, Health and Healing [Healthy People, Healthy Places]
ANTH 330u: Anthropological Folklore [Popular Culture]
ANTH 415/515: Applied Anthropology
ANTH 416/516: Urban Anthropology
ANTH 425/525: Perspectives in Medical Anthropology
ANTH 511: Core Seminar in Social and Cultural Anthropology
UNST 141: Freshman Inquiry: Ways of Knowing
UNST 240: Introduction to Latin American Studies
UNST 421: Diabetes Awareness and Prevention in Oaxaca, Mexico (summer international capstone)

Curriculum Vita