Charles Klein is an applied medical and urban anthropologist with over 25 years of research experience in Brazil and the United States. Dr. Klein has been part of the faculty at PSU since 2012 and is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department. He has received grants from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright-Hays program, and the Social Science Research Council. His current research focuses on developing Transwomen Connected, a sexual health promotion app for transgender women in the United States, examining intersectional cultural politics in São Paulo, Brazil, and exploring the ways in which epigenetics is transforming the ways we think about health, race and equity. Uniting his work is a commitment to supporting healthy communities through community-engaged research and understanding the complex interactions between public policy, politics and everyday life.
Selected Works:
- Klein, Charles H., Benjamin Junge, & Mitchell, Sean. 2018. “Naming Brazil’s Previously Poor: The 'New Brazilian Middle Class' as an Economic, Political, and Experiential Category." Economic Anthropology 5: 83-95. Sérgio Buarque de Holanda Best Article in Social Sciences, Latin America Studies Association (LASA) Brazil Section 2018 Prize. https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12104
- Sun CJ, Anderson KM, Mayer L, Kuhn T, Klein CH (2019) Findings from formative research to develop a strength-based HIV prevention and sexual health promotion mHealth intervention for transgender women, Transgender Health 4:1, 350–358. https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2019.0032
- Klein, Charles H. 2019. “Flipping the City: Space and Subjectivity in the São Paulo Periphery.” City & Society 31(2): 142-163. https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.12207
- Klein, Charles H. and Milena Mateuzi Carmo. 2019. “I Never Thought This Could Be For Me”: Aspirations, Identities, and Political Engagement among First-Generation College Students in São Paulo.”. International Studies in Sociology of Education 28(3-4): 259-278. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2019.1626261
- Klein, Charles H., Tamara Kuhn, Danielle Huxley, Jamie Kennel, Elizabeth Withers & Carmela Lomonaco. 2017. “Real Talk: Promoting Sexual Health among Black MSM through a Harm Reduction e-Health Program.” JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. https://doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.7933
- Klein, Charles H. 2017. “Opening Up the Echo Chamber: Teaching Cultural Competence in Contentious Times.” Teaching Anthropology 7(1): 54-61; https://doi.org/10.22582/ta.v7i1.466
Courses Taught:
- Anth 103 Introduction to Social/Cultural Anthropology
- Anth 300U The Modern World in Anthropological Perspective
- Anth 304 Social Theory
- Anth 311U Peoples and Cultures of Latin America
- Anth 325U Culture, Health, and Healing
- Anth 333U Anthropology of Food
- Anth 345 Practicing Anthropology
- Anth 415/515 Applied Anthropology
- Anth 416/516 Urban Anthropology
- Anth 425/525 Topics in Medical Anthropology
- Anth 431/531 Topics in Latin American in Ethnography
- Anth 511 Core Seminar in Social and Cultural Anthropology