ISU Anthropology Professor Travels to Europe for Research Fellowship and International Conferences

Elizabeth Cartwright, professor in Idaho State University’s Department of Anthropology, traveled to the Netherlands, Scotland and England for two international anthropology and global health conferences and a month-long research fellowship.

“This opportunity signifies the high-quality medical anthropology work that is going on here at ISU,” she said. “My work is front and center alongside researchers from the top institutions in the E.U. and the U.S.”

At the University of Amsterdam, Cartwright spent the month of September as a visiting research fellow, working with a team of European medical anthropologists in the university’s Global Health Program. The team’s research focused on a multi-disciplinary research project aimed at understanding how culture, social networks and environment impact how people care for one another during sickness and aging.

The 10-year project works with refugees, the elderly, people with disabilities and other underserved groups in the E.U., Africa, Latin America and Asia. As visiting research scholar at the University of Amsterdam, Cartwright will contribute to research, help train Ph.D. students and work closely with E.U. agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) to modify approaches to caring and self-care amongst the world's most vulnerable populations.

The project acts as an extension of Cartwright’s ongoing clinical anthropology work, which has spanned two decades in hospitals and clinics around the world, most recently in Bolivia and Peru.

While in Europe, Cartwright also attended the Royal Anthropology Institute's Medical Anthropology conference in Edinburgh, Scotland and the World Health Organization's "Re-imagining Global Health" meeting in Sussex, England.

The World Health Organization working group meeting was a two-day event spent formulating policies for the next decade at WHO, focusing on the importance and recognition of self-care. At the Royal Anthropology Institute’s conference, medical anthropologists convened with the goal of assembling new anthropological research on how health is valued today.

Written by: Madison Shumway, College of Arts & Letters intern