By David Bond PFOA, I’m told, is the slipperiest chemical in existence. Nothing sticks to it, a peculiar quality that found profitable application within the manufacture of plastics. A white, waxy powder first engineered in the 1940s, PFOA helped press Teflon into waterproof fabrics and non-stick kitchenware before being washed away without a thought. PFOA’s unique ability to repel water and grease also came to find widespread use in food packaging, where it lined take-out containers and pastry bags. As shockingly large amounts of this synthetic petrochemical were dumped into the environment ..read more

By Risa Cromer and Sophie Bjork-James Human life in the global coronavirus pandemic is under duress. At the time of our writing, COVID-19 has taken over two hundred thousand lives in the United States and significantly altered everyday life. Medical professionals, grocery clerks, postal workers, and other vital laborers risk their lives each day to help our communities. Public schools are conducting broad experiments in digital learning (or putting teachers, students, and staff at risk) while parents plan and fret. Bodies of peaceful protestors in the streets for Black lives are vulnerable to ..read more

When I took over the Digital Editor position in January and started to plan the year for MAQ online, I couldn’t have imagined what 2020 was going to look like. Now, in the middle of a global health crisis and racial justice revolution, academic journals are examining their complicity in systems of inequality and thinking hard about what work (mostly white) academia should prioritize now. The MAQ Editorial Team has posted a response to current events and  supports organizations such as the Association of Black Anthropologists, which made an important statement against police violence, ant ..read more

By Anthony Wright, Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University, Camden | MAQ Election Year Series A central issue shaping the 2020 electoral debates is the role of public and private interests in the US health care system, and this issue has only grown more important since the emergence of COVID-19. Even during a pandemic that has caused many people to lose their jobs and by extension, their health insurance, Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans continue to call for an end to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Luthi 2020). Democrats, on the other hand, are split between a reformis ..read more

When I took over the Digital Editor position in January and started to plan the year for MAQ online, I couldn’t have imagined what 2020 was going to look like. Now, in the middle of a global health crisis and racial justice revolution, academic journals are examining their complicity in systems of inequality and thinking hard about what work (mostly white) academia should prioritize now. The MAQ Editorial Team has posted a response to current events and  supports organizations such as the Association of Black Anthropologists, which made an important statement against police violence, ant ..read more

By Joe Anderson (Edinburgh) | MAQ Election Year Series As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds, I have watched gun rights organizations like the National Rifle Association (NRA) find a profound sense of justification. I spent a year researching and learning to shoot with gun rights activists in Southern California and was struck by the fact that their reasons for owning firearms were often framed around preparedness for the unknown. While this was often motivated by fear and an accompanying need to protect loved ones, some gun owners delighted in imagining those unknowns, whether they be a violen ..read more

by Rachel Hall-Clifford (Agnes Scott College) and Arachu Castro (Tulane University) Within global health, we rarely discuss gender-based violence that occurs during fieldwork—even among those of us who study gender-based violence.  It becomes a different phenomenon when we have experienced it firsthand. In April 2018, during the Workshop on Ethically Managing Risk in Global Health Fieldwork held in Atlanta USA, participants discussed the many ethical challenges of fieldwork.  As some participants shared accounts of gender-based violence they have endured in the field, it became clear that this ..read more

by Kimberly Theidon (Tufts University) I was pleased to be invited to provide remarks on “#MeToo Meets Global Health: A Call to Action.”  I approach the topic as someone who has been active in addressing campus sexual assault and harassment, and believe that many of the same factors that allow universities to remain sites of gender discrimination and harassment are also present in the global health industry.  From the selection of applicants to the training of practitioners; from the syllabi used to the gatekeepers who make or break careers; from the gendered politics of credibility to the hie ..read more

by Gelya Frank (University of Southern California) The April 2019 Statement by Participants of the Global Health Fieldwork Ethics Workshop led by anthropology and public health scholars Rachel Hall-Clifford (Agnes Scott College) and Arachu Castro (Tulane University) makes a significant contribution to anthropology’s self-awareness as a profession and expectations for ethical conduct.[1] The Statement calls for “increased attention to sexual harassment, sexual assault, and gender-based violence of all forms across global health.”[2] The Statement argues that “Women and people of all gender iden ..read more

by Elizabeth Wirtz (Purdue University) The age of #MeToo calls for not only increased recognition of the pervasiveness of gender-based violence (GBV), but also concerted and sustained efforts to address the causes of and potential solutions to GBV. #MeToo Meets Global Health: A Call to Action exemplifies the type of public and collaborative work that is necessary to move this agenda forward. Centering specifically on experiences of those who engage in global health fieldwork, this statement outlines gendered vulnerabilities that are characteristic of ‘the field.’ Here, I comment on two aspects ..read more