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DAVID SEAN SIMMONS, Ph.D.
with a dual position in: Department of Anthropology & Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior Office - Hamilton 311 Office Hours: Phone: 777-2321 or 777-6500 Email: dsimmons@gwm.sc.edu "And he that was never yet connected with his poorer neighbor, by deeds of charity or love, may one day find, when it is too late, that he is connected with him by a bond which may bring them both, at once, to a common grave." I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology at Michigan State University (2002), conducting research in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. My dissertation entitled, "Managing Misfortune: HIV/AIDS, Health Development, and Traditional Healers in Zimbabwe," chronicled the social responses of traditional healers to HIV/AIDS, grounding ethnographic detail in an analysis that also drew from the fields of history, political economy, and epidemiology. It explored how HIV/AIDS, a new disease, fit into longstanding forms of structural violence and into longstanding ways of making meaning. I used historical sources, ethnography, as well as structured interviews to get at healers' sense making of, and treatment strategies for, the disease, especially in the context of sweeping historical change. My findings demonstrate that healers can be important collaborators in efforts to combat pandemics and that we ignore them at our own peril. My current research focuses on the relationship between human rights abuses and health outcomes for Haitian agricultural workers, or braceros, in the Dominican Republic. This work is sponsored through the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School and builds on my intersecting interests in health and the social determinants that undergird it. My sponsoring scientist is Dr. Paul Farmer, who also served on my dissertation guidance committee. My work focuses on the population of braceros who live on the bateys, usually cane cutting communities that have developed around the country's sugar plantations. Through my fieldwork experiences in the Dominican Republic, I have established collaborative research agendas with a broad array of Dominican, Haitian, and American colleagues and students. These projects will address interrelated legal, political, economic, and social aspects of Haitian braceros' experience in several regions of the Dominican Republic and what role these play in the dynamics of health and disease with this population. In effect, these multidisciplinary projects will: 1) develop new models and methodologies for studying the relationship between human rights abuses and health, 2) train future generations of Dominican, Haitian, and U.S. academics and professionals, and 3) provide concrete strategies for actualizing interventions for this very vulnerable population of laborers. Not one to believe that truth spoken to power stops at the academy's doors, I have also founded a non-profit organization, Zanmi Batey ("Friend of the Batey" in Haitian Kreyol), that seeks to bring humanitarian aid to braceros living and working in the Cibao Region of the Dominican Republic. On behalf of my efforts in working with this population, I have been awarded the Distinguished American Citizen Award (2002) from the American Embassy in Santo Domingo as well as the Joseph F. Wall Sequicentennial Service Award (2004) from Grinnell College. Selected Publications and Recent Presentations Courses Taught Medical Anthropology Medical Anthropology: Fieldwork Current Trends in Developing World Health Introduction to Anthropology Ethics Health and Spirituality Links of Interest A listing of international jobs by profession and location. http://www.escapeartist.com/jobs International volunteer programs with an emphasis on cultural immersion and experience. http://www.Crossculturalsolutions.org A database of 5,000-plus artistic internships, environmental excursions, and animal and wildlife programs. http://www.Interimprograms.com A database of more than 50 immersion programs. http://www.Languagesabroad.com A directory for studying, teaching, volunteering, and adventuring abroad. http://www.Goabroad.com |
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