A little over a year ago, I landed in Rabat, Morocco to begin fieldwork in the country. Working with a medical anthropologist, Dr. Cortney Hughes Rinker, I studied the palliative care landscape in the country, talking with doctors to learn how to address the healthcare challenges of a rapidly growing, modernizing country. This November, I landed in Tampa, FL at the American Anthropological Association’s 2024 Annual Meeting to present an abstract of our findings together under the title Competing Authority and Palliative Care in Morocco: The Delivery of Care to the Sickest Patients and Shaping the Experience of Terminal Illnesses. The panel itself, titled Interrogating Expertise: Anthropological Perspectives on Praxis was organized in part by a Notre Dame medical anthropologist, Dr. Vania Smith-Oka. The roundtable, consisting of myself and several other anthropologists, unpacked the meaning of expertise within our various projects, ranging from perspectives of international development to museum curation in China to various health-related projects. Through the conference theme of praxis, we discussed the various ways expertise is used in practice-oriented settings and the importance expert roles play in creating policy and building trust in communities.
Since my time in Rabat, I’ve also begun a thesis project on the American Mental Health Crisis, unpacking what it means when we talk about crisis and what is, or isn’t made possible through our perceptions of crisis. The AAA conference was an incredible opportunity to engage with academics doing some of the most exciting work in medical and psychological anthropology, including the ones who appear in my thesis’ growing bibliography. Though I attended several panels, one in particular stands out. Delivered to a full room, a collection of early and late career anthropologists discussed ‘psychotic praxis,’ engaging in experimental discussions on how to re-think anthropological conversations on mental health and neurodivergence. Behind me sat Dr. Byron Good, one of the most well-known psychological anthropologists and himself an institution in the field. Later that day, I was seated next to him and two brilliant, energetic graduate students, listening to his stories and each other’s interests. The next day, I was getting to know Canadian and Swiss researchers over dinner, discussing topics as varied as institutional psychotherapy, mental health crisis, and our own goals and ambitions. Whether over lunch, in the conference hallways, or in late-night conversations, I was able to discuss my project and gain new insights from other anthropologists.
This conference was especially timely as I prepare to graduate from Notre Dame. As I make future plans to continue my research, the opportunity to learn from faculty and students from various graduate programs was incredibly useful, more so because I would be the first to attend graduate school in my family. I’ve learned several lessons about navigating different programs I would not have learned without the level of collaboration and opportunities to network that a conference provides, leaving me excited to pursue further studies in medical and psychological anthropology, mental health, and public health policy.
The conversations I was able to have and the relationships I have been able to form have been invaluable both for my current research, my professional development, and my personal growth, and all of it has been made possible by the unmatched support of the Kellogg Institute. By the time I finished writing down my thoughts, waiting to fly home in the Tampa airport, I had only redoubled my excitement for the work I do.