The Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Robin Root is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (BA and MA, Chinese Studies); Harvard University (MPH, Population and International Health); and the University of California at Los Angeles (PhD, Anthropology).

Dr. Root's theoretical and applied research in the field of medical anthropology examines the interface between cultural anthropology, political economy, and public health. Using ethnographic and formal qualitative research methods, her work aims to shed light on how individuals negotiate diverse risks, and how communities mediate diverse threats to survival, in light of anthropological theories of risk, globalization, and medicine. These issues are explored through the prism of HIV/AIDS in two contrasting contexts: Malaysia (Southeast Asia) and Swaziland (Southern Africa). The synergy and significance of the projects are indicated in recent calls for work on two underexamined themes in anthropological research: the need for a better understanding of the relationship between resurgent Islam and biomedicine[1] , explored in her Malaysia publications, and of revivalist Christianity in Africa [2] , ongoing in Swaziland.

As a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia, Dr. Root conducted ethnographic research in 18 factories, which the government had labeled high risk for HIV/AIDS, to examine the globalization of biomedical risk discourses in non-western contexts. Her publications describe how a combination of rapid industrialization, Islamic revivalism, and cultural beliefs about women's inherent vulnerabilities converged in factory spaces to produce an imagination of HIV risk that expressed Malaysia's modern anxieties; specifically, new modes of sexual and racial interaction that individuals themselves had to navigate in the absence of trusting social networks. Of one manuscript, a reviewer wrote that "its synthesis of contemporary theoretical work on agency and risk is your unique contribution, and it is a major and welcome one." In October 2007, she received the Steven Polgar Prize, awarded to a professional medical anthropologist for the best paper published in the Society for Medical Anthropology's journal, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, during the most recent complete volume year. The field research was supported by a National Institute of Mental Health AIDS Training Grant.

Dr. Root's current research in rural northern Swaziland explores the structural, sociocultural, and embodied intersections between Revivalist Christianity, poverty, and HIV/AIDS. The research uses household surveys, semi-structured questionnaires, and in-depth interviews with HIV positive individuals, Swazi pastors, traditional healers, clinic physicians and nurses, and AIDS support group leaders to examine: 1) the experience of stigma among individuals living with HIV/AIDS and the implications for prevention and treatment programs, as well as physical safety, economic security, and social life; 2) the roles of faith-based organizations, especially local churches, as complex post-colonial institutions that mediate infectious risks, poverty, and stigma. The latter is a topic of heightened interest in academic and policy arenas since the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and Christian faith-based organizations have become the double-edged sword in the war on AIDS; on the one hand lauded as the future of effective local care and, on the other, indicted as nothing less than a neocolonialist attempt to control the minds, bodies, and sexual/reproductive relationships of people in poor countries.

Her publications also include Harvard Business School case studies. As a result of her ethnographic research in multinational manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, she co-authored case studies with HBS faculty on marketing in Muslim countries. With Rosabeth Moss Kanter, she also co-authored papers on public-private partnerships in the United States. Dr. Root subsequently joined a health care consulting firm where she worked with a research team of physicians and senior executives as the only PhD social scientist to co-author Best Practices publications on hospital and clinical care management that are used nationwide.

Prior to joining the Baruch College faculty, Dr. Root was a Visiting Scholar at New York University in the office of the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. With the associate dean, she launched an initiative to strengthen multidisciplinary HIV/AIDS research collaborations between universities in New York City and South Africa.

Selected Publications

"Social, Verbal, and Physical Forms of Stigma Experienced by Patients Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Northern Swaziland." Submitted to AIDS Care, March 2008.

"Stigma in the Context of Church Participation in Northern Swaziland." Submitted to AIDS Care, March 2008.

"'Controlling Ourselves, By Ourselves': Risk Assemblages on Malaysia's Assembly Lines." Medical Anthropology. Forthcoming August 2008.

Root, Robin and Carole Browner. "Anthropology/Sociology: The Cultural Context of Reproductive Health." Encyclopedia of Public Health. Edited by Kris Heggenhougen. San Diego, CA: Elsevier Inc. 2008. In press.

Root, Robin. "'Mixing' as Social Etiology for AIDS in Malaysia's Multinational Factories." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 20(3):
321-344, 2006.

Root, Robin. "AIDS as Occupational Hazard: Racial Mixing and Historical Space in Malaysia's Multinationals." History and Anthropology 17 (1): 73 - 90, 2006.

Root, Robin and Carole Browner. "Practices of the Pregnant Self: Compliance With and Resistance to Prenatal Norms." Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 25: 195-223, 2001.

Root, Robin and John Quelch. "Managing the Brand: Bayer AG." In Gourville, John; Quelch, John; and Rangan, V & Kasturi, eds., Cases in Health Care Marketing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, pp. 300-317, 2004.

Root, Robin and John Quelch. "Exploiting Market Leadership." In John Quelch, Cases in Strategic Marketing Management: Business Strategies in Muslim Countries. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 82-93, 2001.

Root, Robin and John Quelch. "Achieving International Expansion." In John Quelch, Cases in Strategic Marketing Management: Business Strategies in Muslim Countries. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, pp. 65-81, 2001.

END [1] Lock, Margaret. 2007. Medical Anthropology: Intimations for the Future. In Medical Anthropology: Regional Perspectives and Shared Concerns. F. Saillant and S. Genest, eds. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. [2] Meyer, Birgit. 2004. Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:447-74.

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