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Arachu Castro

Associate Professor - Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America

Arachu Castro, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America at Tulane University and Senior Research Affiliate at CIPR. Her major interests are how social inequalities are embodied as differential risk for pathologies common among the poor and how health policies may alter the course of epidemic disease and other pathologies afflicting populations living in poverty. As a medical anthropologist trained in public health, Dr. Castro works mostly on health systems responses to infectious disease and women’s health in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has worked in Mexico, Argentina, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Prior to joining Tulane in 2013, she was Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Senior Advisor for Mexico and Guatemala at Partners In Health, and Medical Anthropologist in the Division of Global Health Equity in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Among other awards, Dr. Castro is the recipient of the 2005 Rudolf Virchow Award of the Society for Medical Anthropology and the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on Women and AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2012, she was named Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology. She has worked as consultant for PAHO, WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNDP, and the World Bank. More information here.

Contact Info
acastro1@tulane.edu

Degrees

M.A., University of Barcelona, History/Social Anthropology, 1998
R.D., Polytechnic Institute, Barcelona, Nutrition, 1989
M.A., École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Social Anthropology & Ethnology, Paris, 1992
Ph.D., EHESS, Social Anthropology & Ethnology, 1996
Ph.D., University of Barcelona with credits from University of California, Berkeley, Sociology, 1997
MPH, Harvard School of Public Health, International Health, 1998

Academic Experience

Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America, Tulane University, 2013-
Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, 2011-2012
Assistant Professor of Social Medicine Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, 2004-11
Instructor in Medical Anthropology, Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, 2001-04

Research & Teaching Specializations: Infectious disease, women's health, primary health care in low-and middle-income settings, social inequality, health policy, medical anthropology, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Related Experience

Consultant, World Bank, 2013-
Consultant, UNDP Regional Center for Latin America and The Caribbean
Consultant, UNICEF, 2007- (intermittent)
Consultant, Pan American Health Organization, 2001-2011 (intermittent)
Medical Anthropologist, Division of Global Health Equity, Dept. Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, 2004-2012
Secretary-Treasurer, Society for Medical Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, 2003-06
Mexico and Guatemala Projects Director, Partners In Health, Boston, 2001-08
Chair, Critical Anthropology of Health Caucus, Society for Medical Anthropology, 1998-2002

Distinctions

Fellow, Society for Applied Anthropology, 2012
Guggenheim Fellowship, Medicine and Health, United States and Canada Competition, 2010
Burke Global Health Fellowship, Harvard Initiative for Global Health, 2009
Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar Chair in Latin American Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, 2009
Rudolf Virchow Award, Professional Prize, Critical Anthropology of Health Caucus, Society for Medical Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, 2005
Dean's Letter, Excellence in Teaching (Freshman seminar), Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, 2005
Conmemorative Medal for the Centenary of Professor Pedro Kourí. Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí. Havana, Cuba, 2001

Languages: English, Spanish, French, Catalan, Portuguese, Haitian Creole (basic)

Selected Publications

2013. "Health insurance for the poor decreases access to HIV testing in antenatal care: Evidence of an unintended effect of health insurance reform in Colombia." With Allison Ettenger and Till Bärnighausen. Health Policy and Planning 1-7; doi: 10.1093/heapol/czt021
2012. “Quality of Life of People with HIV/AIDS Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Cuba: A Cross-Sectional Study of the National Population.” With Carlos Aragonés-López, Jorge Pérez-Ávila, and Mary C. Smith Fawzi. American Journal of Public Health 102(5):884-892.
2011. Análisis Regional Consolidado de los Informes UNGASS Presentados por 17 Países de América Latina en 2011. Panama: UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Latin America.
2011. "En estado de buena esperanza: Análisis de la experiencia reproductiva en mujeres con VIH en Cuba." In Jesús Armando Haro (ed.) El planteamiento de una epidemiología sociocultural: Un diálogo en torno a su sentido, métodos y alcances. Buenos Aires: Lugar Editorial and El Colegio de Sonora.
2010. "Social Inequalities and Dengue Transmission in Latin America." With Yasmin Khawja and James Johnston. In Plagues and Epidemics: Infected Spaces Past and Present. Eds. Ann Herring and Alan Swedlund. New York, Oxford: Berg Publishers, pp. 231-249.
2009. (Ed.) Challenges Posed by the HIV Epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean 2009. Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNAIDS.
2009. "Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean," in Challenges Posed by the HIV Epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean 2009. Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNAIDS.
2004. (Ed.) Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination. With Merrill Singer. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.