After two graduate degrees, I still can’t get enough of research and learning. Every day I appreciate my intense methods training and the time I spent in academia, although the world of design research and strategy  is a perfect fit for my action-oriented temperament!

 

I studied and conducted interdisciplinary research, combining anthropology and psychology to study beliefs about health and healing across cultures, in university and graduate school for almost 10 years. During this time I also helped set up the Global Health program and coordinated a year-long interdisciplinary lecture series.

 

My field research took place in Chicago and in the Andes mountains of Bolivia and Peru, where I worked with indigenous Aymara communities. In this setting, I looked at cultural interpretations of chronic pain and illness, and how the social and emotional dimensions of life were understood to impact the physical body. My academic work led to two M.A. degrees at the University of Chicago (as well as ABD status for a PhD program).

 

I wrote about my early fieldwork experiences for the journal  Anthropology Now’s blog (link)