Cassandra White
Associate Professor Anthropology- Education
PhD., Tulane University, 2001
- Specializations
medical anthropology, migration and health, anthropology of the body, urban anthropology, breastfeeding, Brazil, Latin America, gender, racial identity, inequality
- Biography
Cassandra White is a cultural/medical anthropologist whose primary research focus over the last two decades has been on the experiences of people affected by Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) in Brazil and the United States. She has conducted research in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and among first generation migrants to the U.S. on this topic. Dr. White has traveled to and conducted research in Brazil since 1992, and she has directed six Georgia State University study abroad programs/ethnographic field schools in Rio de Janeiro. She conducts research in Rio with student collaborators on urban transformations associated with the World Cup (2014) and Olympic Games (2016). She is also currently conducting research on perceptions of “extended” breastfeeding in the United States among women who breastfeed their children longer than what is often perceived as “normal” in this cultural context.
- Publications
2015 With co-author Carlos Franco-Paredes. Leprosy in the 21st Century. Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 28(1):80-94.
2011 Leprosy Stigma in the Context of International Migration. Invited article for a special issue of Leprosy Review on new ways of conceptualizing and deconstructing stigma. Guest editor: James Staples. Leprosy Review 82(147-154).
2010 with co-authors Clarissa Dias, Valéria Regina Arruda, and Douglas Ribeiro, who were research assistants on the project). Reflecting on Race, Class, and Identity: Brazilians in North Georgia. Southern Anthropologist 35(1):62-81.
2010 Déjà Vu: Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) and Immigration Discourse in the Twenty-First Century United States. Leprosy Review, 81:17-26.
2009 An Uncertain Cure: Living with Leprosy in Rio de Janeiro. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
2008 Iatrogenic Stigma in Outpatient Treatment for Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) in Brazil, Health Education Research 23(1): 25-39.2005 Explaining a Complex Disease Process: Talking to Patients about Leprosy in Brazil. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 19(3):310-330.