Peter Brown
Professor, Anthropology Department
Professor, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health
Director, Center for the Study of Health, Culture and Society
PhD SUNY Stony Brook 1979
Anthropology 215
404-727-5760
antpjb@emory.edu
One of the three founding members of the Anthropology program, Peter Brown came to Emory in 1978. He teaches in both in the Anthropology department as well as in Hubert Department of Global Health in the School of Public Health. He is Director of the Center for Health, Culture and Society, an Emory program that links interdisciplinary efforts between Arts and Sciences with activities in the School of Public Health. Actively involved in the university’s strategic planning in global health, he serves as senior academic adviser for the Emory Global Health Institute. For a decade, he was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Medical Anthropology; he was also president of the General Division of the American Anthropological Association.
Peter Brown’s academic passion is teaching, particularly undergraduates. He is editor or co-editor of three textbooks; two for introductory courses (Applying Anthropology and Applying Cultural Anthropology) and the most commonly used reader in Medical Anthropology (Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology). Over the years he has won several teaching awards at Emory. Brown is extremely proud of the two dozen doctoral students he has worked with and who have completed the PhD program since 1989; he is currently working with a dozen graduate students. In 2007, he designed and became director of an undergraduate minor program: Global Health, Culture and Society at Emory College.
Peter Brown’s long-standing research interest is in culture and health – particularly with the infectious disease malaria and chronic diseases related to obesity. He co-edited The Anthropology of Infectious Disease and more recently Emerging Illnesses and Society. His research primarily deals with sociocultural aspects of malaria and its control, and he serves on a malaria-related Scientific Advisory Committee for the World Health Organization. His work on obesity emphasizes a biocultural as well as a critical medical anthropological. Current research projects cover a wide range of medical anthropological topics, including: global mental health and stigma; male gender and health; the cultural history of international/global health; community partnerships in public health; and the history of medical anthropology.
Courses Taught
ANT 202 Foundations of Cultural Anthropology
ANT 230 Medical Anthropology
ANT 332 Global Health: An Anthropological Perspective (MPH)
ANT 385 Anthropological Perspectives on the Obesity "Epidemic"
ANT 385 Introduction to Global Health
ANT 385 AIDS in Africa through Film
ANT 585 Medical Anthropology
Core Issues in Global Health: Social and Cultural Aspects of Malaria
Core Issues in Global Health: Global Health Issues in the South African Context
Core Issues in Global Health: Global Health Leadership in Historical Perspective
Core Issues in Global Health: Ethnographies of Global Health