Kearsley Stewart

Senior Lecturer (Ph.D. Florida 2000)
1810 Hinman Avenue, Room #A56
(847) 491-4830
kstewart@northwestern.edu
http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/anthropology/stewart

RESEARCH INTERESTS

1. Medical Anthropology
2. Applied Anthropology
3. HIV/AIDS
4. Global Health
5. Interdisciplinary health research
6. Video
7. United States
8. Africa (Uganda and Ghana)

Kearsley A. Stewart (Ph.D. 2000, University of Florida) is Senior Lecturer in Medical Anthropology. She teaches courses on HIV/AIDS, Global Health Theory, Global Bioethics, Gender and Global Health, Medical Anthropology, Visual Anthropology and Africa. She is a research specialist in the theory and practice of Global Health and recently co-sponsored a workshop on “Moral Experience in Global Health” with colleagues at Harvard and Boston Universities. Those papers will appear in a special issue of The Lancet next year. She helped to create a new minor, Global Health, which is now the largest minor in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. In Spring 2008 she will lead a group of 14 Northwestern undergraduates on a Global Health study abroad program in Uganda. Most recently, Stewart was a David Bell Fellow at the Center for Population and Development Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health (2005-2007). She was a member of the 2002 inaugural group of the Fulbright New Century scholars. Her Fulbright project was an ethnographic study of a HIV/AIDS clinical trial from the perspective of the study participants in rural Uganda. From 1999-2002, Stewart was a consulting medical anthropologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on a project to study adherence of newly-diagnosed HIV patients to anti-retroviral treatment. As a member of the CDC interdisciplinary team, she conducted ethnographic research to improve adherence to antiretroviral therapies. Her dissertation work, on adolescent HIV voluntary testing and counseling in Uganda, was supported by grants from NIMH and NSF, and findings led to a change in national policy which extended VTC to rural areas and for youth. She is also working on a full-length documentary of the revival of glass bead production in Ghana, which recently won three awards at independent film festivals in the U.S. Her website contains links to her research, as well as streaming video from student projects. http://www.depot.northwestern.edu/projects/stewart/

CURRENT PROJECTS

• Ethnographic study of HIV/AIDS clinical trails in Uganda.
• Listserv discussion group with over 40 Ugandan health professionals on global health research ethics.
• With UIC colleagues Richard David and Ama Korateng, study of African-born women with low-birth weight babies delivered at Chicago’s Stroger Cook County hospital.
• With Northwestern colleagues David Schoenbrun and Harlan Wallach, a multimedia project on the global trade in glass trade beads.

RECENT COURSES TAUGHT

1. 101 – Freshman Seminar – HIV/AIDS: a Global Perspective
2. 315 – Medical Anthropology
3. 320 – Peoples of Africa
4. 390 – Topics in Anthropology – The Anthropology of HIV/AIDS
5. GBL HLTH 303 – Gender and Global Health: Beyond Reproduction
6. GBL HLTH 302 – Global Bioethics

7. GBL HTLH 390 – Theories of Global Health

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

2006 "Transforming Biomedical and Social Scientific HIV/AIDS Research in Africa: Is a Human Rights Framework the Answer?" Human Rights Review. Vol. 7, no. 2 (Jan-Mar): 130-136.

2004    "Pastoral Care Following Pregnancy Loss: The Role of Ritual." The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling. Spring/Summer 58 (1-2): 41-53.

2002    "Care and Caring: Patients’ Perceptions of Relationships with their Healthcare Providers as Supporting or Hindering HAART Adherence", XIV International AIDS Conference, Barcelona, 7-12 July.

2001    "Towards a Historical Perspective on Sexuality in Uganda: The Reproductive Lifeline Technique for Grandmothers and their Daughters". Africa Today 47, ¾: 122-148.

2000    "Predictors of Early Failure of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART)", XIII International AIDS Conference, Durban, 9-14 July.

2000    "Socioeconomic Determinants of HIV/AIDS in Adolescents in Rural Western Uganda." Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Florida.

1999    "Confronting Stereotypes about HIV/ADIS and Africans". In Misty L. Bastian and Jane L. Parpart (eds.) Great Ideas for Teaching about Africa (Lynne Rienner Publishers: Boulder, CO. 89-101. CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 1999 in field of Education.