Drugs, Youth, and Policy: Putting Anthropology to Work in Southeast Asia

Drawing from an applied medical anthropology research project conducted for UNICEF Viet Nam, Dr. Hudgins describes her approach to getting the “lay of the land” about children who use drugs, the laws and policies that guide treatment, and the treatment itself. In addition to these topics, she describes her use of ethnographic research to better understand the social meanings of drugs, the impact of compulsory detention and criminalization in the Vietnamese context, the enduring consequences of stigma, and how health practices are steeped in history and political economy. Her focus on health and human rights as a scholar and practitioner inform her findings and conclusions: that determining health goals should be built on a framework of consensus between policy makers, healthcare practitioners, and the patient/sufferer, and that achieving these goals should be participatory in nature.

Dr. Hudgins is trained as an anthropologist with expertise in the theories, methods, and interests of medical anthropology and visual anthropology. She is an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Public Health Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Visiting Research Professor at Rutgers University. In 2017, she co-founded a consultancy firm, Ethnologica. She has worked for clients such as UNICEF Cambodia, UNICEF Viet Nam, Jefferson Hospital, City of Philadelphia, and Scribe Video. Her projects include writing a handbook for Cambodian doctors and nurses on how to treat juveniles who have been sexually or physically abused, understanding the patient experience in urban ER rooms, and understanding the impact of the sweetened-beverage tax on retailers and distributors.

The talk is co-sponsored by the Anthropology Department, Asian Studies Program, and Public Health Program. Upcoming Anthropology in Action Speaker Series events will cover the history and archaeology of confederate monuments, Australian indigenous rights, and illness among farm workers.

Attendance vouchers available