Eirik J. Saethre, PhD

Assistant Professor

Office: Saunders Hall 306
Office Hours: click here
Phone: 956-3995
Email: saethre@hawaii.edu

Background
General Interests
Current Research
Selected Publications

Background

I possess a variety of international experience, having visited over seventy countries and studied or taught at universities on four continents. I received my undergraduate degree (MA) in Social Anthropology and Philosophy from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. My dissertation focuses on initiation and interpretation at a Spiritualist camp in Florida, where fieldwork included training to become a medium.

My doctorate in Anthropology was completed at the Australian National University. Living in a remote community in Central Australia for over two years, I examined Aboriginal attitudes toward health, illness, and treatment. After finishing my PhD, I taught anthropology at the University of Alaska Anchorage for three semesters. I was then awarded a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In addition to my teaching duties, I examined the social impact of a clinical trial aimed at HIV prevention in a peri-urban township south of Johannesburg. Before moving to Hawai'i, I lived in New York City, where I was a Visiting Lecturer at Purchase College, S.U.N.Y.

General Interests

Medical Anthropology
Pharmaceuticals
HIV/AIDS
Chronic illness
Biomedical Interventions
Sorcery and Witchcraft
Identity
Aboriginal Australia
South Africa

Current Research

My current research explores local responses to disease, treatment, and medical service provision in culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged settings. My work examines topics such as the ways in which medical narratives are capable of reflecting and creating identity, the importance of lived experience in understanding local perceptions and uses of pharmaceuticals, the impact of poverty on health and health behavior, and the ways in which biomedical interventions acquire meaning within the context of economic and political struggles. I have explored these themes in two long-term projects.

Since 1996, I have examined the complex meanings of health, sickness and treatment in a remote Aboriginal community in Australia's Northern Territory. I believe that while illness narratives employing both local and biomedical disease etiologies and categories (such as diabetes or sorcery) are capable of constructing and reinforcing notions of indigenous identity, it is the lived experience of ill health, poverty, and social relations that often motivates treatment choice. Consequently, the acceptance of biomedical knowledge by Aboriginal people, often a primary component of many government intervention initiatives, does not inevitably lead to a reduction of indigenous health disparities.

Building on the themes of culture, power, and medicine, I began research in South Africa in 2005, where I am working as part of a randomized clinical trial that is evaluating the effectiveness of a vaginal microbicide gel in preventing HIV transmission. This project explores the motivations, experiences, and perceptions of township residents to understand the social impact of international health interventions in developing countries. Specific attention is paid to the ways in which people make sense of, and attribute meaning to, new and innovative medical technologies, particularly pharmaceuticals. The project is conducted in partnership with the Wits Institute for Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV and Related Diseases, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre providing research, training and programmatic service delivery in South Africa.

Selected Publications

2011. Saethre, E.J. 'Demand sharing, nutrition and Warlpiri health: the social and economic strategies of food choice' in Y. Musharbash and M. Barber eds. Ethnography and the production of anthropological knowledge. Essays in honour of Nicolas Peterson. Canberra: ANU E Press. pp. 175-186.

2011. Stadler, J. and E.J. Saethre. Blockage and flow: intimate experiences of condoms and microbicides in a South African clinical trial. Culture, Health & Sexuality 13(1):31-44.

2010. Stadler, J. and E.J. Saethre. Rumors about blood and reimbursements in a microbicide gel trial. African Journal of AIDS Research 9(4):345-353.

2010. Saethre, E.J. and J. Stadler. Gelling medical knowledge: innovative pharmaceuticals, experience, and perceptions of efficacy. Anthropology & Medicine 17(1):99-111.

2009. Saethre, E.J. Medical interactions, complaints, and the construction of Aboriginality in Central Australia. Social Identities 15(6):773-786.

2009. Saethre, E.J. and J. Stadler. A tale of two ‘cultures’: HIV/AIDS risk narratives in South Africa. Medical Anthropology. 28(3):268-284.

2008. Saethre, E.J. 'Medicine' in William Darity ed. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition. vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 63-65.

2007. Saethre, E.J. Close encounters: UFO beliefs in remote Aboriginal Australia. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13(4):901-915.

2007. Saethre, E.J. Conflicting traditions, concurrent treatment: medical pluralism in Aboriginal Australia. Oceania 77(1):95-110.

2007. Saethre, E.J. UFOs, otherness, and belonging: identity in remote Aboriginal Australia. Social Identities 13(2):217-233.

2005. Saethre, E.J. Nutrition, economics and food distribution in an Australian Aboriginal community. Anthropological Forum 15(2):151-169.

page last updated May 8, 2012