Rebecca Upton
Department/Office Information
Global Public and Environmental Health, Africana and Latin American Studies,- MW 11:15am - 12:15pm (130 Ho Science)
- R 1:00pm - 2:30pm (130 Ho Science)
I am a medical anthropologist and global health scholar and am committed to research in southern Africa on issues of gender, migration, reproductive health and the implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. My work has been supported over the years by the J. William Fulbright foundation and the Andrew Mellon foundation among others, for original field research in Botswana on the intersections between culture and health in an era of HIV/AIDS in southern Africa. I continue to focus on fertility, reproductive health, and the implications for HIV/AIDS prevention, health disparities and economic policies in southern African contexts. My recent projects include an investigation of the ethics of ARV (anti-retroviral) care for HIV+ Zimbabwean refugees in Dukwi, Botswana and the politics of transnational 鈥榝ertility migrants鈥 who seek ART (assisted reproductive technologies) throughout southern Africa. I am currently planning research on gender, memory and global environmental health in Micronesia where I grew up.
B.A. 冈本视频 ~ 1992 Sociology & Anthropology and Africana Studies (Honors and High Honors)
M.A. Brown University ~ 1994 Anthropology ~ Thesis title: 鈥淢aking Ends Meet: Networks of Care Among Women of Color in New Orleans鈥
Ph.D. Brown University ~ 1999 Medical Anthropology ~ Dissertation title: 鈥淥ur Blood Does Not Agree: Negotiating Infertility in Northern Botswana鈥
M.P.H. Emory University ~ 2014 Prevention Science ~ Thesis title: 鈥淧erceptions of Risk and the Management of Miscarriage Among Underserved Populations and Health Care Providers in Indiana: A Case Study Perspective鈥
As a professor of Sociology and Anthropology and in Global Health, I teach a range of courses including an Introduction to Anthropology, An Introduction to Africana Studies; Culture, Medicine & Health: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology, The Anthropology of Death, The Anthropology of Gender, American Culture, the History of Anthropological Theory, The Idea of Africa in Museum Studies, and Public Health in Africa. I teach a range of first-year seminar courses such as Tattoo, Torture and Adornment in Cross Cultural Context and an Interdisciplinary course on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic. Together with a collaborator and colleague in BioChemistry I built the interdisciplinary program in Global Health at DePauw University for undergraduate majors and regularly teach Introduction to Global Health courses and Senior Seminar: Epidemics and Inequalities. I am also an Affiliated Faculty member at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and teach the core required course, Qualitative Research Methods for public health graduate students and regularly oversee graduate thesis projects and practica.
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
2016 Upton, Rebecca L. Negotiating Work, Family, and Identity among Long-Haul Christian Truck Drivers: What Would Jesus Haul? Lexington Books: Rowman & Littlefield Press. [reviewed in the American Journal of Sociology Vol. 124 No. 3 Nov 2018 pp. 982-984]
2021 Upton, Rebecca L. Our Blood Does Not Agree: An Ethnography of HIV/AIDS Prevention Programs in Botswana, Oxford University Press, special series on Globalization. (forthcoming)
2021 Upton, Rebecca L. Women鈥檚 Livelihoods and Gendered Resistance in Botswana: Patterns and Production in Women鈥檚 Basketry Cooperatives. Routledge Press. (forthcoming)
2021 Upton, Rebecca L., Emma J. Broming, Lee O. Upton. Women Entrepreneurs and Social Networks: Promises and Pitfalls in the Work/Family Balance. Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield. (forthcoming)
Peer Reviewed and Invited Articles:
2020 Upton, Rebecca L. Pink Permits and Reproductive Products: Transnational Fertility Migrants and the Invisible Impacts of COVID-19 Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 19 June 2020. http://medanthroquarterly.org/2020/06/19/pink-permits-and-reproductive- products-transnational-fertility-migrants-and-the-invisible-impacts-of-covid-19/
2020 Upton, Rebecca L. Global Health at the Local Level: Innovative Approaches for Preventing HIV/AIDS Among Adolescent Girls in Botswana 鈥 Evidence from an Evaluation Study on Perceptions of Cross Generational Sex and Edu-tainment Strategies, In Reinventing and Reinvesting in the Local for Our Common Good. Brian Hoey, ed.University of Tennessee Press. Pp. 99-123
2019 Upton, Rebecca L., Emma J. Broming, and Lee O. Upton. Nascent Women Entrepreneurs and the Influence of Social Networks on Small Business Outcomes. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development. Vol. 7 No. 1. Pp. 1-17. June.
2019 Upton, R.L. A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Miscarriage from Patients and Providers in the Rural U.S. Journal of Community and Public Health Nursing. 5:1. DOI: 4172/2471-9846.1000224
2019 Upton, Rebecca L. Illness and Healing: Africanist Anthropology. In A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa, Roy Richard Grinker, Stephen C. Lubkemann, Christopher Steiner and Euclides Gon莽alves, eds. Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 97-117.
2018 Upton, Rebecca L. Perceptions of Infertility as a Barrier to Cervical Cancer Screening in Rural Botswana: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Community Medicine and Health Education 8: 634. DOI:10.4172/2161-0711.1000634
2017 Upton, Rebecca L. The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream. By Steve Viscelli. In Contemporary Sociology. Volume: 46 issue: 6, page(s): 723-725.
2017 Upton, Rebecca L. ARV Adherence vs. Cultural Compliance: HIV/AIDS Drug Therapy and Decision-Making among PLWHA in Rural Botswana. Journal of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases. 3:1-6.
2017 Upton, Rebecca L. Tortoise Knees and Giraffe Tears: Patterns, Production, and Resistance in a Women鈥檚 Basketry Cooperative in Botswana. In Innovation, Transformation and Sustainable Futures in Africa: Proceedings. Dakar, Senegal. June 1- 4, 2016. American Anthropological Association. ISBN: 978-931303-58-3.
2016 Upton, Rebecca L. Fat Eggs and Fit Bodies. Contexts. Journal of the American Sociological Association. Vol. 15., No. 4, pp. 24-29. Fall.
2015 Upton, R.L. HIV Prevention, Infertility and Concordance in Partner Selection Among Couples Living with HIV/AIDS in Rural and Peri-Urban Contexts in Botswana. Journal of AIDS and Clinical Research 6:526. November. doi:10.4172/2155-6113.1000526
2015 Upton, Rebecca L. What Would Jesus Haul? Home, Work and the Politics of Masculinity Among Christian Long-Haul Truck Drivers. In Work and Family in the New Economy. Samantha K. Ammons and Erin L. Kelly eds. Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 26, pp. 101-126. U.K.: Emerald Publishing.
2012 Upton, Rebecca L. Using Fertility, Useful Infertility: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Value of Children. In The End of Children: Changing Trends in Childbearing and Childhood. Graham Allen and Nathanael Lauster eds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, pp. 54-69.
2011 Upton, Rebecca L. Pedagogy of the Obsessed: IVF and How the Search for Fertility Affects a Feminist Self in the Classroom. In Maternal Pedagogies, Fiona Green and Deborah Byrd eds. Demeter Press. pp. 30-39.
2011 Upton, Rebecca L. Gender. Oxford University Press Online Bibliography in Anthropology, John L. Jackson editor. Oxford Bibliographies.
2011 Upton, R. L. Sterility and Stigma in an Era of HIV/AIDS: Narratives of Risk Assessment Among Men and Women in Botswana. African J of Reproductive Health. 15(1): 95-102.
2010 Upton, Rebecca L. Promising the Permanent Condom: Fertility Fears and Fatal Outcomes as a Result of Voluntary Adult Male Circumcision in HIV/AIDS Botswana. PULA: Journal of Research in Botswana. 24(1): 101-117.
2010 Upton, Rebecca L. Fat Eggs: Gender and Fertility as Factors in HIV/AIDS Prevention in Botswana. Gender & Development. Nov. 18:3. Special Issue on Food, pp.515-24.
2010 Upton, Rebecca L. and Sallie S. Han. (orig. 2003). Maternity and Its Discontents: 鈥淕etting the Body Back鈥 After Pregnancy. Reprinted inSociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life Readings, 8th ed., edited by David M. Newman and Jodi O鈥橞rien. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. pp. 127-133.
2006 Upton, Rebecca L. Women Have No Tribe: Connecting Carework, Gender and Migration in an Era of HIV/AIDS in Botswana in Global Dimensions of Gender and Carework. Mary K. Zimmerman, Jacquelyn S. Litt, and Christine E. Bose eds. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 277-286.
2004 Upton, Rebecca L. The Tswana. In Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. C. Ember and M. Ember eds. New York: Human Relations Area Files/Kluwer Press. pp. 922-930.
2003 Upton, Rebecca L. and Sallie S. Han. Maternity and Its Discontents: 鈥楪etting the Body Back鈥 After Pregnancy. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. Vol. 32 No. 6 December. pp.670-93.
2003 Upton, Rebecca L. Women Have No Tribe: Connecting Carework, Gender and Migration in an Era of HIV/AIDS in Botswana. Gender and Society, special issue on Global Perspectives on Gender and Carework. Vol. 17 No. 2 April pp. 314-322.
2002 Upton, Rebecca L. Perceptions of Male Infertility and Connections with the HIV Virus: Implications for Female Reproductive Health in Northern Botswana. African Journal of Reproductive Health. Vol. 6 No. 3 December pp. 103-111.
2001 Upton, Rebecca L. Infertility Makes You Invisible: Gender, Health and the Negotiation of Childbearing in Northern Botswana. Journal of Southern African Studies. Vol. 27 No. 2. pp. 349-362.
1996 Upton, Rebecca L. Negotiating the 鈥楢wkward Relationship鈥: Discourse on Gender and Medicine in Sub-Saharan Africa. Crosscurrents: Journal of Graduate Research in Anthropology Volume VIII, August. pp. 49-57.
1995 Upton, Rebecca L. Women鈥檚 Solidarity and Struggles in Nigeria. Journal of Third World Affairs. Providence, Center for the Comparative Study of Development, Watson Institute for International Research. Spring. pp.8-12.
Additional Publication:
2014 Upton, Rebecca L. The Language We Use (Regarding my letter from Shutterfly.com). online publication/blogpost for Mothering in the Middle, Cyma Shapiro, ed. July 5, 2014 access at: http://www.motheringinthemiddle.com/?s=Upton
Book Reviews:
2019 Upton, Rebecca L. Book review of Medicine in the Meantime: The Work of Care in Mozambique. by Ramah McKay, Duke University Press. Anthropological Quarterly. Vol. 92, No. 2, p. 597鈥600, ISSN 0003-5491
2014 Upton, Rebecca L. Book review of Globalization and Transnational Surrogacy in India: Outsourcing Life edited by Sayantani DasGupta and Shamita Das DasGupta. Gender & Society first published on November 14, 2014 as doi:10.1177/0891243214559415
2009 Upton, Rebecca L. Book review of Civilizing Women: British Crusades in Colonial Sudan. by Janice Boddy, Princeton Univ. Press Anthropological Quarterly 82:3 p. 865-68.
2003 Upton, Rebecca L. Book review of Stress and Resilience: The Social Context of Reproduction in Central Harlem. Leith Mullings and Alaka Wali. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. American Ethnologist. Vol. 30 No. 3 August pp. 471-2.
2001 Upton, Rebecca L. Book Review of Tricksters and Trancers: Bushman Religion and Society. Mathias Guenther. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1999. Africa Today. Vol. 47 No. 3 4. Pp. 193-195.
1999 Upton, Rebecca L. Book Review of Gender, Population and Politics: Demographic Change in Rural North India. Roger Jefferey and Patricia Jefferey. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1997. American Anthropologist. Vol. 102. No. 2 June Pp. 395-6.
2020 Visiting Distinguished Professor ~ A. Lindsay O鈥機onnor Chair of American Institutions ~ Sociology & Anthropology and Africana and Latin American Studies, 冈本视频
2020 J. William Fulbright US Scholar Lecturing/Research Fellow - University of Botswana, Centre for the Study of HIV/AIDS (delayed due to COVID-19)
2016 Kranbuehl, Roberts, Hilger Endowed Faculty Award 鈥淎 Pre-test Trial of the Pill Count Measurement (PCM) Instrument to Assess ARV Adherence in Botswana鈥
2016 Faculty Innovation Grant 鈥 鈥淧ower, Privilege & Diversity: Developing Pedagogy and Practice in Global Health 鈥 a Guide to Resources鈥. DePauw University
2016 Project consultant on grant for Research on Millennial Women Entrepreneurs from the National Women鈥檚 Business Council SBAHQ-16-Q-0050 Submitted with Premier Quantitative Consulting, Inc., Emma J. Broming (PI) DUNS Number: 079240061 National Women鈥檚 Business Council (awarded May 2016)
2015 Edwin J. Minar Award for Scholarship - in recognition of exceptional scholarly achievement 鈥 one faculty award per year, DePauw University
2014 Project grant for Social Network Analysis and Women Entrepreneurs from the National Women鈥檚 Business Council SBAHQ-14-Q-0042 DUNS Number: 079240061
2013 Carolyn T. Jones Endowed Stipend Award 鈥 DePauw University 鈥 course development for ANTH 390 鈥 Public Health in Africa: Seminar in Community Needs Assessment
2013 Asher Fund Award 鈥 DePauw University 鈥 support for fieldwork in Botswana (January 2014) on the 鈥淓thics and Surveillance Practice of ARV Therapy for Zimbabwean HIV+ Immigrants in the Dukwi Refugee Camp, Francistown, Botswana鈥
2012 鈥淢astering the Art of Public Health: An Anthropologist Goes to the Field of Medicine鈥, New Directions Initiative Grant, Andrew Mellon Foundation and Great Lakes College Association (GLCA)
2009 J. William Fulbright US Scholar Lecturing/Research Fellow-University of Botswana, Centre for the Study of HIV/AIDS and Department of Sociology, 2009-10
2009 Endowed Professor-Edward Myers Dolan Chair in Sociology & Anthropology 2009-14
2008 National Science Foundation (NSF) summer grant participant in Ethnographic Analysis/Qualitative Methods Camp 鈥 July
2007 Faculty/Student Summer grant for research project entitled, 鈥淧erceptions of Sex and Sexual Onset鈥 with Amanda Fenn and Jamie Resseguie (undergraduate student collaborators and PIs), Prindle Institute for Ethics, DePauw University
2004 Faculty/Student Summer grant for research project entitled, 鈥淒ocumenting Lost Lives: Ethnography and Photography in HIV Botswana鈥 with Christopher Reams (undergraduate student collaborator and PI), DePauw University and presented at the American Anthropological Association
2000 Institute for Research on Women and Gender-University of Michigan seed grant
2002 Andrew Mellon Foundation Grant - research on HIV/AIDS, gender, fertility and Changing family structure in Northern Botswana - Population Studies Center, University of Michigan.
1999 - 2003 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship - Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life and the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
2020 "Infertility Makes You Invisible (Especially in a Pandemic): COVID19 and the Impact on Transnational Fertility Migration." Special Session on COVID in the Continent. African Studies Association. Annual Meeting. Washington DC (virtual). November 19-21.
2019 鈥淢otifs and Migrant Worlds: Patterns, Production, and Gendered Resistance in Botswana Basketry鈥, invited paper/session 鈥 American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Vancouver, Canada. November 21.
2018 鈥淔ertility Migrants: Reproduction and Transnational Technologies in Southern Africa鈥. Paper presentation/ session Chair, African Studies Assoc. annual meeting, November 29.
2017 鈥淎RV Adherence vs. Cultural Compliance: HIV/AIDS Drug Therapy and Decision- Making in Botswana鈥. Session on Health, Development and Humanitarian Aid Across Africa. American Anthropological Association. Annual Meeting. November 30.
2017 with Emma J. Broming, 鈥淲omen Entrepreneurs and Social Networks: Promises and Pitfalls in the Work/Family Balance鈥. Session on New Developments in the Study of Inequality and Social Mobility. Midwest Sociological Society. Annual Meeting. April 1.
2016. "Anthropological Interrogations of the UN鈥檚 Sustainable Development Goals鈥, Invited Participant and Session, Africanist Association of the American Anthropological Association. Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, November 16-20.
2016 鈥淭ortoise Knees and Giraffe Tears: Patterns, Production and Resistance in a Women鈥檚 Basketry Cooperative in Botswana鈥. Presented at the African Studies Association/American Anthropological Association meeting in Dakar, Senegal. June 1-4.
2015 鈥淔rom Radio Disease to AIDS Fatigue: The Future of HIV/AIDS and Anthropology in Botswana鈥 AAA invited paper presentation, part of invited session on AIDS and Anthropology: Has the Strange Become too Familiar?. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Denver, CO.
2015 鈥淔reezing the Future Family: The Next Generation of Fertility Policies and Workplace Practices鈥. Paper presented at the Midwest Sociological Society annual meeting.
2014 鈥淔rom Infertility to E-Fertility: Twitter and Transnational Reproductive Migrants in Southern Africa鈥 in invited session on Digital Diasporas: African Migrants, Mediated Communication and Transnational Identities. American Anthropological Association.
2014 鈥淰iolence or Voluntary (Male Circumcision): Colonial Ideology and Contemporary Irony in Tswana Hiv/Aids Prevention鈥, part of the session on Rights vs. Privileges: Health Decisions, at the 57th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association.
2014 鈥淲hat Would Jesus Haul: Work, Family and Masculinity Among Christian Long-Haul Truckers鈥. Invited paper, part of session on Work and Family in the New Economy. Work and Family Research Network conference. New York City.
2013 鈥淭est-tube Transnationalism: Fertility Migrants and Reproductive Refugees in Southern Africa鈥, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, IL.
2013 鈥淲hat Would Jesus Haul? Re-thinking Work and Family Obligations Among Christian Long-Haul Truck Drivers鈥 鈥 Masculinities/Gender and Sexuality session 鈥 American Sociological Association 鈥 New York City, NY.
2013 鈥淭he Conflicts of Cutting: Contemporary Ethics and Historical Ironies of Male Circumcision in Botswana鈥 American Ethnological Society annual meeting, Chicago, IL.
2012 鈥淒iamond (Mines) are a Mother鈥檚 Best Friend: Paradoxical Policies and the Politics of ARV Therapy in Southern Africa鈥, American Anthropological Association annual meeting, invited paper for Politics, Development and Human Rights special session.
2011 鈥淔rom Locusts to Ladies Men: Masculinity and Male Circumcision as HIV/AIDS Prevention in Southern Africa鈥, invited guest speaker at Michigan State University.
Participant and Session, Africanist Association of the American Anthropological Association. Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, November 16-20.
2011 鈥淪terility and Stigma: Narratives of Risk Among Men and Women in HIV/AIDS Botswana鈥, invited guest lecture, Centre for the Study of HIV and AIDS, University of Botswana, Gaborone.
2010 鈥淧romising the Permanent Condom: HIV/AIDS and Voluntary Male Circumcision in Botswana鈥, paper presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, New Orleans, LA.
2010 鈥淗AART Means Women Have No Tribe: Gender, Migration and Caregiving in an Era of Anti-retrovirals in Botswana鈥, paper presented at NHASORC conference, Gaborone, Botswana.
2009 鈥淪ome Ethical Considerations and Implications of HIV/AIDS and Infertility: Sterility and Stigma in the Study of Health Care in Northern Botswana鈥 poster for the conference, Putting a Human Face on Health Care 鈥 University of Botswana/US Navy Medical Center conference, Gaborone, Botswana.
2009 鈥淔rom Initiation to Infertility: Social Factors in the Discourse of Stigma, Sterility and Circumcision Practices Among Young Men in Botswana鈥, Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA) conference, Johannesburg, RSA.
2007 鈥淯seful Fertility, Using Infertility: Cross Cultural Values on the Imperatives of Children鈥 paper presented at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
2007 鈥淭he Next One Changes Everything鈥 鈥 invited paper at the Population Studies Training Center and Departments of Sociology and Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, RI.
2007 鈥淎nxiety on 18 Wheels: Work and Family Obligations Among Long Haul Truck Drivers鈥, Midwest Sociological Society, Chicago, IL.
2006 鈥淔rom Violence to Anti Virals: Dangerous Intersections Between AIDS and Migration in Northern Botswana鈥, American Anthropological Association meeting. San Jose, CA.
2005 鈥淒ocumenting Lost Lives: The Past as Present in HIV/AIDS Botswana鈥. American Anthropological Association meeting, Washington, D.C.
2005 鈥淪ex, Culture, Marriage and Childbearing: Sexual Revolutions Through the 20th Century In the United States鈥, (with Nathanael T. Lauster) Midwest Sociological Society, Minneapolis, MN.
2005 鈥淩edefining and Measuring Sexual Revolutions with Examples from Sweden, US and Africa鈥 poster presentation with Nathanael T. Lauster, Population Association of America.
2004 鈥淓verything I Needed to Know About Myself I Learned at Their Kitchen Table鈥, paperpresented at the Midwest Sociological Society annual meeting, Kansas City, MO.
2003 鈥淧eace-Keeping on the AIDS Frontier: Women and 鈥榃ell-Being鈥 in Northern Botswana鈥 paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Meeting, Chicago, IL.
2003 鈥淵ou Should Know That Already!: Fieldwork and Foolish Questions in American Ethnography鈥, presented at the American Ethnological Society in Providence, RI,
2002 鈥淩esearching Infertility: Imagining Future Research and Agendas鈥. Roundtable presenter and organizer. American Sociological Assocation annual meeting. Chicago, IL..
2002 鈥淚maginable Africa: Place, Theory and Some Ideas About African Identities鈥. Panel Chair and Organizer. American Anthropological Association. New Orleans, LA.
2000 鈥淲hen the Womb has Gone to the Head: Infertility, Mental Illness and the Gendered Construction of Suffering in Northern Botswana鈥. American Anthropological Association meeting. Washington, D.C. Invited Panel, 鈥淪uffering, The Body and Religion.鈥