Alan Harwood

Alan Harwood is a cultural anthropologist specializing in medical anthropology. After receiving his PhD from Columbia University with field research among the Safwa of Tanzania, he carried out a pioneering study of people's health beliefs and practices in an area of the South Bronx, New York City. An applied project done in association with a neighborhood primary care center, the research resulted in changes in the delivery of health care at the center and at similar facilities nationwide. In addition to articles, Harwood's research has been reported in two monographs, Witchcraft, Sorcery and Social Categories among the Safwa (Oxford University Press for the International African Institute) and Rx: Spiritist As Needed; A Study of a Puerto Rican Community Mental Health Resource (Wiley and Cornell University Press). He also edited Ethnicity and Medical Care (Harvard University Press). For his research in anthropology as applied to medical problems, in 1983 Harwood received the Welcome Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also founding Editor of the Society for Medical Anthropology’s official journal, The Medical Anthropology Quarterly, has served as a Consulting Editor of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, and is currently Editor of the Cambridge University Press’s Series in Medical Anthropology. After serving in several administrative posts at the University, including Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, he retired from the faculty in June, 2002. He will be writing up aspects of earlier studies and has begun historical research on the development of professional anthropology in Britain in the 19th Century.