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Ann Miles

Ph.D. 1991 Syracuse University

Professor and Undergraduate Advisor Cultural Anthropology 1013 Moore Hall (269) 387-3983

Research Interests

Medical anthropology, gender and family, transnational migration, chronic illness
 

Regional Focus

Ecuador
 

Selected Publications

"Of Butterflies and Wolves: Enacting Lupus Discourse on the Internet." Anthropology and Medicine, April 2009

From Cuenca to Queens: An Anthropological Story of Transnational Migration. University of Texas Press, 2004

"Radio and the Commodification of Natural Medicine in Ecuador." Social Science and Medicine 47(12): 2127-2137, 1998

Women and Economic Change: Andean Perspectives. Ann Miles and Hans Buechler (eds). American Anthropological Association, 1997

A Closer Look

I work primarily in the southern Ecuadorian highland city of Cuenca where I have explored several research projects in the nearly 20 years I have been doing fieldwork. My first and longest project concerns documenting the changing lives of families who first came to the city as rural to urban migrants and now engage in transnational migration to the United States. I am interested in how modernization and globalization change notions of family, gender and identity. My book, From Cuenca to Queens: An Anthropological Story of Transnational Migration (Texas 2004) tells the story of one Ecuadorian family and the ways in which transnational migration is understood by them and how it has altered their lives and perceptions.

Another area of interest of mine is medical anthropology. I am interested primarily in the cultural meanings of illness, medical systems and medical commodities and I have published on these topics in Social Science and Medicine, Medical Anthropology Quarterly and Body and Society. Most recently, I am exploring what I call "emerging chronic illness" in Ecuador. Looking particularly at lupus, an auto-immune disorder, my research seeks to understand how chronic illness is understood and managed in places, like Ecuador, where they are just "emerging" as significant health concerns. My focus is on documenting the lived experience of chronic illness and to understand the impact that it has on individual lives.