Ann Miles

Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D. 1991 Syracuse University

Contact
Moore 1013
(269) 387-3983
Email

Research interests: Medical anthropology, gender and family, transnational migration

Regional focus: Ecuador

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

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.