Featured Faculty Research

Over the past year I have been deeply engaged in collaborative research & training initiatives that bring the resources of Kansas to bear on urgent health challenges in Amazonia. Working alongside Dr. David Robbins of KUMC, we have advanced the “Healthy Rice Study” in Munichis, a longitudinal project that explores how low-glycemic rice can help mitigate the rapid rise of diabetes & metabolic syndrome in the Alto Amazonas region of Peru. This research, carried out with Shawi, Cocama, & Mestizo communities, has revealed both the promise of nutritional intervention & the complex interplay of poverty, food insecurity, & public health.

Equally significant has been the codirection of KUMC’s first medical anthropology field school in the Peruvian Amazon. This pioneering program brought Kansas students into direct dialogue with local families, health workers, & policy officials, allowing them to see how anthropology illuminates the cultural dimensions of illness, resilience, & healing. For many, it was a transformative experience that underscored the value of public anthropology in addressing global health inequities.

Taken together, these initiatives embody what we strive for as Latin Americanists at KU: research that is empirically rigorous, ethically grounded, & committed to improving lives. They also remind us that the frontlines of global health are not abstract spaces but communities like Munichis, where the everyday choices of families intersect with the broader forces of history, development, & care.

Bartholomew C. Dean, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology