About Me:
Research assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, specializing in medical and political anthropology. Richard Carley Hunt Writing Fellow, (2006-07) with support from the Wenner Gren Foundation. Former assistant professor of anthropology at Elon University, 2000-2005. Author of forthcoming book, Healing the Body Politic, (Rutgers University Press, 2009) which analyzes 25 years of political struggles over health rights in El Salvador, including the successful 2002-03 mobilizations against privatization of the health system.
Sandy received the Peter K. New Prize from the Society for Applied Anthropology, for writings on El Salvador. Since completing the Ph.D. at UNC-CH in 1998, Sandy has also held two post-doctoral awards from the Mellon Foundation, one to study the politics of resurgent tuberculosis epidemics and the other for a project on the occupational risks of immigrant workers, which have led to a number of articles and book chapters.
Sandy was a founder and East Coast coordinator for the National Central America Health Rights Network during the early 1980s, and, from 1987-1990 worked as a free lance journalist from the region, breaking several important stories in the US media on violations of international law on medical neutrality in civil wars. She won the Peter Lisagor Award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1988 for this reporting.
Area(s) of Training
anthropology, applied anthropology, ethnography, medical anthropology, public health
Area(s) of Expertise
international public health, health policy, Latin America, globalization, labor, immigration, energy and sustainability.
Current Area of Employment
University professor and community organizer
