MIT Anthropology - Faculty Bio - Erica James

ERICA JAMES | Curriculum Vitae

DATE: November 2009

EDUCATION

INSTITUTION	DEGREE	DATE
Harvard University	Ph.D. in Social Anthropology	2003
Harvard University	A.M. in Social Anthropology	1998
Harvard Divinity School	Masters of Theological Studies (M.T.S.)	1995
Princeton University	A.B. in Anthropology	1992

TITLE OF DOCTORAL THESIS:

"The Violence of Misery: 'Insecurity' in Haiti in the 'Democratic' Era"
Advisor: Dr. Arthur Kleinman

FELLOWSHIPS AND HONORS

School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Research Fund	2009
NIH National Loan Repayment Program Funding for Health Disparities Research	2007-2009
Career Enhancement Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Honorable Mention	2007
Mellon Foundation Support for the Study of Science, Technology, and Medicine	2006
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Research Fund	2005
Visiting Scholar, MIT Anthropology Program	2003-2004
NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School	2003-2004
Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching	Spring 2003
Charles Hughes Prize in Anthropology and Mental Health	2002
Cora DuBois Fellowship for Dissertation Completion, Cora DuBois Charitable Trust	2001-2002
NIMH Predoctoral Fellowship, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School	2000-2001
Graduate Student Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs	2000-2001
Mellon Foundation Summer Research Grant	Summer 2000
Teschemacher Fund Research Grant, Department of Anthropology	Summer 2000
SSRC/MacArthur Foundation Fellowship on Peace and Security in a Changing World	1998--2000
Fulbright CIEE Dissertation Fellowship (declined)	1998-1999
Sheldon Travel Fellowship, Harvard University	1998-1999
Teschemacher Fund Travel Grant, Department of Anthropology	1998-1999
Predissertation Research Grant, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School	Fall 1997
Tinker Travel Grant, David Rockfeller Center for Latin American Studies (declined)	Summer 1997
Mellon Foundation Summer Research Grant	1997
Summer Research Grant, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School	1996
Graduate Prize Fellowship, Harvard University	1995-2002

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

2009-present	Associate Professor, MIT
2004-2009	Assistant Professor, MIT

UNPUBLISHED PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

December 2009		"Brokering Bare Life: 'Bureaucraft' and the Social Life of Aid in Haiti," AAA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
September 2009		Panel co-organizer (with Kimberly Theidon), Intervention: The Anthropology of Postconflict Humanitarianism. Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of Interdisciplinarity, Society for Medical Anthropology, Yale University
September 2009		Brokering Bare Life: “Bureaucraft” and the Social Life of Aid in Haiti . Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Celebrating 50 Years of Interdisciplinarity, Society for Medical Anthropology, Yale University
June 2009		"Haiti, Insecurity, and the Politics of Asylum," presented at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York State Office of Mental Health, Orangeburg, NY.
February 2009		Reflections on Anthropological Work in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings. Workshop on the Anthropology of Conflict and Post-Conflict Interventions: Comparative Studies of Post-Conflict Interventions in the Balkans, West Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia. The Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Asia Center, and the Program in Medical Anthropology, Harvard University.
November 2008		Neo-Modern Insecurity in Haiti and the Politics of Asylum. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
May 2008		Charity, Security, and Haitian Health Disparities in Boston. Department of Social Medicine/NIMH Conference, Harvard University.
May 2008		The Politics of Truth, Justice, and Reparations in Democratic Haiti. MIT Minority Faculty Caucus.
February 2008		Witchcraft, Bureaucraft, and the Social Life of (US)AID in Haiti. Department of Anthropology, Yale University.
November 2007		Ruptures, Rights, and Repair: The Politics of Truth in Haiti. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
June 2007		The United States and Haiti: Human Rights, Democracy, and Security. Haitian Multi-Service Center, Dorchester, MA.
December 2006		Ruptures, Rights, and Repair: The Politics of Truth in Haiti. Justice in the Mirror: Law, Culture, and the Making of History Symposium, Yale University.
September 2006		Causes and Consequences of Urban Violence. Haitian Ambassadorial Seminar for Janet A. Sanderson, Office of External Research, Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), U.S. Department of State and National Intelligence Council (NIC).
March 2005		"Deja vu all over again": Gender, Sexuality, and the Politics of Rape in Haiti. MIT Western Hemisphere Project.
May 2004		Phantoms of Lost Liberty: Haiti, Security, and the Politics of Asylum. Department of Social Medicine/NIMH Medical Anthropology Seminar, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
March 2004		Report on the Condition of Haitian Detainees in South Florida. Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network, Boston, MA.
September 2003		Violence in Urban Haiti, Effects of Continued Distress. Haiti Ambassadorial Seminar for James Foley, Office of External Research, Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), U.S. Department of State.
February 2003		The Political Economy of Trauma.Johns Hopkins Department of Anthropology, Baltimore, MD.
November 2002		Gender, Human Rights and Justice in Haiti in the Democratic Era of Insecurity. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
October 2002		The Political Economy of Trauma in Haiti in the Democratic Era of Insecurity. Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture Annual Meeting, Charlottesville, VA.
October 2002		The Politics of Human Rights, Sexuality, and Trauma in Haiti in the Democratic Era of 'Insecurity'. Department of Sociomedical Sciences, at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
April 2002		Healing the Tortured Body in Haiti. Springfield College School of Human Services, Boston, MA.
March 2002		Women, Poverty and 'Insecurity' in Haiti. Committee on the Status of Women Youth Caucus Meeting, United Nations, NYC, NY.
November 2001		The Political Economy of Trauma: The Uses of 'Victims' in Haiti'. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
May 2001		Haunting Ghosts: Madness, Trauma, and Democracy in Haiti. American Ethnological Society Annual Meeting, Montréal, Canada.
April 2001		Madness, Trauma, and Democracy in Haiti. Department of Social Medicine/NIMH Medical Anthropology Seminar, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
November 2000		The Politics of Truth: the Challenges of Research on Social Healing and Reconstruction in Haiti in the Era of 'Insecurity'. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
November 2000		Biomedicine as a Cultural System. Department of Anthropology, College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
November 1999		Truth, Memory, and Gender in Haiti in the 'Democratic' Era. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
August 1999		The Violence of Misery: 'Insecurity' in Haiti in the 'Democratic' Era . Fellows Conference, SSRC/MacArthur Foundation Program on International Peace and Security, New Delhi, India.
October 1998		The Politics and Poetics of Victimization in Haiti in the 'Democratic' Era. Department of History and Anthropology, at the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, MA.
May 1998		The Violence of Misery: 'Insecurity' in Haiti in the 'Democratic' Era. Fellows Conference, SSRC/MacArthur Foundation Program on International Peace and Security, San Salvador, El Salvador.

RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

August 2005 - present		Ad Hoc Member, National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD.
June 2005 - present		Advisory Board Member, Haitian Multi-Service Center, Dorchester, MA.
March 2004		Delegate at the TransAfrica Forum Delegation to evaluate the condition of Haitian detainees in South Florida. http://www.transafricaforum.org/.
September 9-11 2002		NGO Representative for the Bahá'i International Community at the United Nations Department of Public Information 55th Annual DPI/NGO Conference: Rebuilding Societies Emerging from Conflict: A Shared Responsibility, United Nations, NYC, NY.
November 1997		International Observer at the International Tribunal against Violence toward Haitian Women, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Spring 1997		Program Coordinator at the Boston Training for Haitian Health Professionals in Rehabilitation for Victims of Organized Violence. Human Rights Fund, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, held in Boston, MA.
May 1997		International Observer at the National Conference and Professional Training on Rehabilitation for Victims of Organized Violence, Ministry of Justice, Government of Haiti and the Human Rights Fund, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1994-1995		Research Assistant for Professor Kenneth George at the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
1992-present		Practitioner,The Trager ® Approach to Psychophysical Integration, The Trager Institute (www.trager.com), certification in 1998.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

August 2005		Bringing Personal Mentastics to the Tablework, United States Trager Association, 2005 USTA Conference, Beverly, MA.
August 2005		Mentastics Workshops, United States Trager Association, 2005 USTA Conference, Beverly, MA.
April 2005		Reiki Level 1, Sterling Healing Arts, Sterling, MA.
May 2004		Trager Alternatives, The Trager Institute, Gardner, MA.
June 2000		Practitioner I, The Trager Institute, Boylston, MA.
July-August 1999		Human Rights Education, Bahá'i International Community, Trinidad.
Sept.1998-Apr.1999		Cross-Cultural Psychiatry, Mars-Kline Psychiatric Center, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
July 1998		WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
July 1998		Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
June 1998		Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), National Center for PTSD, Veterans Administration, Boston, MA.
April 1998		Anatomy I, The Trager Institute, Boylston, MA.
June 9-19 1997		Boston Training for Haitian Health Professionals on Rehabilitation for Victims of Organized Violence, Boston, MA.
October 1994		Practioner I, The Trager Institute, Boylston, Ma.
March 1994		Anatomy II, The Trager Institute, New York City, NY.
Fall 1992		Anatomy and Physiology, Point Location, and Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine, New England School of Acupuncture, Watertown, MA.

FIELDS OF INTEREST

Medical and Psychiatric Anthropology
Violence, Human Rights, and Justice
Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
Religion and Healing

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

American Ethnological Society
Association of Black Anthropologists
Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
Society for Medical Anthropology
Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy

MIT SERVICE

HASS Overview Committee, 2009-2010
Anthropology Minor Advisor, Spring 2009

LANGUAGES

Haitian Creole: fluent in reading, speaking, writing, and comprehension
French: advanced reading knowledge and intermediate speaking ability
Persian: limited reading knowledge and speaking ability

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