Arachu Castro, Ph.D., MPH Office Address - The Department of ...

Harvard Medical School 

Curriculum Vitae 

Date Prepared: April 9, 2009 

Name: Arachu Castro, Ph.D., MPH 

Office Address: Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 


641 Huntington Avenue 

Boston, MA 02115 

Work Phone: 617-432-6038 

Work E-Mail: Arachu_Castro@hms.harvard.edu 

Work FAX: 617-432-6045 

Place of Birth: Logroño, Spain 

Education 

1988 M.A. (Licenciada) History/Social Anthropology University of Barcelona, Spain 

1988 R.D. (Técnica) Nutrition Polytechnic Institute, Barcelona, Spain 

1989 Diploma Biostatistics Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain 

1992 M.A. (D.E.A.) Social Anthropology & Ethnology EHESS, Paris, France 

1996 Ph.D. (Docteur) Social Anthropology & Ethnology EHESS, Paris, France 

(Jean-Claude Galey) 

1997 Ph.D. (Doctora) Sociology University of Barcelona, Spain 

(María Jesús Buxó) 

1998 MPH International Health Harvard School of Public Health, Boston 

Graduate Appointments 

1988-92 Research Fellow Anthropology University of Barcelona, Spain 

1991-96 Research Fellow Anthropology Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and 

Centre National de la Recherche 

Scientifique, Paris, France 

Postdoctoral Training 

1996-7 Research Associate Medical Anthropology Centre National de la Recherche 

Scientifique, France 

1997-9 Research International Health University of Barcelona, Spain, based at 

Fellow Abroad Harvard School of Public Health 

1998-9 David E. Bell Reproductive Health and Harvard Center for Population and 

Research Fellow Demography Development Studies, Cambridge 

1999-0 Research Associate International Health Harvard School of Public Health, Boston 

2000-1 Research Fellow Social Medicine Harvard Medical School, Boston 

Faculty Academic Appointments 

2001-04 Instructor in Medical Anthropology Harvard Medical School, Boston 

Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 

2004- Assistant Professor of Social Medicine Harvard Medical School, Boston 

Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 

Appointments at Hospitals/Affiliated Institutions 

1988 Chief Dietitian Institut Dexeus, Barcelona, Spain 

2004- Medical Anthropologist 

Division of Global Health Equity, Dept. Medicine Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston 

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Other Professional Positions 

1992-93 Intern Public Health Unit, UNESCO, Paris, France 

1993-94 Consultant Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 

1998-99 Consultant The Population Council – Mexico 

1999-01 Consultant World Health Organization / The Population Council – Mexico 

2000 Consultant UNICEF – Tanzania 

2001-02 Consultant Pan American Health Organization 

2002 Temporary Advisor Pan American Health Organization 

2002-03 Consultant Inter-American Dialogue 


2003-04 Consultant UN Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases 

2004 Temporary Advisor UN Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases 


2004 Temporary Advisor World Health Organization 





2006 Temporary Advisor Pan American Health Organization – Venezuela 

2007 Temporary Advisor Pan American Health Organization – Venezuela 


2007 Project Principal Officer Pan American Health Organization 

2009 Consultant UNICEF – Dominican Republic 

2009 Consultant UNICEF – Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office 

2009 Consultant Hunter College, College University of New York 

2009 Consultant Pan American Health Organization 

Major Administrative Leadership Positions 

• Local 

2001- Academic Director Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change 

Department of Social Medicine, HMS 

2001-08 Mexico Projects Director Partners In Health 

2001- Guatemala Projects Director Partners In Health 

2001 Interim Leader Haiti Team, Partners In Health 

2001-02 Seminar on the Cuban Health System Department of Social Medicine 

Seminar co-director Harvard Medical School 

2002-03 SM 700 Social Roots of Health and Disease Department of Social Medicine 

Course co-director Harvard Medical School 

2002-06 SM 702 Culture, Poverty, and Infectious Disease Department of Social Medicine 

Course co-director Harvard Medical School 

2003 Co-Director Institute for Health and Social Justice, 

Partners In Health 

2

2004-06 Director Institute for Health and Social Justice, 

Partners In Health 

2004-06 SM 700 Social Roots of Health and Disease Department of Social Medicine 

Course director Harvard Medical School 

2005 24s AIDS in the Caribbean Freshman Seminars Program 

Course director Harvard College 

2006 AIDS in the Caribbean Puerto Rico Winter Institute 

Course director Harvard University and University of Puerto Rico 

2006- Global Health Delivery Seminar Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 

Faculty director Harvard Medical School 

2006- Introduction to Social Medicine Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 

Coordinator of International Health Projects Harvard Medical School 

2006- Cuba Study Group David Rockefeller Center for Latin American 

Seminar co-director Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 

2007- Elective Clerkship in Medical Anthropology Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 

Course director Harvard Medical School 

2008- Mexico Senior Advisor Partners In Health 

Committee Service 

• Local 

1999-04 Senior Common Room Currier House, Harvard University, Cambridge 

2001- Cuban Studies Program DRCLAS, Harvard University 

2002- Co-chair 

2002- Sub-Committee for Cuban Visiting Scholars 

2001-05 Student Grants & Internships Committee DRCLAS, Harvard University 

2001-02 Joan Gillespie Fellowship in Health and Partners In Health and Department of Social 

Social Justice Selection Committee Medicine, HMS 

2001- International Programs Committee Harvard Medical School 

2001-02 Latino Studies Task Force Harvard University 

2001-02 Fulbright Commission Pre-selection Committee Harvard Medical School 

2002- Visiting Scholars and Fellows Program DRCLAS, Harvard University 

Committee 

2002- Oliver Wendell Holmes Society Harvard Medical School 

2002- Senior Fellow 

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2002- Policy Committee DRCLAS, Harvard University 

2002-03 Interfaculty Initiative on Immigration and Harvard University 

Well-being 

2002 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Harvard Medical School 

Fellowship Program Selection Committee 

2002-06 Medical Education Committee Department of Social Medicine, HMS 

2003- Advisory Board Member Real Colegio Complutense, Harvard University 

2007- Faculty Advisory Committee, DRCLAS, Harvard University 

Brazil Studies Program 

2007- Committee on Social Policy in Latin America DRCLAS, Harvard University 

2007- Co-chair 

2007- Standing Committee on Degrees in Studies of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University 

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 

2007- Affiliate 

2009- Faculty Associate Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, 

Harvard University 

• National 

2003 Advisory Group Member AIDS and Social Transformations Program, 

Social Science Research Council 

2008 Advisor Southeastern National Tuberculosis Center 

(SNTC) and the University of Alabama at 

Birmingham’s Lung Health Center 

• International 

2000-02 Global Plan to Stop TB Writing Committee World Health Organization 

2001-02 International Coordination Committee Regional Forum 2002: The Challenges of 

the HIV/AIDS Pandemic for the Reform and 

Strengthening of Health Systems and Services 

in Latin America and the Caribbean, Pan 

American Health Organization 

2003- Advisor on Social and Behavioral Research UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special 

and Interventions, Dengue Reference Group Program for Research and Training in Tropical 

Diseases (TDR), Intervention, Development and 

Implementation Research (IDE) 

2004-08 Social, Economic and Behavior (SEB) UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special 

Steering Committee Member Program for Research & Training in Tropical 

Diseases (TDR), Strategic and Discovery 

Research (SDR) 

4

2004 Operational Research for HIV Treatment Scale-up World Health Organization 

in Resource-Limited Settings Working Group 

Member 

2004-07 Public Health Watch International Advisory Open Society Institute 

Committee Member 

2005- Product Development Team on Development of World Health Organization, Department of 

Appropriate Research Strategies for Scale Up of HIV/AIDS and UNICEF/UNDP/World 

Antiretroviral Therapy in Resource-Constrained Bank/WHO Special Program for Research & 

Settings Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), 

Implementation Research and Methods (IMR) 

2005 Scientific Working Group on Tuberculosis UNICEF/UNDP/WORLDBANK/WHO 

Special Programme for Research and Training in 

Tropical Diseases (TDR) 

2006 Working Group on Adherence, Generic Tools for World Health Organization 

Operational Research on Scaling-up HIV/AIDS 

Treatment and Prevention 

2006 Commission Barrio Adentro Pan American Health Organization, 

Venezuela 

2006-07 Task Force on Women, Children, and the Medicus Mundi Catalunya and Spanish 

HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Africa International Cooperation Agency (AECI) 

2007- Social Exclusion Knowledge Network WHO Commission on Social Determinants of 

Latin American regional hub network member of Health 

2007- Latin American and Caribbean Initiative for the UNICEF/UNAIDS/Pan American Health 

Integration of Prenatal Care with the Testing and Organization (PAHO)/HMS 

Treatment of HIV and Syphilis 

2007- Project Director 

Professional Societies 

1988- Member American Anthropological Association 

1998-02 Chair, Critical Anthropology of Health Caucus, Society for Medical Anthropology 

2002-06 Chair, Global Health and Emerging Disease, Society for Medical Anthropology 

2002 Reviewer, Rudolph Virchow Award Selection Committee, Student Competition 

2003-06 Secretary-Treasurer, Society for Medical Anthropology 

2004-06 Advisory Board Member, H-MedAnthro, Society for Medical Anthropology 

2005-07 Co-organizer, Health and Human Rights Task Group 

1988-98 Member European Association of Social Anthropologists 

1997-00 Member European Academy of Nutritional Sciences 

2001- Member Latin American Studies Association 

2004-06 Council Board Member, Health, Science and Society Section 

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2001- Member American Public Health Association 

2003- Member Latin American Forum for Social Sciences and 

Health 

2008- Member International AIDS Society 

Grant Review Activities 

1998- Social Science Projects Reviewer National Agency for Scientific and 

Technologic Development, Ministry of 

Culture and Education of Argentina 

2002, 03 Program on Global Security & Sustainability, MacArthur Foundation 

Research and Writing Competition Reviewer 

2002 Public Health Reviewer Canadian Institutes of Health Research 

2002 International Expert Canadian International Development 

Agency 

2003 External Reviewer WellBeing and the Royal College of 

Obstetricians and Gynecologists of the UK 

2003 Reviewer Academy Health (formerly Academy for 

Health Services Research and Health Policy) 

2006 Reviewer, Operations Research on AIDS Care and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation 

Treatment in Africa (ORACTA) Program 

2007-08 Reviewer National Science Foundation 

Editorial Activities 

• Ad hoc Reviewer 

o University of California Press 

o American Journal of Public Health 

o Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 

o International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 

o British Medical Journal 

o Medical Anthropology Quarterly 

o Palgrave Macmillan Press 

o American Anthropologist 

o BMC International Health and Human Rights 

o PLoS Medicine 

o AIDS Care 

o Lancet 

o Global Public Health 

o Pan American Journal of Public Health 

o Medical Anthropology 

o Social Science & Medicine 

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o PLoS ONE 

o Health & Human Rights 

• Other Editorial Roles 

1986-88 Founding Editor Antropologies 

1999 Ad Hoc Editorial Writer British Medical Journal 

2002- Editorial Board Member Humanitas Humanidades Médicas 

2007- Editorial Board member PLoS ONE 

2007- Editorial Advisory Board member The Open Health Services & Policy Journal 

2007- Editorial Board member PLoS Medicine 

Honors and Prizes 

1988 Award of Final Studies in Dietetics and Nutrition. Polytechnic Institute of Barcelona, Spain. 

Name of study: “An Evaluation of the Dietetics Unit of a First Level Hospital.” 

1991 Premio Iber de Investigación. Spain’s national award on Food and Coronary Diseases. Name of the study: 

“Anthropology and Fatty Acids.” Awarded by the Instituto Valenciano Pro-Corazón. 

1998 David E. Bell Research Fellowship, MacArthur Program on Population and Development, Harvard Center 

for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, MA. 

2001 Conmemorative Medal for the Centenary of Professor Pedro Kourí. Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro 

Kourí. Havana, Cuba. 

2003 Nominee, Klaus Peter International Teaching Award, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 

2005 Nominee, Klaus Peter International Teaching Award, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 

2005 Nominee, Harvard Medical School Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Years 1 & 2), Boston, Massachusetts. 

2005 Dean’s Letter, Excellence in Teaching (Freshman seminar), Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, 

Massachusetts 

2005 Rudolf Virchow Award, Professional Prize, Critical Anthropology of Health Caucus, Society for Medical 

Anthropology, American Anthropological Association. The award honors an article written in the spirit of 

Rudolf Virchow that is deemed by the judges to best reflect, extend or advance critical perspectives in 

medical anthropology. To the paper, co-authored with Paul Farmer: “Pearls of the Antilles? Public Health 

in Haiti and Cuba,” in Arachu Castro and Merrill Singer (eds.), Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical 

Anthropological Examination. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2004, pp. 3-28. 

2008 Nominee, Harvard Medical School 2007-2008 Excellence in Mentoring Award, Boston, Massachusetts. 

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Report of Funded and Unfunded Projects 

Funding Information 

• Past 

1988-92 PI: Arachu Castro ($40,000) 

Ministry of Education, Spain 

Four-year Doctoral Scholarship and Research Grant 

1989 PI: Arachu Castro ($4,000) 

Interdepartmental Commission of Research and New Technologies (CIRIT), Government of Catalunya, Spain 

A ten-week research and travel fellowship to work on the project: “A Study on the variables intervening in the 

establishment of food choices among Mexican-Americans.” Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Natural 

Resources, University of California at Berkeley, CA 


Interdepartmental Commission of Research and New Technologies (CIRIT), Government of Catalunya, Spain 

A one-month travel and research fellowship to work on the project: “An evaluation of the nutritional status and 

food habits of farmworker families in Tulare County, California.” Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of 

Natural Resources, University of California at Berkeley, CA 

1990 ($1,000) 

University of Barcelona, Spain 

Travel award to attend the 89 th Annual Conference of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, LA 


Department of Health, Consumption, and Welfare. Government of La Rioja, Spain 

A six-month research grant: “Project to promote healthy food habits in La Rioja, Spain” 

1990 ($5,000) 


An eleven-week travel and research fellowship to work as research fellow at the University of Paris X at Nanterre 

(France), Department of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology 

1991 ($1,500) 


A three-week travel and research fellowship to work as research fellow at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme 

(France), Equipe d’Anthropologie Alimentaire des Populations Traditionnelles 

1991 ($1,000) 

Department of Education, Government of Catalunya, Spain 

Travel award to participate at the 90 th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Chicago, IL 

1992 ($1,000) 


Travel award to participate at the 11 th International Congress of Dietetics in Jerusalem, Israel 

1992 ($5,000) 


A ten-week travel and research fellowship to work as research fellow at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme 

(France), Equipe d’Anthropologie Alimentaire des Populations Traditionnelles 

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1994 

European Nutrition Leadership Program, European Commission’s Health and Safety Directorate 

A one-week fellowship to participate at the first seminar of the program 

1996 ($10,000) 

Prix de Projet de Recherche Alimentation et Santé. French national award on Food and Health 

Name of the study: “Sociocultural Construction of Breastfeeding and Weaning Practices: A Comparative Analysis 

of Motherhood in Contemporary French Women.” 



Two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship and Research Grant to conduct research at Harvard School of Public Health 

1997-8 

Harvard School of Public Health 

Tuition scholarship, Master’s of Public Health program 

1998-9 

Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard School of Public Health 

David Bell Research Fellowship, MacArthur Program on Population 

1999 

Center for Continuing Professional Education, Harvard School of Public Health 

Tuition scholarship for CME course: Ethical Issues in International Health Research 

1999-2000 Co-PI: Arachu Castro 

WHO/HPR, Geneva, Switzerland 

PI: Silvina Ramos 

Co-PIs: Arachu Castro, Mariana Romero, Sandra Sáenz, Georgina Rojas, Maria Duarte Osis 

Research grant for project: Analysis of Physician’s Acceptance of a Second Opinion Protocol for Cesarean Indications 

Aimed at Reducing the Proportion of Cesarean in Latin American Public Hospitals and Women’s Satisfaction with the 

Intervention 

2000-2005 Co-investigator 

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 

PI: Jim Y. Kim, Paul Farmer. 

Partners Against Resistant TB: A Network for Equity and Resource Strengthening. The goal of this project 

is to design and implement a model program for the treatment and control of drug-resistant tuberculosis in 

Peru and to develop evidence-based policy guidelines for similar settings. Grant number 04-2103580N. 

2001 PIs: Arachu Castro, Jim Y. Kim and Paul Farmer ($20,000) 

David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University 

Conference grant to organize the Conference on the Impact of Health Systems Reform in the Control of Infectious 

Disease in Latin America. 



Faculty Grant to prepare the paper Origins, Evolution and Current Reform of the Cuban Health Care System. 

2001 


Faculty travel award to teach at the 7 th International Course on Dengue, Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí, 

Havana, Cuba. 

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Pan American Health Organization 

Contract Number SC-26266 (EP) 

The Challenge of the HIV-AIDS Pandemic for the Reform and Strengthening of Health Systems and Services in Latin 

America and Caribbean. 

Contract to draft the concept paper of a PAHO/USAID international conference. 

2002 

Harvard Medical School, Cannon Society 

Paul Dudley White Travel Award to participate at the International Health Medical Education Consortium Annual 

Meeting in Havana, Cuba 

2003-2004 PIs: John Coatsworth, Xavier de Souza Briggs, Arachu Castro, Paul Farmer ($40,000) 

Ford Foundation 

Grant number 1035-0359 

Scholarly Collaboration between Harvard University and Cuba in the Areas of Public Management Education and 

Applied Social and Health Policy Research. 



Letter of Agreement Number ICP-UAH-800/RB/02-03 

Formulation of a Health Services Research Proposal for the Delivery of a Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Program in 

Haiti, and completion of the manuscript Infectious Diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean. 



Faculty Grant for the research project: AIDS in the Caribbean: The Impact of Effective Therapy on Stigma 


UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) 

Contract ID: OD/AP-03-00235 

Grant to prepare the manuscript Social Factors Contributing to Dengue Transmission for the TDR series on Social, 

Economic, and Behavioral Research. 

2004 

International AIDS Society 

Scholarship for the 15 th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, July 2004. 


Harvard Medical School, Center of Excellence in Minority Health and Health Disparities (COE) and the Minority 

Faculty Development Program (MFDP), Office for Diversity and Community Partnership 

Bridge Award to conduct the study “AIDS in the Caribbean: The Impact of Effective Therapy on Quality of Life.” 

2005-08 PIs: Jorge Domínguez, Xavier de Souza Briggs, Arachu Castro ($40,000) 



Scholarly Collaboration Between Harvard University and Cuba in Applied Economic, Social and Health Policy 

Research. 

2005-07 Co-Investigator 

National Institutes of Health – National Institute of Mental Health 

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Grant number: 1 R21 MH076447-01. 

PI: Joia Mukherjee. 

Psychosocial Intervention in HIV-Affected Children in Haiti 

The goal of this project is to assess the mental health status of children affected by HIV in Haiti and to pilot an 

intervention to support these children and prevent negative psychosocial outcomes. 


William F. Milton Fund Award, Harvard University 

Grant number: 624473 

Assessing and Improving the Quality of Life of Cuban AIDS Patients 

The project aims at analyzing the social and clinical impact of the provision of highly active antiretroviral therapy 

(HAART) to AIDS patients in Cuba. 


Atlantic Philanthropies 

Grant number: 14217 

Assessing and Improving the Quality of Life of Cuban AIDS Patients 

This proposal aims at analyzing the social and clinical impact of the provision of highly active antiretroviral therapy 

(HAART) to AIDS patients in Cuba. 


Wilbur Marvin Fund, Faculty Grant, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University 

The Challenge of Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy in Puerto Rico: Inequality and Social Relations in Urban 

San Juan. 


Lemann Fund, Faculty Grant, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University 

Prenatal Testing for HIV and Other STIs: A Situation Analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean. 


Research Enabling Grant, Office of Faculty Affairs, Harvard University 

Prenatal Testing for HIV, Syphilis, and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections: An Exploratory Study aimed at 

Understanding Barriers to Uptake Among Pregnant Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. 



Grant number SC-07-02935 

Prenatal Testing for HIV, Syphilis, and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections: An Exploratory Study aimed at 

Understanding Barriers to Uptake Among Pregnant Women in Latin America and the Caribbean 

The study aims at identifying barriers to testing for HIV, syphilis, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) 

during pregnancy in Colombia. 


Coolidge First-step Funds for Harvard-Brazil Faculty Engagement, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American 

Studies 

Evaluation of Vertical Transmission of HIV in the State of São Paulo, Brazil 

Travel award to São Paulo, Brazil 


UNAIDS, Regional Support Team for Latin America 

Situation analysis and socio-economic, cultural, political and health system barriers in access to prenatal care and 

screening of HIV and syphilis during pregnancy in Peru. 

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The project aims at identifying barriers to testing for HIV, syphilis, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) 

during pregnancy in Peru. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Peru, UNICEF, and Socios En Salud. 

• Current 


PI: Luiza Matida 

Ministry of Health of Brazil 

Evaluation of Vertical Transmission of HIV in the State of São Paulo, Brazil 

Epidemiological study of pregnant women diagnosed with HIV and their offspring born in 2006 in the state of São 

Paulo, aimed at evaluating the magnitude of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV and at identifying 

failures in the prevention of MTCT. 

2007-09 PIs: Arachu Castro, Jorge Domínguez ($50,000) 



Scholarly Collaboration between Harvard University and Cuba in Health Policy Research 

This project aims at analyzing the social and clinical impact of the provision of antiretroviral therapy to AIDS 

patients in Cuba and at training Cuban researchers in qualitative research. 


Global Infectious Disease Program, Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Harvard University Office of the 

President and Provost 

The Latin America and Caribbean Prenatal Testing Initiative for HIV and Syphilis 

Aimed at identifying barriers to testing for HIV, syphilis, and other STIs during pregnancy in Brazil, Colombia, 

Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, to design a multi-country intervention, and to scale 

up screening and diagnostic testing during pregnancy in all these countries. 

2009 PI: Arachu Castro 

UNICEF, Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean 

Contract number: SSA/COLA/2009/00000079-0. 

Contract to prepare the commissioned chapter “Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis 

in Latin America and the Caribbean,” for the PAHO/UNICEF/UNAIDS report Challenges posed by the HIV 

epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean 2009. 

2009 PI: Arachu Castro 


Contract number: CSA-09-105. 

Contract to act as editor of the PAHO/UNICEF/UNAIDS report Challenges posed by the HIV epidemic in Latin 

America and the Caribbean 2009. 


UNAIDS, Regional Support Team for Latin America 

The Latin America and Caribbean Initiative for the Integration of Prenatal Care with the Testing and Treatment of 

HIV and Syphilis (ILAP) 

Study aimed at directing and coordinating the operational research of ILAP in Brazil, Colombia, Dominican 

Republic, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Contract pending. 


1 R01 MH083550-01A2 (scored on 3/9/09; 12.6 percentile) 

PI: Sonya Shin 

Community-based accompaniment with supervised antiretrovirals in Lima, Peru 

Randomized trial of a community-based DOT for HAART intervention for HIV+ persons living in poverty 

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in Peru compared to control communities; assessment of the impact of the community-based intervention on viral 

load and social capital. 

2009-13 Local PI 

National Institutes of Health—National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 

Grant tracking number: R01 GRANT00558234 (submitted on 12/14/07). 

PI: Luiza Matida. 

Research partnership on prenatal and HIV/syphilis care in Latin America 

The goal of this project is to assess the impact on testing and treatment coverage for HIV and syphilis during 

pregnancy through interrupted time series and pre-post analyses in Brazil and the Dominican Republic. 

2009-2012 PIs: Arachu Castro, Sonya Shin 

National Institutes of Health—National Institute of Mental Health 

1R34MH087224-01 (submitted on 01/07/09; scored on 3/24/09; under resubmission). 

Measurement of the Integration of Prenatal and HIV/Syphilis Care in Latin America 

The goal of this project is to conduct innovative services research to analyze the process of system organization 

efforts to improve access to and delivery of health services to treat pregnant women diagnosed with HIV or syphilis 

and prevent vertical transmission of HIV and syphilis in Brazil and the Dominican Republic. 

Current Unfunded Projects 

2009- PI: Arachu Castro 

The Perinatal and Neonatal Clinical History Form Project 

Aimed at identifying problems with data collection and reporting in Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Peru, 

related to the use of the Perinatal Clinical History form, developed by the Latin American Center of Perinatology, 

and at testing the feasibility of adding an HIV module for pregnant women testing positive for HIV. I am 

supervising three medical students and two physicians. 

Report of Local Teaching and Training 

Teaching of Students in Courses 

• Local teaching prior to Harvard appointment 

1988-89 Cultural Anthropology 


Weekly, two-semester, theoretical and practical training in nutritional anthropology and supervision of 

more than 100 undergraduate students conducting household interviews in Barcelona. 

• Local teaching at Harvard 


2000-06 SM 700 Social Roots of Health and Disease 


Instructor, syllabus preparation, grading of student’s papers. 

45 medical students, 5 hours/week, 5 hours prep 

2000-06 SM 702 Culture, Poverty, and Infectious Disease 


Instructor, syllabus preparation, grading of student’s papers. 

13

20-30 medical students and 20-30 public health students, 5 hours/week, 5 hours prep 

2001-02 Seminar on the Cuban Health System 


Instructor, syllabus preparation, independent tutorials 

10 hours/month, 5 hours prep 

2004-05 CN 700 Physician in Community 


Mentor 

2-3 medical students, 2 hours/week 

2004-05 SM 715 Seminar on Global Health Equity 


Instructor 

15 medical students 

2005 SM 720 Gender, Sexuality and the Politics of Health 


Instructor (one session) 


2006- Global Health Delivery Seminar 


Instructor 

2006- Introduction to Social Medicine 


Instructor 

2007- Elective Clerkship in Medical Anthropology 


Instructor 


Faculty of Arts and Sciences 

2005 24s AIDS in the Caribbean (Freshman Seminar) 

Harvard College 

Instructor 

14 undergraduate students 

2006 AIDS in the Caribbean 

Harvard University and University of Puerto Rico 

Instructor 

20 graduate students from Harvard University and University of Puerto Rico, 20 hours 

2006- Cuba Study Group 

Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University 

Graduate seminar for Harvard students writing a thesis on Cuba. 

10 graduate students 

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Undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students, years in lab and status 

1998-99 Carlos J. Valerio MPH student at National School of Public Health, Spain 

Master’s Thesis advisor on AIDS in Spanish prisons 

2000-01 Chen, Ellen HMS student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Cuba 

2000-01 Saatkamp, Barbara HMS student 


2000-05 Abbatangelo, Jodie HSPH doctoral student 

Doctoral committee member 

2000-01 Steenson, Kristina HMS student 

Supervision of summer research project in Brazil 

2000-01 Somoano, Brian HMS student 

Supervision of summer research project on AIDS in Cuba 

2000-01 Locke, Rebecca HMS student 

Supervision of summer research project in Peru 

2000-01 Bórquez, Eduardo HMS student 

Supervision of summer research project in Ecuador 

2000-01 Vázquez, Jesús HMS student 

Supervision of summer research project in Peru 

2000-05 Arbour, Mary Catherine HMS student 

Supervision of research projects in Peru and elsewhere; co-presentation of poster at 2002 International 

AIDS Conference. 

2001 Besú, Suzi Harvard College student 

Honor’s thesis in health policy grader and examiner 

2001-03 Johnston, James Queen U medical student 

Supervision of research project on dengue transmission and social inequality in Latin America; coauthored 

chapter in leading anthropological book series. 

2001- Herce, Michael Yale U medical student/HSPH MPH student/BWH resident 

Supervision of research projects in Mexico; co-presenter in 2005 American Public Health Association 

annual meeting; co-authored manuscript currently in progress. 

2001-02 Chapman, Jacob UNC medical student 

Supervision of research project in Mexico 

2001-03 Abadía, César Ernesto HSDM doctoral student 

Doctoral thesis advisor and examiner; co-authored paper in Social Sciences & Medicine. 

2001-02 Farmer, Carrie Harvard FAS doctoral student 

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Supervision of health policy research project in Latin America 

2001-02 Thomas, Joel Harvard College student 

Honor’s thesis advisor on health policy in Cuba 

2002-04 Simmons, David, Ph.D. Michigan S U/National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow 

Doctoral defense evaluator; supervision of postdoctoral research on health care in the Dominican 

Republic 

2003 Olivares-Llenas, Eduard Doctoral student at University of Barcelona, Spain 

Doctoral committee examiner (invited) 

2003-08 Chodos, Anna HMS student 


2003-04 Ortiz, Fausto HMS student 


2003-08 Herring, Andrew HMS student 


2003-05 Mathai, Susan Harvard College student 

Honor’s thesis advisor on abortion in Cuba and supervision of fieldwork in Cuba 

2004-05 Louis, Coeurlida Yale U medical student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Haiti; co-authored paper in AIDS Care. 

2004-06 Aparicio, Sylvia HMS student 

Supervision of research project on abdominal TB in Zambia 

2004- Aragonés, Carlos Doctoral student at Institute of Tropical Medicine, Havana, Cuba 

Doctoral thesis advisor; on epidemiology of AIDS in Cuba; co-authored presentations at 2006 and 2008 

International AIDS Conference; co-authored manuscript currently in progress. 

2004- Westerhaus, Michael HMS/FAS student/BWH medical resident 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Uganda; co-authored four publications on access to 

antiretroviral medications and health policy. 

2004- Burroughs, Melissa HMS student/UCSF medical resident 

MD Thesis advisor; supervision of research projects on AIDS and racism in Cuba and Puerto Rico; 

co-authored manuscript currently in progress. 

2004-05 Snell, Jamey HMS student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Uganda. 

2004-05 Moran, Sarah Harvard College student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in South Africa. 

2005 Bor, Jacob Harvard College student 

Honor’s thesis in social studies grader and examiner 

2005-07 Ivers, Louise, MD Brigham and Women’s Hospital fellow 

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Advisor of research project on AIDS-related stigma in Haiti 

2006-07 Kerry, MD, Vanessa HMS student 

MD Honor’s Thesis advisor on access to antiretroviral medications and health policy. 

2005-06 Mann, Aaron HMS student 

Preceptor in medical Spanish 

2006-07 Quintanar, Alberto Harvard GSAS student 

Master’s Thesis advisor on AIDS in Mexico 

2006-08 Bae, Jason Harvard College/Yale Medical School student 

Advisor to research project on AIDS in Botswana 

2006- Johnston, Ari HMS student 

Supervision of research project on malaria and access to health care in Mali 

2006-08 Suri, Arjun Harvard College student 

Supervision of reseach project on access to health care in Peru 

2006-08 Chen, Connie Harvard College student 

Supervison of research projects on health policy. 

2006-07 Miller, Christopher HMS student 

Supervision of research project on prenatal care in Latin America 

2006-07 Yamin, Cyrus HMS student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Dominican Republic; co-authored report submitted to the 

Dominican Presidential Council on AIDS and PAHO 

2007 Wright, Joseph HMS student 

MD Thesis examiner, on AIDS in the United States 

2007- Sandesara, Utpal Harvard College student 

Honor´s Thesis advisor; supervision of research project on AIDS in Peru; co-authored manuscript 

currently in progress. 

2007-08 Pedraza, Ph.D., Laura Harvard Law School student 

Advisor on health policy in Latin America 

2007-08 Donner, Abbigail Harvard School of Public Health student 

Master’s Thesis advisor on child and reproductive health in Ghana 

2007-08 Sutcliffe, Shelby Harvard School of Public Health student 

Master’s Thesis advisor on AIDS in South Africa 

2007-08 Obimba, Chinyere HMS student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Brazil 

2008- Jeffress, Katie Harvard Extension School student 

Supervision of research project on testing for HIV and syphilis 

17

2008- McPhillips, Kristin Albany Medical School student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Peru 

2008- Connolly, Maureen University of Michigan Medical School student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in the Dominican Republic 

2008- Patiño, Andrés HMS student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Colombia 

2008- Dubal, Sam HMS student 

Supervision of research project on AIDS in Uganda 

2009 Seidner, Dominika HMS student 

MD Thesis examiner 

2009- Kravitz, Amy, MD, MSc University of Miami medical resident 

Advisor on research project on AIDS in Latin America 

2009- Levine, Zach Columbia College, NY 

Supervision of research project on malaria in pregnancy 

Local Invited Presentations 

1988 From Colonial Dependence to Food Dependence in West Africa. Lecture, “Sociology” course. 

Program in Dietetics, Escuela Bonanova, Barcelona (Spain). 

1988 Human Diet Before Fire. Lecture, “Anthropology of Food” course, Department of Social Anthropology, 

University of Barcelona (Spain). 

1989 Food Behavior of Mexican-Americans in the United States. Lecture, “Anthropology of Food” course, 

Department of Social Anthropology, University of Barcelona (Spain). 

1990 Nutrition Education, Nutritional Anthropology and Community Food Supply. Lecture, Master of Food and 

Nutritional Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona (Spain). 

1990 Epidemiology and Nutritional Anthropology. Lecture, 2nd Seminar on Community Nutrition, Public Health 

Division, and Health Studies Institute IES, Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain). 

1994 Sociocultural approach to eating behavior. INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche 

médicale), Research unit: U 290, directed by Professor Desjeux, Paris (France). 

1995 Cultural factors of nutrition throughout the life cycle. A three-hour lecture in the seminar “Symbolism and 

determinants of food behavior”. Institut Supérieur de l’Alimentation, Paris (France). 

1995 Food taboos. A three-hour lecture in the seminar “Symbolism and determinants of food behavior”. Institut 

Supérieur de l’Alimentation, Paris (France). 

1996 The evolution of fat intake in Northern Spain. A two-hour lecture in the seminar “Desire and pleasure”, 

directed by Jean-Louis Flandrin. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris (France). 

1997 Sociocultural constructions of breastfeeding and weaning. A two-hour lecture in the seminar “Comparative 

18

analyses of techniques and food practices”, co-directed by R. Bonnain, F. Sabban, and F. Sigaut. Ecole des 

Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris (France). 

1997 Food practices: A historical perspective. A two-hour lecture addressed to midwifery students. Ecole de 

Sages-Femmes, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris (France). 

1997 Sociological and symbolical approach to food practices: Food taboos or dietary recommendations? A twohour 

lecture addressed to midwifery students. Ecole de Sages-Femmes, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris 

(France). 

1998 The Epidemic of Cesarean Sections in Mexico. A two-hour seminar. Harvard Center for Population and 

Development Studies, Cambridge, MA. 

1999 Political Economy of Breastfeeding. Discussant in the class Political Economy of International Health 

Policies, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA. 

1999 Female Sterilization in Latin America. A two-hour lecture in the Master of Public Health Program, 

Department of International Health, School of Public Health, Boston University, MA. 

1999 Chair and organizer, “Panel on Sterilization of Women and Reproductive Rights”, Harvard Center for 

Population and Development Studies (June 1999), Cambridge, MA. 

2000 Female Sterilization in Latin America. Discussant in the class Women, Health, and Development, Harvard 

School of Public Health, Boston, MA. 

2000 Chair and organizer: “Increasing Health Coverage in Very Different Settings: Chile and Haiti”. Program in 

Infectious Disease and Social Change, Dept. Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School (June 2000), 

Boston, MA 

2000 Organizer: “Community-based responses to emerging infectious disease”, Partners In Health, Program in 

Infectious Disease and Social Change (Harvard Medical School), and David Rockefeller Center for Latin 

American Studies. Harvard Medical School (October 2000), Boston, MA. 

2001 Female Sterilization in Latin America. Guest Discussion Leader in the class Women, Health, and 

Development, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA. 

2001 Health Priorities and Health Research in Latin America: The Work of Partners In Health. Advisory Board 

Meeting, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 

2001 Medicine and Public Health. Panelist. Dream Job Conference. Institute of Politics, Kennedy School of 

Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA. 

2002 Increasing Access to HIV/AIDS Drugs, including Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy. A two-hour 

lecture taught with Paul Farmer in the Master of Public Health Program, Department of Population and 

International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 

2002 Medicine and Public Health. Panelist. Dream Job Conference. Institute of Politics, Kennedy School of 

Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA. 

2002 Living with Infectious Disease: Comparative Health Policy and Practices in the Caribbean, HIV and 

Infectious Disease in Haiti and Cuba. Tertulia Seminar. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American 

Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 

19

2002 Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Cuba. Seminar on Communist and Post-communist Countries. 

Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 

2003 The Cuban Health System and its Control of Infectious Disease. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard 

University. Cambridge, MA. 

2004 Social and Political Factors in Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis, taught with Paul Farmer. Graduate course 

on Tuberculosis directed by Edward Nardell. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of 

Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. 

2004 Anthropology and Activism. Graduate course on Anthropology and Activism directed by Leda Leitao 

Martins. Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2004 AIDS in Cuba: From the Sanatorium to Comprehensive Care. Cuba Seminar Series, David Rockefeller 

Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2004 International Health, presented with Paul Farmer. Health in Practice Speaker Series, Department of 

Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. 

2004 Discussant, Sexuality Workshop, Department of Anthropology and Harvard Center for Middle Eastern 

Studies, Harvard University (May 2004), Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2004 Organizer, Collateral Benefits: Complex Health Interventions for the Poor. Institute for Health and Social 

Justice Spring Forum (May 2004), Boston, Massachusetts. 

2004 Health in Haiti. Direct Action Student Group, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2004 From Boston to Bangkok. Departmental Seminar, Department of Social Medicine. Harvard Medical 

School, Boston, MA. 

2004 AIDS in Cuba. Latin American and Caribbean Health Student Group. Harvard School of Public Health, 

Boston, MA. 

2005 Two Decades of AIDS in Cuba: From Quarantine to Free Comprehensive Care. Harvard Center for 

Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2006 Living with AIDS in Cuba: Antiretroviral therapy and the social course of HIV disease. Faculty Seminar 

Series, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 

2006 Living with AIDS in Cuba: National Health Policy and Access to Comprehensive Care. Kennedy School of 

Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2007 Moderator, “Global Health and Journalism.” Panel discussion, Harvard Initiative on Global Health 

(February 2007). Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2007 Integrating Prenatal Care with Care for HIV and Syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Multi- 

Country Initiative. Global Health Delivery Seminar. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 

2008 HIV in the Pregnant Body, Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Body, Harvard University Inter-faculty 

group conference. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2008 Interfaculty collaborations, session Building Bridges Across the University: Who, What, Where, Why and 

How? Harvard University New Faculty Institute. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

20

Report of Regional, National and International Invited Teaching and Presentations 

Teaching of Students in Courses 

1995 Methodologies of nutritional anthropology. 

School of Nutrition, Division of Medical Sciences, National University of Córdoba (Argentina). 

A 36-hour course delivered to nutritionists and social workers. Focused in comparative methodology and 

qualitative analysis. 

1998 Culture, Health, and Reproduction in Latin America. 

Department of International Health, National School of Public Health, Madrid (Spain). 

Lecturer. A 20-hour course to Master of Public Health students. 

Regional, National and International Invited Presentations and Courses 

• Regional 

1990 Dietetics and Nutrition. Spanish Red Cross at Tarragona (Spain). A six-week, 24-hour course delivered to 

nurse aids. 

1990 Anthropology and Nutrition Education. Lecture, Nutrition Education Pannel, 5th Seminar of Public Health: 

Community Nutrition. Pius Hospital, Valls, Tarragona (Spain). 

2001 Industry and the Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV. A two-hour lecture. Hispanic Health Council, 

Hartford, CT. 

2001 Medicine and Social Justice. Lecture. Brandeis University. Waltham, MA. 

2002 The Political Economy of HIV/AIDS Transmission, Prevention, and Treatment. Panelist. Global AIDS 

Awareness Week. University of Massachusetts. Boston, MA. 

2003 The Cuban Health System and its Control of Infectious Disease. Seminar for the Knight Science Journalism 

Fellows. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. 

2003 Blaming the HIV Patient: Structural Violence in International Health. New England International Health 

Medical Education Consortium Annual Meeting. Massachusetts Medical Society, Waltham, Massachusetts. 

2003 AIDS-Related Stigma and Public Health Failures. Tufts University Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 

2004 Partners In Health in Latin America. Workshop on Public Service. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

Public Service Center and Western Hemisphere Project. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

2004 International Public Health Pitfalls and Economic Arguments: The Fight Against AIDS in Cuba and Haiti, 

Invited Presentation in the session “Western Medicine and its Discontents,” New England Council of Latin 

American Studies Annual Meeting (November 2004), Boston, Massachusetts. 

2005 AIDS in the Caribbean. International Health Medical Education Consortium Annual Meeting. 

Massachusetts Medical Society, Waltham, Massachusetts. 

2005 Living with HIV in Cuba: Antiretroviral therapy and the social course of AIDS, Department of 

Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. 

21

2005 Two Decades of AIDS in Cuba: From Quarantine to Free Comprehensive Care. Yale University, New 

Haven, Connecticut. 

2006 Racism in Cuba, Undergraduate Course History 86 (Caribbean History), directed by Judith Byfield, 

Department of History, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. 

2006 Sexuality, gender relations, and HIV transmission in Cuba. Lecture, Department of History, Dartmouth 

College, Hanover, New Hampshire. 

2008 Integrating Prenatal Care with Care for HIV and Syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Multi- 

Country Initiative. Lecture, Yale Global Health Week. Sponsored by the Council on Latin American 

Studies. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. 

• National 

1989 A study on food habits and their relationship between economic status and cultural origin amongst the 

dwellers of Barcelona”, 3 rd Congress of Sociology (September 1989), San Sebastián (Spain). 

1990 The transition from labor activity to retirement”, co-presented with Juan M. García, 1 st Conference on Preretirement 

and Retirement in Spain (March 1990), Fundación Caixa de Pensions, Barcelona (Spain). 

1990 The social construction of illness during retirement, co-presented with Juan M. García, 1 st Conference on 

Social Intervention in Health (April 1990), University of Barcelona at Tarragona (Spain). 

1990 A nutrition education program for households with preschool children in Sant Joan Despí, Barcelona, copresented 

with Silvia Carrasco, 1 st Conference on Social Intervention in Health (April 1990), University of 

Barcelona at Tarragona (Spain). 

1990 Food and social integration: Food behavior of Mexican-Americans in the US, 5 th Congress of Anthropology 

(December 1990), Granada (Spain). Chair of the work session on Anthropology and Food. 

1993 Anthropology, nutrition, and public health, Annual Meeting of the French-speaking Dietitians Association 

(November 1993), Tours (France). Invited presentation. 

1994 The Promotion of Breastfeeding Before Birth. Seminar on Breastfeeding (September 1994), Paris (France). 

Organized by the International Children’s Center and UNICEF-France. Rapporteur. 

1995 Food and culture, Annual Meeting of the French-speaking Dietitians Association (November 1995), Reims 

(France). Invited presentation. 

1996 Evolution of animal and vegetal fats intake in Northern Spain. Conference on resistance and change in 

food behavior (October 1996), Paris. 

1996 Is there a relationship between the breastfeeding style and women’s status in society?, 5 th Scientific 

Meeting on Nutrition (November 1996), Paris. 

1997 The sociocultural construction of breastfeeding: The value of colostrum, 7 th International Congress on Anti- 

Cancer Treatments, 2nd Conference Nutrition-Cancer (February 1997), Paris. 

1997 Breastfeeding in Public Maternity Wards in France, 6 th Scientific Meeting on Nutrition (November 1997), 

Paris, France. 

22

1997 Is Authoritative Knowledge in Infant Nutrition Compatible with Successful Breastfeeding? A perspective 

from France, co-presented with Laure Marchand-Lucas, in the Panel titled: The Fallacy of the Level 

Playing Field: Globalization, Health, and Identity. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 

(November 1997), Washington, DC. 

1998 Cesarean Sections and Sterilizations in Latin America: New Perspectives On Fertility Decline Theories, 

American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (December 1998), Philadelphia, PA. 

1999 The Impact of the Epidemic of Cesarean Sections in the Fertility Decline in Mexico, Population 

Association of America Annual Meeting (March 1999), New York, NY. 

1999 Female Sterilization in Latin America. Seminar. AVSC, New York, NY. 

1999 Family Planning Policies and Uninformed Consent in Latin America: A Critical Perspective on Female 

Sterilization, Invited Session, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 1999), 

Chicago, IL. 

1999 Discussant, Fertility Decline in Our Time and Anthropological Time: Biological and Cultural 

Perspectives, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 1999), Chicago, IL. 

2000 Dying for Growth: Infant Formula Manufacturers and the Health of the Poor. A panel presentation with 

Paul E. Farmer, Jim Y. Kim, Joyce V. Millen. School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 

CA 

2000 The Conditionality of International Aid: The Impact of the Bilateral Aid-Freeze on Health and Education in 

Zanzibar, Tanzania, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 2000), San 

Francisco, CA. 

2000 Session co-organizer: Praxis, Policy and the Poor: Critical Ethnography of International Health Policies, 

American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 2000), San Francisco, CA. 

2001 Global Governance and the Control of Infectious Diseases: DOTS Plus and the Green Light Committee, 

International Studies Association Annual International Convention (February 2001), Chicago, IL. 

2001 The Reform of the Cuban Health Care System, paper presented in the organized session “Cuba: TB, AIDS, 

and Infectious Disease in a Time of Crisis”, Social Studies of Medicine Section, Latin American Studies 

Association Congress (September 2001), Washington, DC. 

2001 Industry and the Mother-to-Child-Transmission of HIV, paper presented in the organized session “Dying 

for Growth”, American Public Health Association (October 2001), Atlanta, GA. 

2001 Industry and the Mother-to-Child-Transmission of HIV, paper presented in the session “Current Research 

on HIV/AIDS in Medical Anthropology”, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 


2002 Women’s Strategies to Prevent Transmission of HIV to their Infants, invited paper presented at the Society 

for Medical Anthropology Plenary Presidential Session “Individual Agency In Health: A Search for 

Instrumental Self-Determination”, Society for Applied Anthropology / Society for Medical Anthropology 

Meeting (March 2002), Atlanta, GA. 

23

2002 The Challenge of Tuberculosis Control in Cuba during the Special Period, paper presented in the session 

“Lessons Learned from the Cuban Health System”, Society for Applied Anthropology / Society for 

Medical Anthropology Meeting (March 2002), Atlanta, GA. 

2002 The Setting of Health Priorities in Cuba in the Last Four Decades, paper presented in the session 

“Confronting Global challenges to TB and HIV: The politics of Responsibility”, Society for Applied 

Anthropology / Society for Medical Anthropology Meeting (March 2002), Atlanta, GA. 

2002 Session co-organizer (with Linda Whiteford): Lessons Learned from the Cuban Health System, Society for 

Applied Anthropology / Society for Medical Anthropology Meeting (March 2002), Atlanta, GA. 

2002 Structural Violence and HIV. Minority Postdoctoral Fellows and Mentors Meeting. National Science 

Foundation. Arlington, VA. 

2002 Responses to Infectious Diseases: HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis in Latin America, paper presented in the 

Public Policy Forum on “Bioterrorism, Epidemics, and the Future of Public Health”, American 

Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 2002), New Orleans, LA. 

2002 Discussant: Health in the Hands of the People? Poverty, Illness and Innovative Response, American 

Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 2002), New Orleans, LA. 

2002 Social Transformations and the Materiality of Culture: Revolts and Revolution in Haiti and Cuba, by A 

Castro and P Farmer, paper presented in the session “Recuperating the Material: Papers in Honor of Sidney 

W. Mintz”, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 2002), New Orleans, LA. 

2003 TB and HIV/AIDS Control in Cuba. Department of Medicine Residency Program. Huron Hospital. 

Cleveland, OH. 

2003 Structural Violence in International Health: Blaming the HIV Patient. Graduate course on Health and 

Social Justice, dir. by Joy Marshall. Medical School, Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland, OH. 

2003 Cut and Tie: Cesarean Sections and Sterilizations in Mexico. Graduate course on Childbirth, Obstetrics, 

and Midwifery, directed by Robbie Davis-Floyd. Department of Anthropology. Case Western Reserve 

University. Cleveland, OH. 

2003 Health Impact of the Aid Embargo in Haiti. Department of Anthropology. Case Western Reserve 

University. Cleveland, OH. 

2003 AIDS Stigma and Public Health Failures, paper presented in the Public Policy Forum on “Health and Social 

Inequalities in the Time of AIDS,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 

2003), Chicago, IL. 

2003 Access to Medicines in Cuba: The Hampering and Burgeoning Effects of the Trade Embargo, by Arachu 

Castro, Lorena Barberia, and Viviana Togores, paper presented in the Society for Medical Anthropology 

Invited Session “Embargos, Structural Adjustment, and The War On The Poor: Critical Anthropology Of 

Health Perspectives,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 2003), Chicago, 

IL. 

2003 Global Governance and Institutions in the Fight Against AIDS, Conference on the Social Science of 

HIV/AIDS, Social Science Research Council (November 2003), New York, NY. 

24

2004 Global Resources: AIDS in Haiti, Seminar on Health Crisis: HIV/AIDS in Developing World Cities, 

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (February 2004), Washington, DC. 

2004 Medical Anthropologists as Advocates: Power, Suffering, and AIDS, invited paper presented at the Society 

for Medical Anthropology Plenary Presidential Session “Social Science and Advocacy”, Society for 

Applied Anthropology / Society for Medical Anthropology Meeting (March 2004), Dallas, TX. 

2004 International Public Health Pitfalls and Economic Arguments: The Fight Against AIDS in Cuba and Haiti, 

invited presentation at the conference “Rethinking “the Public” in Public Health: Neoliberalism, Structural 

Violence, and Epidemics of Inequality in Latin America,” Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, 

University of California at San Diego (April 2004), La Jolla, California. 

2004 AIDS in the Caribbean: The Challenging Experiences of Cuba and Haiti. Global Health Series Seminar 

Hunter College, New York, NY. 

2004 AIDS in Cuba: The Epidemic that did not Happen. World AIDS Day Global Health Night, Keynote 

Speech. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. 

2005 Between poverty and a hard place: Haiti’s environment and AIDS. Haiti Symposium, Keynote Lecture. 

Miami University, Oxford, OH. 

2005 Adherence and cost of treatment: The need for a biosocial approach in the understanding of user-fees and 

its impact on adherence to antiretrovirals, Session “Applying Critical Medical Anthropology in an Age of 

Neoliberalism,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (December 2005), Washington, 

DC. 

2006 Translating theories on adherence to operational research, Invited presentation at the Specialty Topic 

Session “Development of Theoretical Models for Adherence in Resource-Poor Settings.” International 

Conference on HIV Treatment Adherence, National Institute of Mental Health / International Association 

of Physicians in AIDS Care (March 2006). Jersey City, New Jersey. 

2006 Invited speaker, Sexuality, gender relations, and HIV in women: The impact of ART in elective 

pregnancies in Cuba, Meeting on The Social Impacts of ARV Scale Up: Developing an Interdisciplinary 

Research Agenda, Columbia University’s HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies (September 

2006), New York, New York. 

2006 The Right to Health in the Midst of Poverty: Health Seeking in Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti. Program in 

Latin American Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. 

2006 Tuberculosis control in Haiti: Political instability and access to health care for the poor, by Arachu Castro, 

Mary C. Smith Fawzi, Sarah Gillen, Joas Fleurimond, Leneus Joseph, Marie Andrela, Alexis, Richard 

D'Meza. Session “A Decade of Health Sector Reform: The Legacy of Neoliberalism,” American Public 

Health Association Annual Meeting (November 2006). Boston, Massachusetts. 

2006 Discussant, Session Should Anthropologists Intervene in the New War on the Poor? Health, Neoliberalism, 

and Human Rights. Committee for Human Rights of the American Association of Anthropology. American 

Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 2006), San José, California. 

2006 Session chair and co-organizer (with James Pfeiffer), Structural Violence: Power and Resistance in Access 

to Health, Invited session by the Society for Medical Anthropology. American Anthropological Association 

Annual Meeting (November 2006), San José, California. 

25

2006 Health Seeking and Structural Violence, Session “Structural Violence: Power and Resistance in Access to 

Health,” Invited session by the Society for Medical Anthropology. American Anthropological Association 

Annual Meeting (November 2006), San José, California. 

2007 Social Inequalities and Dengue Transmission in Latin America. Wenner-Gren Foundation Symposium 

“Plagues: Models and Metaphors in the Human Struggle with Disease” (September 2007), Tucson, 

Arizona. 

2007 Discussant, Session Immigration and Health Disparities: Case Studies of Survival and Resilience, 

organized by Julia A Cottle and Anahí Viladrich, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting 


2008 Understanding sexual risk in Cuban men prior to HIV diagnosis, American Anthropological Association 

Annual Meeting (November 2008), San Francisco, California. 

2008 Chair, Session HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, American Anthropological Association Annual 

Meeting (November 2008), San Francisco, California. 

2009 Integrating Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and Clinical Management of HIV and Syphilis: A Latin 

American and Caribbean Initiative. Lecture, Social Medicine Seminar and Global Health Week, Albert 

Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. 

2009 Global Health: Diagnosis and Treatment of HIV and Syphilis during Pregnancy in Latin America. Lecture, 

School of Health Sciences, Hunter College, The City University of New York, NY. 

Forthcoming: 

2009 HIV, Stigma, and Access to Treatment. Invited lecture. AIDS Institute, New York State Department of 

Health (April 2009), Albany, New York. 

2009 Prenatal testing for HIV and syphilis in Latin America, Invited speaker, Conference on Congenital Syphilis, 

A Public Health Issue of Concern: Focus on Latin America, The University at Albany Center for Global 

Health, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and New 

York State Department of Health (May 2009), Albany, New York. 

• International 

1989 Food Practices of Mexican-Americans in Tulare County, California. Lecture for the faculty and staff of the 

Department of Nutrition, University of California at Berkeley. 

1990 Food packages and packaging, 4 th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society 

ASFS (June 1990), Philadelphia, PA. 

1991 The Relevance of Anthropology in the Epidemiological Study of Nutrition. Lecture, Master of Medical 

Anthropology, University of Paris X at Nanterre (France). 

1991 Nutrition and Social Anthropology: North of Spain. Lecture, Groupe de Travail Anthropologie Alimentaire 

des Populations Traditionnelles, International Comission on the Anthropology of Food and Food Problems 

(ICAF). Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris (France). 

1991 Gender difference in food socialization among the villagers of the Cerdanya Valley in the Eastern 

Pyrenees, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (November 1991), Chicago, IL. 

26

1992 Nutritional Anthropology and the Acquisition of Food Practices. Lecture, 3rd Seminar on Community 

Nutrition, Public Health Division, and Health Studies Institute IES, Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain). 

1992 The role of anthropology in the implementation of food and nutrition policies, 11 th International Congress 

of Dietetics (March 1992), Jerusalem (Israel). 

1992 Anthropology applied to food and nutrition policies, 2 nd European Conference on Food and Nutrition 

Policy (April 1992), The Hague (Netherlands) Under the auspices of the World Health Organization, 

Regional Office for Europe. 

1992 The Sociocultural Research on Food. Lecture, Doctoral Program, Department of Social Anthropology, 


1992 Nutritional Anthropology. Master of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of 

Barcelona (Spain). A 12-hour course delivered to medical doctors. 

1992 Facts and fats: Culture, food intake, and public health in Northern Spain. International Multidisciplinary 

Conference on Food Choice (July 1992), Brussels (Belgium). 

1992 Applied anthropology and public health nutrition, 2 nd Biennial European Association of Social 

Anthropologists Conference (August 1992), Prague (Czech Republic). 

1992 From the family to the household: The contribution of the social sciences in the study of malnutrition, 4 th 

National Congress of Sociology (September 1992), Madrid (Spain). 

1992 International Conference on Nutrition (December 1992) Rome (Italy). Organized by FAO and WHO. 

Member of the Delegation of Spain, Ministry of Agriculture. 

1995 Anthropology and food practices. Municipality of Córdoba (Argentina). Lecture organized by the School of 

Nutrition, Division of Medical Sciences, National University of Córdoba (Argentina). 

1995 Sociocultural factors of nutrition throughout the life cycle. A two-hour lecture in the Psycho-Sociology 

course. School of Nutrition, Division of Medical Sciences, National University of Córdoba (Argentina). 

1995 Sociocultural aspects of nutrition and breastfeeding. Lecture, Argentinean Society of Pediatrics, Córdoba 

(Argentina). 

1997 The decision-making process in the sociocultural construction of breastfeeding. A two-hour lecture to 

postgraduate students in Cognitive Anthropology. Department of Anthropology, University of Barcelona 

(Spain). 

1997 Sociocultural constructions of breastfeeding: A comparative approach of motherhood in contemporary 

women. A two-hour lecture in the doctoral seminar “Advanced sociology”, directed by Jesús M. de Miguel. 


1998 Qualitative analysis of health data. A two-hour lecture. National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 

(Mexico). 

1998 The epidemic of cesarean sections in Latin America. A two-hour lecture to Latin American physicians 

enrolled in a South to South Cooperation Training in Public Health. Ministry of Health, Mexico City 

(Mexico). 

27

1998 Chair and Discussant, Breastfeeding and Work in Latin America, First Latin American Conference of the 

Lacmat Network (October 1998), La Plata, Argentina. 

1999 Epidemic of Cesarean Sections in Latin America. A two-hour lecture to doctoral students. Center of 

Demographic Studies, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra (Spain). 

1999 Round-table participant, Expectations and Motivations to Participating in Clinical Research: Incorporating 

the Participant’s Perspective into Research Protocols, Revising the Declaration of Helsinki: A Fresh Start, 

organized by the Bulletin of Medical Ethics and The European Forum for Good Clinical Practice. The 

Royal Society of Medicine (September 1999), London, United Kingdom. 

2000 Health Priorities and Health Research in Latin America, co-authored with Paul Farmer. A WHO Workshop 

on Ethical Review Committees in Latin American Countries. Colegio de México (October 2000), Mexico 

City, Mexico. 

2000 Ethical Cases of International Health Research. A one-hour lecture in the course Ethical Issues of 

International Health Research. National Institute of Public Health and Harvard School of Public Health, 

Cuernavaca (Mexico). 

2000 Health Priorities and Health Research in Latin America. A two-hour lecture to graduate students. FLACSO 

(Latin American School of Social Sciences), Buenos Aires (Argentina). 

2001 Social Conditions Affecting the Increase of Aedes aegypti and Dengue Transmission: The Mexico-US 

Border. A two-hour lecture. 7 th International Course on Dengue. Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro 


2002 Increasing Access to HIV/AIDS Drugs, including Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy. Pan American 

Health Organization Regional Technical Consultation, Regional Forum 2002: The Challenges of the 

HIV/AIDS Pandemic for the Reform and Strengthening of Health Systems and Services in Latin America 

and the Caribbean (February 2002). Ocho Ríos, Jamaica. 

2002 The Setting of Health Priorities in Cuba in the Last Four Decades, paper presented in the session “Global 

Health and Lessons from the Cuban Revolution”, International Health Medical Education Committee 

Meeting (March 2002), Havana, Cuba. 

2002 Session co-organizer (with Linda Whiteford): Global Health and Lessons from the Cuban Revolution, 

International Health Medical Education Consortium Meeting (March 2002), Havana, Cuba. 

2002 The Impact of Health Systems Reform in the Control and Prevention of Tuberculosis, PAHO Expert 

Consultation Meeting on the Impact of Health Systems Reform on the Control and Prevention of Infectious 

Diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean (April 2002), Havana, Cuba. 

2002 The Impact of Health Systems Reform in the Control and Prevention of Tuberculosis, paper presented in 

the Plenary Session at the International Convention in Public Health 2002 (May 2002), Havana, Cuba. 

2002 The Political Economy of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, paper presented at the 

International Convention in Public Health 2002 (May 2002), Havana, Cuba. 

2002 Care, treatment and support of HIV/AIDS patients in rural Haiti, paper presented at the Canadian 

International Development Agency (CIDA) Expert Consultation Meeting on Building Comprehensive 

28

Approaches to HIV/AIDS Care, Treatment and Support in Resource Limited Settings (June 2002), 

Ottawa, Canada. 

2002 Redefining Infrastructure: untapped potential of a Peruvian community-based organization for delivering 

anti retroviral therapy, by M C Arbour, Z Montin, J S Mukherjee, J Y Kim, J Bayona, A Castro, A M 

Chavez, poster presented at the 14 th International AIDS Conference (July 2002), Barcelona, Spain. 

2002 Developing a clinical algorithm for the use of HAART in Rural Haiti, by P Farmer, F Leandre, J S 

Mukherjee, M S Claude, P Nevil, M C Smith Fawzi, S P Koenig, A Castro, M C Becerra, M Addo, B 

Walker, J Y Kim, abstract accepted, the 14 th International AIDS Conference (July 2002), Barcelona, Spain. 

2002 The use of HAART in children in Rural Haiti, by J S Mukherjee, P Farmer, F Leandre, M S Claude, P 

Nevil, M C Smith Fawzi, S P Koenig, A Castro, M C Becerra, M Addo, B Walker, J Y Kim, abstract 

accepted, the 14 th International AIDS Conference (July 2002), Barcelona, Spain. 

2002 Community-based approaches to HIV treatment in resource-poor settings, by P Farmer, F Leandre, J S 

Mukherjee, M S Claude, P Nevil, M C Smith-Fawzi, S P Koenig, A Castro, M C Becerra, M Addo, B 

Walker, J Y Kim, abstract accepted, the 14 th International AIDS Conference (July 2002), Barcelona, Spain. 

2002 Maximizing adherence and prevention of resistance through directly observed therapy: DOT-HAART, by 

F Léandre, P Farmer, JS Mukherjee, MS Claude, P Nevil, MC Smith Fawzi, SP Koenig, A Castro, MC 

Becerra, M Addo, B Walker, JY Kim, poster presented at the 14 th International AIDS Conference (July 

2002), Barcelona, Spain. 

2002 Session chair: Issues in Community-Based Research, 14 th International AIDS Conference (July 2002), 

Barcelona, Spain. 

2002 The Political Economy of the Prevention of Postnatal Transmission of HIV, by A Castro and JS Mukherjee, 

poster presented at the 14 th International AIDS Conference (July 2002), Barcelona, Spain. 

2002 Medical Anthropology and Epidemiological Research. Lecture. Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí. 

Havana, Cuba. 

2002 Responses to Infectious Diseases: HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, Invited paper, 3 rd European Molecular 

Biology Institute and European Molecular Biology Organization Joint Conference on Science and Society 

(November 2002), Heidelberg, Germany. 

2003 Rapporteur of the Working Group on Epidemiological Surveillance, Meeting on the Prevention of Maternal 

Mortality in Haiti. Haitian Ministry of Public Health, Pan American Health Organization, and Cuban 

Cooperation in Haiti (March 2003), Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 

2003 Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Care in rural Haiti: The Experience of Partners In Health, Invited Round Table 

Presentation, 2nd Latin American Forum on HIV/AIDS (April 2003), Havana, Cuba. 

2003 Socio-Political Determinants of HIV Infection in Latin America and the Caribbean, Invited Plenary 

Lecture, 2nd Latin American Forum on HIV/AIDS (April 2003), Havana, Cuba. 

2003 Opportunities for Anthropology in HIV/AIDS: Reflections on the Role of Anthropology in the 

Understanding and Managing of Stigma from Theory to Practice, Invited Plenary Lecture, Symposium on 

Challenging Expectations, Expecting Challenges: Practitioners and Researchers Confront HIV/AIDS (June 

2003), University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. 

29

2003 Social Conditions Affecting the Increase of Aedes aegypti and Dengue Transmission in Latin America. A 

one-hour lecture. 8 th International Course on Dengue. Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí. Havana, 

Cuba. 

2003 Social Conditions Affecting the Increase of Aedes aegypti and Dengue Transmission in Latin America: The 

Case of Haiti. A one-hour lecture. 8 th International Course on Dengue. Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro 


2003 AIDS and Medical Anthropology: Qualitative Research and the Life History. Institute of Tropical Medicine 

Pedro Kourí. Havana, Cuba. A 20-hour course delivered to psychologists, pharmacologists, and social 

workers. 

2003 Ideology, Power, and Inequality: Urgency and Inaction in the Fight against HIV/AIDS, paper presented at 

the conference “Inequality, Globalization, and Reemergence of Infectious Disease in Latin America.” 

Organized by the Laboratory on Social Sciences (LACSO), the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation School of Public 

Health, and the Social, Economical and Behavioral Research Committee of the Special Programme for 

Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, TDR, World Bank-UNDP-WHO (October 2003), Angra dos 

Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

2004 Social Inequalities, Drug Resistant TB, and Co-Infection HIV-TB. Course on TB in the New Millenium: 

TB, AIDS and Multi-Drug Resistance. Institute of Tropical Medicine IPK, Havana, Cuba. 

2004 Socio-cultural Factors in the Prevention of HIV Transmission. Course on TB in the New Millenium: TB, 

AIDS and Multi-Drug Resistance. Institute of Tropical Medicine IPK, Havana, Cuba. 

2004 Social Forces and Drug Resistance: The Impact of Poverty and Social Inequalities, invited presentation at 

the Tropical Disease Research Symposium 2004 on Social, Economic and Biological Determinants of the 

Emergence and Spread of Drug and Insecticide Resistance, UNICEF/UNDP/WORLDBANK/UNICEF/ 

WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and Noguchi Memorial Institute 

for Medical Research (May 2004), Accra, Ghana. 

2004 Social Inequality and Dengue Transmission in Latin America, by Arachu Castro (presenter), Yasmin 

Khawja, Jay Johnston, Michael Herce, and Paul Farmer. Invited presentation at the International 

Conference on Dengue and Yellow Fever, Cuban Ministry of Public Health, World Health Organization, 

Pan American Health Organization, and UNICEF/UNDP/WORLDBANK/UNICEF/WHO Special 

Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (June 2004), Havana, Cuba. 

2004 Allocating Resources to AIDS Program in the Caribbean, invited presentation at the Conference on 

“Current Challenges and Perspectives of Health Systems in Latin America: Universal Social Protection and 

the Fight Against AIDS,” Brazilian Ministry of Health, GTZ, and Pan American Health Organization (June 

2004), Brasilia, Brazil. 

2004 New ways of managing and sharing knowledge for scale-up, Expert Consultation on Operational Research 

for HIV Treatment Scale-up in Resource-Limited Settings, World Health Organization (July 2004), 

Geneva, Switzerland. 

2004 Adherence and Cost of Treatment: The Need for a Biosocial Approach in the Understanding of User-Fees 

and its Impact on Adherence to Antiretrovirals, by A Castro and P Farmer, poster presented at the 15 th 

International AIDS Conference (July 2004), Bangkok, Thailand. Poster number WePeB5809. 

30

2004 Public Health Pitfalls: The Use of Economic Arguments to Fight AIDS in the Caribbean, by A Castro and P 

Farmer, poster presented at the 15 th International AIDS Conference (July 2004), Bangkok, Thailand. Poster 

number ThPeE7950. 

2004 AIDS-Related Stigma and Access to Comprehensive AIDS Care: From Social Theory to Clinical Practice 

in rural Haiti, by A Castro, F Léandre, M Raymonville, and P Farmer, poster presented at the 15 th 

International AIDS Conference (July 2004), Bangkok, Thailand. Poster number ThPeB7150. 

2004 Social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS on food security and nutritional status, Invited Speaker, 

Scientific Meeting to Commemorate the 55 th Anniversary of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America 

and Panama, INCAP (September 2004), Guatemala City, Guatemala. 

2004 Acting Chair, Health Systems Working Group. International Workshop on Implementing Operational 

Research For HIV Treatment Scale-Up In Low-Resource Settings, Department of HIV/AIDS, World 

Health Organization, and UNICEF/UNDP/WORLDBANK/UNICEF/WHO Special Programme for 

Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (December 2004), Kampala, Uganda. 

2005 Chair, Workshop on Resource Allocation Practices in the Prevention and Care of AIDS in the Caribbean, 

co-sponsored by the Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP), the Program in Infectious 

Disease and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American 

Studies at Harvard University, and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí (March 2005), Havana, 

Cuba. 

2005 On the right to health, Plenary lecture at the 2 nd People’s Health Assembly (July 2005), Cuenca, Ecuador. 

2005 Paying for health care and medications. Why in poor settings?, invited presentation at the 2 nd People’s 

Health Assembly (July 2005), Cuenca, Ecuador. 

2005 Conceptual and practical barriers to health, invited presentation at the 2 nd People’s Health Assembly (July 

2005), Cuenca, Ecuador. 

2005 Factors Associated with Late Presentation for HIV Care Among Patients in Hinche, Central Haiti, by C 

Louis, L Ivers, K Freedberg, MC Smith Fawzi, A Castro, J Georges, F Bia, 3 rd International AIDS Society 

Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment (July 2005), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 



Cuba. 

2005 Introduction to Qualitative Research. A 24-hour course. Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí. 

Havana, Cuba. 

2005 Tuberculosis control in social context, 2 nd Scientific Working Group Meeting on Tuberculosis. 

UNICEF/UNDP/WORLDBANK/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical 

Diseases (October 2005), Geneva, Switzerland. 

2005 The complexity of studying adherence to antiretroviral therapy, Seminar on Infectious Disease and Medical 

Anthropology, Group on Medical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Universidad de los Andes 

(October 2005), Bogota, Colombia. 

31

2005 Primary care in politically marginalized areas: Community health workers developing clinical services in 

rural Chiapas, by Holt CT, Herce M, Castro A, Mukherjee J, 133 rd Annual Meeting of the American Public 

Health Association (December 2005), Philadelphia, PA. Poster number 107241. 

2006 Social vulnerability and health-seeking behavior, International Workshop on Equitable Access to Health 

Care and Infectious Disease Control: Concepts, Measurement and Interventions, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz 

and UN Program on Tropical Disease Research (February 2006), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

2006 Stigma and Adherence to Antiretrovirals: A Biosocial Approach. Lecture, University of Fortaleza, Brazil. 

2006 AIDS and Inequality in the Caribbean, Latin American Studies Association Annual Meeting (March 2006), 

San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

2006 Methodological approaches of the social sciences in public health, Plenary session, Conference on the 

Contributions of the Social Sciences to Public Health and HIV/AIDS Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, 

Medicus Mundi (April 2006), Barcelona, Spain. 

2006 Women living with HIV in Cuba: the impact of ART on elective pregnancies, by González-Núñez I, 

Khawja Y, Castro A, Díaz-Jidy M, Pérez-Ávila J, 16 th International AIDS Conference (August 2006), 

Toronto, Canada. Abstract number CDD1072. 

2006 Towards universal access to health: The challenge of poverty for public health programs. Opening lecture. 

International Conference on Responsibility, Justice, and Exclusion. Which Health Systems for which 

Objectives? (November 2006). Québec City. 

2006 Invited speaker, Sexuality, gender relations and women’s rights: A social science approach to the 

understanding of HIV transmission, Task Force meeting on Women, Children, and the HIV/AIDS 

Pandemic in Africa: Overcoming Obstacles to the Provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services 

Through a Combined Social Science/Public Health Perspective,” Medicus Mundi Catalunya and Spanish 

International Cooperation Agency (AECI) (November 2006), Barcelona, Spain. 

2006 AIDS in the Caribbean: Social Impact, Invited speaker, International Workshop of WHO Collaborating 

Centers and Institutions of Scientific Excellence, World Health Organization, Pan American Health 

Organization, and Cuban Ministry of Public Health (November 2006), Havana, Cuba. 

2006 Rapporteur, Plenary Session Knowledge Networks of WHO Collaborative Centers and Institutions of 

Scientific Excellence in Latin America and the Caribbean and their role in the Millennium Development 

Goals, International Workshop of WHO Collaborating Centers and Institutions of Scientific Excellence, 

World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization, and Cuban Ministry of Public Health 

(November 2006), Havana, Cuba. 

2006 The impact of ART on quality of life of people living with AIDS in Cuba, by Arachu Castro and Carlos 

Aragonés. Invited speakers, 2006 National Forum of Health Research and Innovation (FIINSA), Cuban 

Ministry of Public Health and Pan American Health Organization (November 2006), Havana, Cuba. 

2006 Sexuality, gender relations, and HIV transmission in Cuba, Workshop on Sexuality, Gender Relations and 

HIV Transmission in Cuba, National Center for Sex Education (December 2006), Havana, Cuba. 

2006 Public Health Interventions: Infectious Disease and Social Epidemiology, Workshop on Social 

Epidemiology, El Colegio de Sonora and CIESAS (December 2006), Cuernavaca, Mexico. 

32

2006 AIDS in the Caribbean, Panel following the documentary “The Origin of AIDS,” Bahamas International 

Film Festival (December 2006), Nassau, Bahamas. 

2006 Medical anthropology and international health. A three-hour course, Doctoral Program in Medical 

Anthropology. Department of Anthropology, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. 

2007 The right to health and social inclusion in Venezuela. A two-hour course. Doctoral Program in Public 

Health. National University of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia. 

2007 Sexuality, gender relations and HIV transmission in Cuba. Lecture, National University of Colombia, 

Bogotá, Colombia. 



Cuba. 

2007 The trajectory of pregnant women in their search for health care. Training session of the MTCT national 

prevention strategy, Ministry of Social Protection and UNICEF, Department of Health of Córdoba, 

Colombia. Montería, Colombia. 

2007 The trajectory of pregnant women in their search for health care. Training session of the MTCT national 

prevention strategy, Ministry of Social Protection and UNICEF, Department of Health of La Guajira, 

Colombia. Riohacha, Colombia. 

2007 Barrio Adentro: Responding to the Health Needs of the poor in Venezuela, by María Esperanza Martínez, 

Sarai Vivas, and Arachu Castro. Session “The Science, Politics and Everyday Life of Latin American 

Health Care Reform. Latin American Studies Association Meeting (September 2007), Montreal, Quebec, 

Canada. 

2007 Invited speaker, Equity in access to health care. International Seminar on Equity in Health, National 

University of Colombia (October 2007). Bogotá, Colombia. 

2007 HIV, vulnerability, and risk. A four-hour lecture. 1 st Course on Human Development and HIV/AIDS, 

Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS (COPRESIDA) and United Nations Development Fund (UNDP). Santo 

Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

2007 HIV, poverty, and pregnancy. A four-hour lecture. 1 st Course on Human Development and HIV/AIDS, 

Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS (COPRESIDA) and United Nations Development Fund (UNDP). Santo 

Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

2007 Objectives and Strategic Planning. 1st Meeting of The Latin America and Caribbean Prenatal Testing 

Initiative of Horizontal Cooperation in the Integration of Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and Treatment of 

HIV and Syphilis. Panama City, Panama. 

2008 Research Methodology. 2nd Meeting of The Latin America and Caribbean Prenatal Testing Initiative of 

Horizontal Cooperation in the Integration of Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and Treatment of HIV and 

Syphilis. Bogotá, Colombia. 

2008 Social Science Research in Health. Invited speaker. 90 th Anniversary of the School of Public Health, 

University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. 

2008 Qualitative Research in Health. Opening lecture, 3 rd Iberoamerican Congress on Qualitative Health 

Research. Graduate School of Public Health, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

33

2008 The Latin America and Caribbean Prenatal Testing Initiative of Horizontal Cooperation in the Integration 

of Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and Treatment of HIV and Syphilis, by A. Castro, N. Aguayo, F. 

Amado, A. M. Barboza, C. Bautista, J. Bayona, S. Caicedo, J. Calderón, M. Connolly, N. Corredor, L. 

Cuevas, J. R. Espinoza, R. García, V. López, R. Luque, L. Matida, R. Mazin, K. McPhillips, S. Moraga, C. 

Núñez, J. Pérez, C. Possas, J.L. Sebastián, M. Sendic Sudbrack, G. Tambini, C. Yamin, poster accepted for 

presentation, the 17 th International AIDS Conference (August 2008), Mexico City, Mexico. 

2008 Quality of Life of People Living with AIDS and Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Cuba, by C. 

Aragonés López, J. Pérez Ávila, J.R. Campos Díaz, Y. Khawja, A. Castro, poster accepted for presentation, 

the 17 th International AIDS Conference (August 2008), Mexico City, Mexico. 

2008 Increase in elective pregnancies among women living with HIV in Cuba: The impact of universal access to 

antiretroviral therapy, by I. González-Núñez, Y. Khawja, A. Castro, poster accepted for presentation, the 

17 th International AIDS Conference (August 2008), Mexico City, Mexico. 

2008 Vulnerability and risk: Anthropological and epidemiological perspectives to understand the spread of HIV. 

Invited speaker, Roundtable on Risk: Social Sciences, Philosophy, Communication and Epidemiology, 18 th 

World Congress of Epidemiology. Porto Alegre, Brazil. 

2008 Health and Social Inclusion in Venezuela, Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action 

on the Social Determinants of Health, Commission on Social Determinants of Health. London, UK. 

2009 The Latin American and Caribbean Initiative for the Integration of Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and 

Clinical Management of HIV and Syphilis, Presidential Council on AIDS (COPRESIDA) (January 2009), 

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

Forthcoming: 

2009 Strengthening of prenatal care in the response to HIV and syphilis: The Experience of Eight Countries in 

Latin America and the Caribbean, 5th Latin American and Caribbean Forum on HIV/AIDS and Sexually 

Transmitted Infections (June 2009), Lima, Peru. 

Report of Education of Patients and Service to the Community 

Activities 

1982-3 English. Educational program for Mexican-American children attending Santa Cruz Primary School. 

Santa Clara County Board of Education, CA. 

1992 Food practices in la Rioja. Lecture organized by the Rioja Friendship Association, Logroño (Spain). 

1998 A historical analysis of animal and vegetal fat intake in Northern Spain. A two-hour lecture. Culinary 

Historians of Boston, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA. 

2000 Medical Anthropology and Microfinance. Discussant in a panel discussion on the documentary “Sixteen 

Decisions.” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. 

2004 Discussant to the film “A Closer Walk,” 38 Cameron, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

34

Report of Scholarship 

Publications 

Research Investigations in Anthropological and Public Health Books 

Arachu Castro, 1998, Saber bien: Cultura y prácticas alimentarias en la Rioja. Logroño, Spain: Gobierno de La 

Rioja, Consejería de Salud and Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, 234 pp. ISBN 84-89362-43-2. 

Arachu Castro and Merrill Singer (eds.), 2004, Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination. 

Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 384 pp. ISBN 0-7591-0511-1 (paper) and 0-7591-0510-3 (cloth). 

Arachu Castro, Renato Gusmão, M. Esperanza Martínez, Sarai Vivas (eds.), 2006, Barrio Adentro: Derecho a la 

salud e inclusión social en Venezuela. Caracas: Pan American Health Organization, 152 pp. ISBN 980-6678-02-8. 

[English translation: Mission Barrio Adentro: The Right to Health and Social Inclusión in Venezuela. 135 pp.; 

French translation: Barrio Adentro : Le droit à la santé et à l’inclusion sociale au Venezuela. 163 pp.]. 

Research Investigations 

Arachu Castro, “Emigración y hábitos alimentarios”, Revista Rol de Enfermería 14:151, pp. 91-93 (March 1991). 

Arachu Castro, “Para un análisis socioantropológico de las prácticas de alimentación”, Revista Española de 

Investigaciones Sociológicas 53, pp. 199-222 (November 1991). 

Arachu. Castro, “Envases alimentarios o alimentos envasados”, Arxiu d’Etnografia de Catalunya 7, pp. 137-149 

(May 1991). 

H. M. Macbeth, A.M. Green, and Arachu Castro: “Gender differences in adolescents views about food: A study of 

teenage food preferences in a Pyrenean Valley”, Social Biology and Human Affairs 55:2, pp. 79-92 (November 

1991). 

Arachu Castro, “La antropología aplicada a las políticas de alimentación y nutrición”, Revista Rol de Enfermería 

15:169, pp. 75-78 (September 1992). 

Arachu Castro, “L’especificitat de l’antropologia en els estudis d’alimentació”, Revista d’Etnologia de Catalunya 

2, p. 64-71 (February 1993). 

Arachu Castro, “Anthropology applied to food and nutrition policies”, in D.G. van der Heij et al (eds) Food and 

Nutrition Policy in Europe, pp. 189-195 (Wageningen, Netherlands, Pudoc Scientific Publishers, 1993). 

Arachu Castro, “La fixité dans l’utilisation des graisses mise en question: Changements dans l’Espagne du nord au 

long du XXème siècle”, Techniques & Culture 31-32: 161-174 (January-December 1998). 

Arachu Castro, “Sociocultural Constructions of Breastfeeding and Weaning: A Comparative Study of French, 

Maghrebian, and South-East Asian Women Living in France”, PRAE, Quaderni del Centro Scientifico Regionale di 

Prevenzione Sanitaria 1:3. Milan: Aisthesis, 1998. 

Arachu Castro and Laure Marchand-Lucas, “Does Authoritative Knowledge in Infant Nutrition Lead to Successful 

Breastfeeding? A Critical Perspective”, in Linda M. Whiteford and Lenore H. Manderson (eds.) Global Health 

Policy, Local Realities: The Fallacy of the Level Playing Field. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000, pp. 233-263. 

Paul Farmer, Fernet Léandre, Joia S. Mukherjee, Marie Sidonise Claude, Patrice Nevil, Mary C. Smith-Fawzi, 

Serena P. Koenig, Arachu Castro, Mercedes C. Becerra, Jeffrey Sachs, Amir Attaran, Jim Yong Kim, 2001, 

“Community-based approaches to HIV treatment in resource-poor settings”, Lancet 358:404-409. 

35

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “Infectious Disease in Haiti: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Social Inequalities”, 

EMBO Reports 4 (6s):S20-S23; 2003. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “Violence structurelle, mondialisation et tuberculose multirésistante”, 

Anthropologie et Sociétés 27(2):23-40; 2003. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “El sida y la violencia estructural: La culpabilización de la víctima”, Cuadernos de 

Antropología Social 17:31-49; 2003. 

Jim Y. Kim, Aaron Shakow, Arachu Castro, Chris Vanderwarker, and Paul Farmer, “Tuberculosis Control”, in 

Richard Smith, Robert Beaglehole, David Woodward and Nick Drager (eds.) Global Public Goods for Health: 

Health Economic and Public Health Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 54-72. 

Paul Farmer and Arachu Castro, “Pearls of the Antilles? Public Health in Haiti and Cuba,” in Arachu Castro and 

Merrill Singer (eds.), Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination. Walnut Creek, CA: 

Altamira Press, 2004, pp. 3-28. (Recipient of the 2005 Rudolf Virchow Award). 

Arachu Castro, “Contracepting at Childbirth: The Integration of Reproductive Health and Population Policies in 

Mexico,” in Arachu Castro and Merrill Singer (eds.), Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological 

Examination. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2004, pp. 133-144. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “¿Perlas del Caribe? La salud pública en Haití y Cuba,” Revista Colombiana de 

Antropología 40:319-352; 2004. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “Health and Economic Development”, in Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember 

(eds.), Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World’s Cultures. New York: Springer, 

2004, pp. 164-170. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “Understanding and Addressing AIDS-Related Stigma: From Anthropological 

Theory to Clinical Practice in Haiti,” American Journal of Public Health 95(1):53-59; 2005. 

Arachu Castro, “Adherence to antiretroviral therapy: Merging the clinical and social course of AIDS,” PLoS 

Medicine 2(12): 1217-1221(e338); 2005. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “El estigma del sida y su evolución social: Una visión desde Haití,” Revista de 

Antropología Social 14:127-146; 2005. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “L’anthropologie médicale aux États-Unis”, in Francine Saillant and Serge Genest 

(eds.), Anthropologie médicale: ancrages locaux, défis globaux. Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2005, pp. 

91-112; Paris: Anthropos Economica, 2005. 

César E. Abadía-Barrero and Arachu Castro, “Experiences of Stigma and Access to HAART in Children and 

Adolescents Living with HIV/AIDS in Brazil,” Social Science & Medicine 62:1219-1228; 2006. 

Michael Westerhaus and Arachu Castro, “How do Intellectual Property Law and International Trade Agreements 

Affect Access to Antiretroviral Therapy?” PLoS Medicine 3(8): e332; 2006. 

Arachu Castro, “Ciencias sociales, medicina y salud pública: Un encuentro en torno al sida”, Temas 47:15-21; 

2006. 

36

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “Medical anthropology in the United States,” in Francine Saillant and Serge 

Genest (eds.), Medical Anthropology: Regional Perspectives and Shared Concerns. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006, 

pp. 42-57. 

Arachu Castro and Michael Westerhaus, “¿Libertad o monopolio? Patentes, tratados comerciales y acceso a 

tratamientos con antirretrovirales,” in Quaderns de l’Institut Català d’Antropologia 22:21-45; 2006. 

Arachu Castro and Michael Westerhaus, “Access to Generic Antiretrovirals: Inequality, Intellectual Property Law, 

and International Trade Agreements,” Cadernos de Saúde Pública 23(S1):585-596; 2007. 

Coeurlida Louis, Louise C. Ivers, Mary C. Smith Fawzi, Kenneth A. Freedberg, Arachu Castro, “Late presentation 

for HIV care in Central Haiti: Factors limiting access to care,” AIDS Care 19(4):487-491; 2007. 

Arachu Castro, Yasmin Khawja, Ida González-Núñez, “Sexuality, reproduction, and HIV in women: The impact of 

ART in elective pregnancies in Cuba,” AIDS 21(S5):S49-S54; 2007. 

Arachu Castro, “Sexualidad y relaciones de género en la transmisión de VIH: Propuestas de investigación en el área 

de la prevención,” in Maria Cristina Álvarez, Esther Leandro, Susan DiGiacomo, Yamina Guidoum (eds.), Mujer, 

Sida y Acceso a la Salud en África Subsahariana: Enfoque crítico desde las ciencias sociales. Barcelona: Medicus 

Mundi Catalunya, 2007, pp. 88-93. 

Arachu Castro, “Violencia contra la mujer, sexualidad y vivencia del VIH,” Sobre Violência contra as Mulheres e a 

Vivência de HIV/AIDS. Recife, Brazil: Instituto Sois, 2008. 

Michael Westerhaus and Arachu Castro, “Inverting the Killer Commodity Model: Withholding Medicines from the 

Poor,” in Merrill Singer and Hans Baer (eds.) Killer Commodities: A Critical Anthropological Examination of 

Corporate Products and Public Health. Berkeley, CA: Altamira Press (2008). 

Arachu Castro, Yasmin Khawja, and James Johnston, “Social Inequalities and Dengue Transmission in Latin 

America,” in Plagues, Epidemics, and Ideas, edited by Ann Herring and Alan Swedlund. New York, Oxford: Berg 

Publishers (expected 2009). 

Arachu Castro, “En estado de buena esperanza: Análisis de la experiencia reproductiva en mujeres con VIH en 

Cuba,” in El planteamiento de una epidemiología sociocultural: Un diálogo en torno a su sentido, métodos y 

alcances, edited by Eduardo L. Menéndez, Jesús Armando Haro and Paul Hersch. Buenos Aires: Lugar (expected 

2009). 

Other peer-reviewed publications 

Arachu Castro, “Le Colostrum”, Médecine et Nutrition 33:6, pp. 247-248 (December 1997). 

Arachu Castro, 1999, “Commentary: Increase in caesarean sections may reflect medical control not women’s 

choice”, British Medical Journal 319:1401-1402, http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/319/7222/1397#resp2. 

(Commissioned editorial). 

Arachu Castro, Angela Heimburger and Ana Langer, Iatrogenic Epidemic: How Health Care Professionals 

Contribute to the High Proportion of Cesarean Sections in Mexico. Working Papers on Latin America, Paper No. 

02/03-3. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, 2002, 42 

pp. 

Arachu Castro, “Sobre el derecho a la salud,” Revista Cubana de Salud Pública 32:1 (2006). 

37

Arachu Castro, “In and Out: User Fees and Other Unfortunate Events during Hospital Admission and Discharge,” 

in Cadernos de Saúde Pública 24(5):1174-1178; 2008. 

Arachu Castro, “Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis in Latin America and the 

Caribbean,” in Challenges Posed by the HIV Epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean 2009. Washington, DC: 

Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNAIDS, 2009 (in press). 

Research Publications without Named Authorship 

Individual Members of the Faculty of Harvard University, “Consensus Statement on Antiretroviral Treatment for 

AIDS in Poor Countries”, Topics in HIV Medicine 9(2):14-24; 2001. 

Partners In Health and the World Health Organization (eds.), Global Plan to Stop TB. New York: Partners In 

Health, World Health Organization, Open Society Institute, and World Bank, 190 pp, 2002. (Editor and co-author 

of all chapters). 

Althabe F, Belizán JM, Villar J, Alexander S, Bergel E, Ramos S, et al. Mandatory second opinion to reduce rates 

of unnecessary caesarean sections in Latin America: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Lancet 363:1934-1940; 

2004. 

Proceedings of meetings or other non-peer reviewed research publications 

Arachu Castro and J.M. García Jorba: “La transición de la actividad laboral a la jubilación”, in La prejubilación en 

España: ¿Un reto para el futuro?, pp. 215-226. Barcelona, Spain: Fundació Caixa de Pensions, 1990. 

Arachu Castro, Yasmin Khawja, and Ida González-Núñez, “Giving Birth, Contesting Stigma: Cuban Women 

Living with HIV,” A Cautious Hope: HIV/AIDS in Latin America, NACLA Report on the Americas July/August 

2008:25-29, 40. 

Arachu Castro, “Barrio Adentro: A Look at the Origins of a Social Mission,” in Revista, Harvard Review of Latin 

America 8(1)78-81; Fall 2008. 

Reviews, chapters, monographs and editorials 

Arachu Castro and Miguel Muñoz: “Entrevista a Mary Douglas”, Antropologies, pp. 37-39 (April 1987). 

Arachu Castro, “Nutritional Anthropology in Spain?”, Anthropology Newsletter 32:3, p. 9 (March 1991). 

Arachu Castro, Alimentación, Cultura, y Grasas: Un proyecto de salud pública nutricional para la población de La 

Rioja. Logroño, Spain: Consejería de Salud, Consumo y Bienestar Social, 1991. 

Arachu Castro, “Anthropologie, nutrition et santé publique”, Information Diététique 3, pp. 29-32 (November 1992). 

Arachu Castro, “Anthropologie, nutrition et santé publique (2)”, Information Diététique 4/1993, pp. 15-18 

(December 1993). 

Arachu Castro and J. MacClancy “Food”, in Maryon McDonald (éd) Towards an Anthropology of European 

Union. (Report for the Europena Commission), pp. 15-18. Brussels: European Comission, 1994. 

Arachu Castro, “Antropología y prácticas alimentarias”, Hoy 5:29 (July 1995). 

Arachu Castro, “Alimentation et culture: Aspects culturels de l’alimentation dans les cinq continents”, Information 

38

Diététique 3/1995, pp. 29-31 (December 1995). 

Arachu Castro, Le regard ethnologique sur l’alimentation des enfants. Paris: ANVIE (Association Nationale pour 

la Valorisation Interdisciplinaire de la Recherche en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société auprès des Entreprises), 

1996. 

Arachu Castro, Perceptions des aliments et culture. Paris: ANVIE (Association Nationale pour la Valorisation 

Interdisciplinaire de la Recherche en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société auprès des Entreprises), 1997. 

Arachu Castro, La Operación Cesárea en México: Un Estudio Cualitativo con Mujeres y Profesionales de la Salud. 

Mexico: The Population Council Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1998. 

Arachu Castro, Hacia una mejor calidad de la atención en salud reproductiva: Autopercepción del riesgo de 

infección del tracto reproductivo en usuarias de un servicio de planificación familiar en México. Mexico: 

Population Council Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1999. 

Francis P. Crawley and Arachu Castro, Antiretroviral Interventions to Reduce the Transmission of HIV Infection 

from Mother-to-Child: Ethical and Social Considerations for Health Care Systems. A UNAIDS Ethical Review 

Committee Position Paper. Geneva: UNAIDS, 1999. 

Claude Bruderlein and Arachu Castro, Desk Review of Operation Lifeline Sudan Reports: An Internal Document. 

New York: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 1999. 

Arachu Castro and Joyce V. Millen, “Interest Group Report: Critical Anthropology of Health”, Anthropology 

Newsletter, p. 79 (May 2000). 

Arachu Castro and Joyce V. Millen, “Praxis, Policy and the Poor: Critical Ethnography of International Health 

Policies”, Anthropology Newsletter, p. 61 (January 2001). 

Arachu Castro, Paul Farmer, Karem Harth, Jim Y. Kim, Eduardo Levcovitz, Daniel López-Acuña, Joia S. 

Mukherjee, Hernán Rosemberg, Patricia Schroeder, Edwina Yen, The Challenge of the HIV-AIDS Pandemic for the 

Reform and Strengthening of Health Systems and Services in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington: Pan 

American Health Organization and Partners In Health, 2002. 

Lorena Barbería, Arachu Castro, Paul Farmer, Carrie Farmer, Renato Gusmao, Jim Y. Kim, Eduardo Levcovitz, 

Daniel López-Acuña, Kedar Mate, Patricia Schroeder, Gina Tambini, and Edwina Yen, The Impact of Health 

Systems Reform on the Control and Prevention of Infectious Diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Washington: Pan American Health Organization and Partners In Health, 2002. 

Paul Farmer and Arachu Castro, “Un pilote en Haïti: De l’efficacité de la distribution d’antiviraux dans des pays 

pauvres, et des objections qui lui sont faites”, Vacarme 19:17-22; April 2002. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “Anthropologie de la violence: La culpabilisation des victimes”, Notre Librairie: 

Revue des Littératures du Sud 148:102-108; 2002. 

Arachu Castro, Paul Farmer, and Lorena Barbería, Control of HIV/AIDS in Cuba: A Briefing Memo for President 

Carter’s visit to Cuba. Atlanta: Carter Center, 2002. 

Paul Farmer and Arachu Castro, “Salud y Derechos Humanos: Una vía para la medicina y la salud pública”, in 

Edhuca Salud (ed.) Derechos humanos y salud: Encontrando los lazos. Lima, Peru: Edhuca Salud, 2002, pp. 88-90. 

39

Paul Farmer and Arachu Castro, “Castigo a los más pobres de América: El embargo de la ayuda internacional crea 

una crisis humanitaria en Haití”, El País, 12 January 2003, pp. 8-9. 

Paul Farmer and Arachu Castro, “Urgence humanitaire en Haïtí”, Courrier International 640:20-21; 2003. 

Lorena Barberia and Arachu Castro (eds.), Seminar on Cuban Health System: Its Evolution, Accomplishments, and 

Challenges. Working Papers on Latin America, Paper No. 02/03-4. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for 

Latin American Studies at Harvard University, 2003, 52 pp. 

Arachu Castro, Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, Eduardo Levcovitz, Daniel López-Acuña, Joia Mukherjee, Patricia 

Schroeder, and Edwina Yen (eds.), Scaling Up Health Systems to Respond to the Challenge of HIV/AIDS in Latin 

America and the Caribbean. Special Edition of the Health Sector Reform Initiative in Latin America and the 

Caribbean 8. Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization, 2003, 100 pp. 

Arachu Castro, “Sobre Haití”, El País, 6 March 2004. 

Arachu Castro, “Paul Farmer”, in Vered Amit (ed.) Biographical Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology. 

New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 151-152. 

Merrill Singer and Arachu Castro, “Introduction: Anthropology and Health Policy: A Critical Perspective,” in 

Arachu Castro and Merrill Singer (eds.), Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination. 

Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2004, pp. xi-xix. 

Arachu Castro, “Anthropologists as Advocates: Power, Suffering and AIDS,” Anthropology News 2004, 45(7), pp. 

9 & 11. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “International Public Health Pitfalls and Economic Arguments: The Fight against 

AIDS in Cuba and Haiti,” in Rethinking “the Public” in Public Health: Neoliberalism, Structural Violence, and 

Epidemics of Inequality in Latin America. Working Papers of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies. 

San Diego: University of California at San Diego, 2004. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “The impact of comprehensive HIV/AIDS care on stigma and testing: Learning 

and experiences from Haiti,” Exchange on HIV/AIDS, Sexuality and Gender 1:30-31; 2005. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “L’impact des traitements complets pour le VIH/SIDA sur les stigmates et le 

dépistage: Expériences haïtiennes,” Échange sur le VIH/SIDA, la sexualité et le genre 1 :30-31; 2005. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “O impacto do cuidado abrangente para HIV/SIDA sobre o estigma e a testagem,” 

Intercâmbio sobre HIV/SIDA, sexualidade e gênero 1:30-31; 2005. 

Arachu Castro, “El uso de los argumentos económicos para asignar recursos para el SIDA en el Caribe: Los casos 

de Haití y Cuba,” in Jens Holt (ed.), Protección Social Universal y Respuesta Integral al VIH/SIDA: Actuales 

Desafíos y Perspectivas de los Sistemas de Salud en América Latina y el Caribe. Eschborn, Germany: Deutsche 

Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), p. 18; 2005. 

Arachu Castro, “O uso de argumentos econômicos para alocar recursos para a AIDS no Caribe: Os casos do Haiti e 

de Cuba,” in Jens Holst (ed.), Proteção Social Universal e Resposta Integral ao HIV/AIDS: Atuais Desafios e 

Perspectivas dos Sistemas de Saúde na América Latina e no Caribe. Eschborn, Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft für 

Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), p. 18; 2005. 

Arachu Castro and Paul Farmer, “International Public Health Pitfalls and Economic Arguments: The Fight against 

AIDS in Cuba and Haiti,” MEDICC Review 8(1)26-30; 2006. 

40

María Esperanza Martínez, Sarai Vivas, and Arachu Castro, “Social Exclusion Knowledge Network: The Case of 

Venezuela,” in WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health Social Exclusion Knowledge Network 

Report. Geneva: World Health Organization (2008). 

Mario Hernández, Amparo Hernández, Alejandro Perdomo, Oscar Rodríguez, Mauricio Torres, Manuel Vega, 

Margarita Petrera, Sandra Vallenas, Arachu Castro, María Esperanza Martínez, and Sarai Vivas, La superación de 

la exclusión social en la región andina de América Latina: debates e implicaciones. Informe final del Grupo 

Colombia-Nodo conjunto Regional para América Latina. Geneva: World Health Organization Social Exclusion 

Knowledge Network, 2008. 

Letters to the Editor 

Arachu Castro and Joia S. Mukherjee, “Focusing on treatment as the formula to prevent mother to child 

transmission of HIV”, British Medical Journal, electronic letter published on March 13, 2001, 

http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/322/7277/57#EL13. 

Arachu Castro, 2000, “Why we still have to care about the marketing of breastmilk substitutes”, British Medical 

Journal, electronic letter published on July 7, 2000, http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/321/7252/8/a#EL4. 

Arachu Castro and Michael Westerhaus, “Intellectual property and access to ART: Authors’ reply,” PLoS Medicine 

3(11): e510; 2006. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030510. 

Arachu Castro, “HIV, stigma, and rates of infection: But is AIDS-related stigma understood?” PLoS Medicine 4(1): 

e53; 2007. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040053. 

Professional Educational Materials or Reports, in print or other media 

1988-89 Cultural Anthropology. Course Syllabus for the Section on Nutritional Anthropology. University of 

Barcelona (Spain). 

1992 Nutritional Anthropology Course Syllabus. Master of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of 

Pharmacy, University of Barcelona (Spain). 

1995 Methodologies of Nutritional Anthropology Course Syllabus. School of Nutrition, Division of Medical 

Sciences, National University of Córdoba (Argentina). 

1998 Culture, Health, and Reproduction in Latin America Course Syllabus. Department of International Health, 

National School of Public Health, Madrid (Spain). 

1998-99 Cultura, Salud y Reproducción [Culture, Health, and Reproduction]. Online teaching materials in Spanish 

structured around eight topics. Prepared for Harvard School of Public Health’s Global Reproductive 

Health Forum. URL at: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/_Spanish/course/. 

2000-01 Social Roots of Health and Disease Syllabus, Harvard Medical School. 


2001-02 Structural Violence and Social Materiality Syllabus. Collège de France, Paris. (Taught by Paul Farmer). 

2001-02 Culture, Poverty, and Infectious Disease Syllabus, Harvard Medical School. 

41







2004-05 AIDS in the Caribbean, Harvard College. 

2005-06 AIDS in the Caribbean, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and University of Puerto 

Rico. 

Theses 

1988 Evaluación del servicio de dietética en un hospital de primer nivel. Thesis for the professional degree in 

Dietetics and Nutrition. Polytechnic Institute of Barcelona, Spain. Award of Final Studies in Dietetics and 

Nutrition. 

1992 La signification de la frontière dans les pratiques alimentaires de la Cerdagne (Pyrénées Franco- 

Espagnoles). Thesis for the Diplôme d’Études Approfondies (DEA) in Social Anthropology and Ethnology. 

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Paris, France. 

1996 Les implications socioculturelles des pratiques alimentaires dans la région de la Rioja (Espagne du Nord). 

Ph.D. Thesis in Social Anthropology and Ethnology. École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Paris, 

France. 

1997 Saber bien: Salud y prácticas alimentarias. Ph.D. Thesis in Sociology. School of Economics, University of 

Barcelona, Spain. 

Abstracts, Poster Presentations and Exhibits Presented at Professional Meetings in Last Three Years 

“Diagnosis and care of HIV and syphilis among pregnant women in Colombia,” by A. Castro, abstract accepted, 

the 17 th International AIDS Conference (August 2008), Mexico City, Mexico. Abstract number CDD0237. 

“Understanding sexual risk in Cuban men prior to HIV diagnosis,” by A. Castro, K. Mc Phillips, C. Aragonés, J. 

Campos, Y. Khawja, J. Pérez, abstract accepted, the 17 th International AIDS Conference (August 2008), Mexico 

City, Mexico. Abstract number CDD0318. 

Translations 

Translation of the French and English abstracts into Spanish of the journal Social Anthropology, 1991-1997. 

Translation from French into Spanish and scientific counseling of Dora Cazadora: Un cuento para prevenir la 

enfermedad de Chagas. Paris: WHO/ISFC/UNESCO, 42 pp. 

Technical adaptation and translation into Spanish of Food and Nutrition in the Management of Group Feeding 

Programmes, FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 23. 

42

Translation of the English abstracts into Spanish and French of the journal Health and Human Rights, 1998-1999. 

Translation into Spanish of “Responding to Outbreaks of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Introducing DOTS- 

Plus”, by PE Farmer, JY Kim, CD Mitnick, R Timperi. 

Translation into Spanish of “Rare Occurrence of Serious Adverse Effects in Patients Receiving Community-Based 

Therapy for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis”, by JJ Furin, CD Mitnick, SS Shin, J Bayona, MC Becerra, JM 

Singler, F Alcántara, C Castañeda, E Sánchez, J Acha, PE Farmer, JY Kim. 

Translation into Spanish of The Challenge of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic for the Reform and Strengthening of Health 

Systems and Services in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington: Pan American Health Organization, 2002. 

Academic editor of journal articles 

Obermeyer Z, Abbott-Klafter J, Murray JL (2008) Has the DOTS Strategy Improved Case Finding or Treatment 

Success? An Empirical Assessment. PLoS ONE 3(3): e11721. 

Pacheco AG, Durovni B, Cavalcante SC, Lauria LM, Moore RD, Moulton LH, Chaisson RE, Golub JE. (2008) 

AIDS-Related Tuberculosis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. PLoS ONE 3(9): e3132. 

Ansah EK, Narh-Bana S, Asiamah S, Dzordzordzi V, Biantey K, et al. (2009) Effect of Removing Direct Payment 

for Health Care on Utilisation and Health Outcomes in Ghanaian Children: A Randomised Controlled Trial. PLoS 

Med 6(1): e7. 

Mate KS, Bennett B, Mphatswe W, Barker P, Rollins N (2009) Challenges for Routine Health System Data 

Management in a Large Public Programme to Prevent Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in South Africa. PLoS 

ONE (in press). 

Narrative Report 

As a medical anthropologist trained in public health, I analyze how social inequalities are embodied as differential 

risk for pathologies common among the poor and how health policies may alter the course of epidemic disease and 

other pathologies afflicting populations living in poverty. I work mostly in the areas of infectious disease—more 

specifically HIV and syphilis—and reproductive health in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). I dedicate 80 

percent of my time to the areas of investigation and development of practice guidelines and 20 percent to teaching 

and mentoring of predominantly medical students and residents. 

My largest current research project is The Latin American and Caribbean Initiative for the Integration of Prenatal 

Care with the Testing and Treatment of HIV and Syphilis (ILAP), which I initiated in 2007. ILAP is a collaborative 

project between HMS, eight national AIDS programs (Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, 

Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay), UNICEF, UNAIDS, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). By 

conducting innovative health services research that combines medical anthropology, epidemiology, and health 

policy analysis, we plan to delineate a detailed implementation strategy for each country aimed at universalizing 

routine testing and treatment of HIV and syphilis during pregnancy while we measure the impact of the 

interventions. Its implications for clinical practice and public health are enormous: ILAP’s objectives are to 

contribute to the early diagnosis and timely treatment of HIV and syphilis in women, decrease the numbers of 

mother-to-child transmissions (MTCT) of HIV, congenital syphilis, and other STIs, and provide better care for 

large numbers of women and children in LAC—while providing a framework for national and international largescale 

policy change aimed at strengthening health systems. As director of ILAP, I’m responsible for designing 

research protocols for all countries, collecting data or training local teams to collect data, leading data analysis, 

facilitating the translation of research results into implementation strategies, and mobilizing political support and 

43

funding resources. I’m training and mentoring several medical students and residents who are involved in ILAP in 

different research and clinical capacities, both in Boston and in the field. 

In recognition of this effort, since 2009 I serve as consultant for UNICEF, UNAIDS, and PAHO in the area of 

prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis in LAC. For a joint 

UNICEF/UNAIDS/PAHO policy document on the greatest challenges posed by the HIV epidemic in LAC, I have 

written one of the six chapters and I serve as editor of the document, which will be published in June 2009. I’m also 

involved in the Latin American and Caribbean Initiative for the Elimination of MTCT of HIV and Congenital 

Syphilis, led by PAHO and UNICEF and initiated in 2008. 

My contribution to the field of AIDS research stems from the work I have conducted in several LAC countries and 

particularly in Cuba, where I lead a large research project of a randomized, statistically representative sample of 

people who receive antiretroviral therapy (ART). In collaboration with the Institute of Tropical Medicine in 

Havana, we are preparing manuscripts for publication on the social and clinical impact of ART based on the 

quantitative and qualitative analyses of the life histories of 354 people with AIDS. 

I’m currently preparing a postdoctoral fellowship in social medicine and global health aimed at Latin American 

scholars. 

44

Arachu Castro, Ph.D., MPH Office Address - The Department of ...

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