Rudolph Virchow Award
Encyclopedia
About the Award
The Rudolf Virchow Awards are given by the Critical AnthropologyAnthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
for Global Health Study Group, a special interest group of Society for Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology
Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary field which studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives...
. The professional award honors an article and the graduate and undergraduate student awards, a paper written in the spirit of Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolph Carl Virchow was a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician, known for his advancement of public health...
, that is deemed by the judges to best reflect, extend or advance critical perspectives in medical anthropology. These are materialist approaches that emphasize the social and political economic nature of health, disease and healing, and which embrace both micro and macro perspectives.
Rudolf Virchow, a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
writing during the 1800s, was a key founder of social medicine
Social medicine
The field of social medicine seeks to:# understand how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and# foster conditions in which this understanding can lead to a healthier society....
. In addition to writing in the areas of anthropology and medical science, his contributions to social medicine
Social medicine
The field of social medicine seeks to:# understand how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and# foster conditions in which this understanding can lead to a healthier society....
centered on his recognition of the multiple interacting factors, particularly social factors, that produce disease and illness. He argued that the difficult circumstances and deprivations of the working class increase susceptibility to disease as well as to higher mortality rates. Virchow also recognized the political and material circumstances that inhibited disease prevention efforts and viewed advocacy as an essential part of medical research. He was perhaps most articulate about the limitations of medical science to improving health in the absence of material security. Virchow viewed the state as responsible for providing that security through employment of those who could work. His appreciation for the complex relationship among health, medicine and society are remembered in his statement, “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing more than medicine in larger scale”.
Criteria and Eligibility
The professional award is given annually for an article, singly or co-authored, and published during the previous year in either a peer reviewed journal (either a print or on-line journal) or an edited volume. This prize will be given to professionals, or to graduate students who have singly or co-authored the published their work.The graduate student award will be granted to a paper that was written in the prize year or the preceding year and that has not been subjected to the process of editorial review. Papers that have been submitted to a journal or edited volume, but that have not yet benefited from review, may be included in this category. Theses and dissertations cannot be accepted. However, a summary of a thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
or a dissertation (no greater than about 30 pages) that can stand on it own, or a chapter that has been revised and can also stand on its own, will be considered for this award. Papers from students who have graduated after the paper was written will still be accepted under this category. Only papers, not interactive media, will be considered for this award.
The undergraduate student award will be given to a paper that was written the prize year or the preceding year while the student was still an undergraduate. Theses will not be accepted. However, a shortened version (up to about 30 pages) of the thesis (or a chapter from the thesis) that has been revised to stand on its own will be considered for this award. Only papers, not interactive media, will be considered at this time.
Past winners include
- 2007 - Professional Award: Philippe BourgoisPhilippe BourgoisPhilippe Bourgois is a Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology & Family and Community Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He also served as founding Chair of the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco from 1998...
and Jeff Schonberg - “Intimate Apartheid: Ethnic Dimensions of Habitus among Homeless Heroin Injectors” - 2007 - Graduate Student Award: Krista Schumacher - “Beyond Cultural Competency: An Analysis of Key Variables Affecting Aids Care among Patients at an Urban Indian Health Clinic”
- 2007 - Undergraduate Award: Aki Nakanishi - “Protecting Indigenous Medical Knowledge: Confronting Biopiracy and Neo-cultural Imperialism”
- 2006 - Charles L. BriggsCharles L. BriggsCharles Leslie Briggs is an anthropologist who currently works at the University of California, Berkeley. Before working at Berkeley he held a position as Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at University of California, San Diego....
, Professional Prize for “Critical Perspectives on Health and Communicative Hegemony: Progressive Possibilities, Lethal Connections” - 2006 - Seth Holmes, Graduate Student Prize for Oaxacans Like to Work Bent Over: The Naturalization of Social Suffering among Berry Farm Workers”
- 2006 - Alexa Dietrich, Graduate Student Prize for “Corrosion in the System: The Community Health By-Products of Pharmaceutical Production in Northern Puerto RicoPuerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
” - 2005 - Paul FarmerPaul FarmerDr. Paul Edward Farmer is an American anthropologist and physician. He is currently the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, formerly the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an attending physician and Chief...
and Arachu Castro, Professional Prize - 2005 - João BiehlJoão BiehlJoão Guilherme Biehl is a Brazilian anthropologist and theologian currently based at Princeton University. He specializes in medical anthropology and is the winner of the Rudolph Virchow Award given by the Society for Medical Anthropology. He was also awarded the Margaret Mead Award in 2007...
, Professional Prize - 2005 - Michael Westerhaus, Graduate Student Prize
- 2004 - James Pfeiffer, Professional Prize
- 2004 - Sarah Willen, Graduate Student Prize
- 2004 - Hanna Garth, Undergraduate Student Prize
- 2003 - Barbara Rylko-BauerBarbara Rylko-BauerBarbara Rylko-Bauer is an anthropologist and a professor at Michigan State University's Department of Anthropology. She was born in 1950 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and emigrated with her parents to the United States that same year.-Career:...
and Paul FarmerPaul FarmerDr. Paul Edward Farmer is an American anthropologist and physician. He is currently the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, formerly the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an attending physician and Chief...
, Professional Prize - 2003 - Cesar Abadia, Graduate Student Prize
- 2003 - Scott Sang-Hyan Lee, Undergraduate Prize
- 2002 - Michael Ennis-McMillan, Professional Prize
- 2002 - Sarah HortonSarah HortonSarah Horton is a fictional character on the show Days of our Lives.She was born in 1981 to Neil Curtis and Maggie Horton. She was conceived through artificial insemination and was believed to be the daughter of Evan Whyland. It was not until she was a teen that they found out her father was Neil...
, Student Prize - 2000 - Carolyn Smith, First Rudolf Virchow Student Prize
- 1995 - Donna Goldstein: AIDS and Women in Brazil: The Emerging Problem, Social Science and Medicine 39(7).
- 1994 - Hans Baer: How Critical Can Clinical Anthropology Be?, Medical Anthropology 15(3):299-317.
- 1993 - Soheir Morsy: Bodies of Choice: NorplantNorplantNorplant is a form of birth control developed by the Population Council that was first approved in 1983 in Finland, where it was manufactured by Leiras Oy Pharmaceuticals...
Experimental Trials on EgyptianEgyptiansEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
Women . - 1992 - Mark & Mimi Nichter: Hype and Weight, Medical Anthropology 13:249-284, 1991
- 1991 - Merrill SingerMerrill SingerMerrill Singer is a medical anthropologist with a dual appointment in the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Health, Intervention and Prevention, University of Connecticut. He is also a professor in the Department of Community Medicine and Health Care at the University of Connecticut...
: Reinventing Medical Anthropology: Toward a Critical Realignment, Social Science and Medicine 30(2):179-187 (1990). - 1990 - John O'NeilJohn O'NeilJohn O'Neil was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1915. He was a painter, educator and writer best known for his Abstract Imagery and Early Modern styles. He received his B.F.A from the University of Oklahoma in 1936, and his M.F.A. in painting from the University of Oklahoma in 1939...
The Politics of Patient Dissatisfaction in Cross-Cultural Clinical Encounters: A Canadian Inuit example, Medical Anthropology 3 (4): 325-344. - 1989 - Lynn Morgan
- 1988 - Ellen Lazarus
- 1987 - Ronnie Frankenberg