Cassandra White
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Tulane University, 2001
Research Interests: Medical Anthropology, Qualitative Methods, Social Stratification, Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy), Brazil, Latin America
Cassandra White received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Florida and her Ph.D. from Tulane University. She taught for two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia before coming to Georgia State University as a Visiting Lecturer in 2003. She was hired as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 2005.
Dr. White is interested in health and disease cross-culturally. She has collected personal narratives of former patients and staff at the Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center (or "Carville"), which served as a hospital and confinement community for Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) patients throughout much of the 20th century. For her dissertation research, she focused on socioeconomic and cultural aspects of Hansen’s Disease in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; she investigated how religion, class, gender, and the medical encounter shape the contemporary experience of Hansen’s Disease for patients in Brazil. She continues to be interested in how the conditions of life in Brazilian shantytowns (favelas) and other low-income neighborhoods affect both physical health and local perceptions of health and the body. Dr. White is also interested in examining the impact of international health policy on the global Hansen’s Disease situation. She has published articles in Leprosy Review, História, Ciências, e Saúde (a Brazilian journal), and Medical Anthropology Quarterly on her research in Brazil.
Dr. White, fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, is also a Latin Americanist. She has done research in the past on women's political participation in the shantytowns of Latin American megacities. She has investigated how popular forms of entertainment in Brazil (such as the telenovela, or serial drama) are being used to disseminate information about public health and social issues. Currently, she is beginning research on the Brazilian community in Atlanta.
Dr. White directs a summer study abroad program and anthropology field school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On this program, students live in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, in the beachfront neighborhood of Ipanema and have opportunities to hear guest lectures from Brazilian nonprofit organization representatives and university faculty, to participate in activities of nonprofits whose members work on health issues or community development initiatives, and to conduct interviews and interact with Brazilians of different socioeconomic backgrounds. See the Georgia State Study Abroad website for more information on this and other study abroad programs.
