Ron Barrett

I am a biocultural and medical anthropologist. My research examines the social dimensions of infectious diseases, ritual healing practices, and caregiving at the end of life. I conducted major field research in India, and I have since been working on smaller projects in Tanzania, Thailand, and the United States. Prior to becoming an academic, I was a registered nurse with clinical experience in neuro-intensive care, brain injury rehabilitation, and hospice. I also worked a year in a viral genetics laboratory studying translational regulation in bacteriophages. All of this has been driven by my passion for exploring the intersections between the cultural and biological aspects of human experience and applying these findings to important health and social problems.

Books:

Emerging Infections: Three Epidemiological Transitions from Prehistory to the Present – Oxford University Press. I am lead author of this interdisciplinary, multi-authored book, scheduled to be released in January 2024. It explains how recent increases in new, virulent, and drug-resistant infections have resulted from human practices that can be traced back to the Neolithic. This book is a retitled, highly revised, and greatly expanded second edition of An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections (2013).

Aghor Medicine: Pollution, Death and Healing in Northern India – University of California Press. This book concerns the ritual healing practices of a heterodox religious group known as the Aghori, their beliefs concerning mortality and prejudice, and their therapeutic interactions with patients afflicted with socially stigmatizing diseases such as leprosy (Hansen’s disease, or HD). This book was awarded the 2008 Wellcome Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.