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Anthropology

Whitney Duncan

Whitney Duncan

Professor

Department of Anthropology
College of Humanities & Social Sciences

Contact Information

Email
Whitney.Duncan@unco.edu
Phone
(970) 351-2260
Office
Cand 2056
Office Hours
Mondays 11:15am-1:15pm in office or via Zoom, or by appointment
Mailing Address
University of Northern Colorado
Department of Anthropology
Campus Box 90
Greeley, CO 80639

Education

PhD, Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
MA, Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
BA, English, Columbia University

Professional/Academic Experience

Research/Areas of Interest

I am a medical and psychological anthropologist whose creative and academic work centers on immigration and the sociopolitical, cultural, and global aspects of health, self, and emotion. 

I have two main lines of research. First, I examine the cultural and socioeconomic dimensions of mental health in global perspective. In particular, I have researched the globalization of psychology and psychiatry in southern Mexico (Oaxaca), the emotional and mental health impacts of migration for Oaxacan migrants and their non-migrating family members, and Latinx experiences of mental health treatment and psychological care in Colorado.

Focusing on experiences and understandings of emotions, mental health, and psychological and psychiatric services, I am concerned with how individuals and communities make sense of and seek to resolve social and personal distress. I examine the subjective impacts of broader global and domestic processes such as migration, healthcare reform and provision, and widely circulating "psy" ideas about what it means to be a healthy person in the contemporary world, asking how such processes are transformative for and transformed by particular cultural contexts.

My first book, , based on my research in Oaxaca, was published in July 2018. Ahead of its publication the book was awarded the Norman L. and Rosalea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for best book in the area of medicine.

My second line of research directly addresses immigration, health, and Latinx health disparities, as well as the ways in which federal, state, and local health and immigration policies affect immigrant health. Please see my 2023 article in Social Science & Medicine, co-authored with 甜心视频app student Lupita Nabor Vazquez, 鈥溾��,鈥� based on a 4-year study of Latinx immigrant health in Colorado.  

My recent book, a co-edited volume (with Kristin Yarris, University of Oregon), titled (University of Arizona Press, 2024), brings together the experiences and voices of anthropologists, im/migrants, and students to push the boundaries of ethnography toward a feminist, care-based, decolonial mode of ethnographic engagement called 鈥渁ccompaniment.鈥�

My  addresses all of the above themes, and I am currently at work on a poetry manuscript. I was a member of the 2023-2024 Lighthouse Writers Poetry Collective. 

In 2014, I launched , a collaborative, interdisciplinary medical anthropological project on state health policy and immigrant understandings, experiences, and perceptions of health and healthcare. Project HealthViews is a community engagement collaboration between myself, 甜心视频app students, local safety net clinics, and immigrant-serving organizations. The goals of this project are (1) to help legislators, local organizations, and the general public better understand immigrant health and healthcare challenges; (2) to help inform policy on healthcare and health insurance coverage for Colorado-based immigrants鈥� (3) to help improve immigrant healthcare access by providing information about what services and programs are available to immigrants, regardless of immigration status; and (4) to provide students hands-on health-related research experience in the local community.

Please contact me if you鈥檙e interested in getting involved!

I am committed to public and engaged scholarship, and work actively with the , the , the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and American Friends Service Committee immigrant advocacy services.

Finally, I am a certified mindfulness instructor through the ; please contact me if you are interested in taking one of my meditation courses!

Publications/Creative Works

Juried

Non-juried Publications, Creative Writing, Book Reviews, Media Articles, and Policy Briefs

Honors and Awards

Course Syllabi

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North of the Norm

Contact Us

(970) 351-2707
Candelaria 2200
Campus Box 90
Greeley, CO 80639

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970-351-1890
501 20th St.
Greeley, CO 80639

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