Dr. Adams formerly ran the UCSF division of the joint (with UC Berkeley) graduate program in Medical Anthropology. Now, she teaches core theory courses on the history and development of medical anthropology, social studies of science, technology and medicine, and ethnographic field methods. Her research interests include the social conditions and epistemological framings of integrative medicine, international health development, women’s health and health care in Tibet, theories of modernity in relation to morality, disaster capitalism, Aging and Displacement Politics. She has worked for more than 30 years on medical anthropology topics such as medical pluralism, medicine and social change, the politics of clinical trials research in the Himalayan region ( Nepal and Tibet), and more recently on life disruption and disaster as a way of life in post Katrina New Orleans, the use of metrics in global health, and the perils of agrochemical industrial food production and chemical harm. She is also interested in global studies of science, technology and medicine, and particularly the postcolonial exchange of scientific activities (from labs to field sites, informed consent procedures to the residual problem of spirit-caused disorders).

Background:

• B.A. Biology, Brown University (1982 )
• Ph.D. Medical Anthropology, University of California Berkeley/San Francisco (1989)
• Visiting Lecturer, Anthropology and Sociology, University of Keele, England (1990)
• Visiting Lecturer, Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley (1991)
• Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Princeton University (1992-1998)
• Associate Professor, Anthropology, Princeton University (1999-2000)
• Associate Professor, Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, University of California San Francisco (2000-2004)
• Professor, Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (2004- present)