Alexandra Brewis Slade

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This article is about the New Zealand-American anthropologist. For the American actress, see Alexandra Slade.

Alexandra Brewis Slade
Slade in 2012
Born
Alexandra Brewis

April 13, 1965
Auckland, New Zealand
EducationPhD (University of Arizona), MA, BA (University of Auckland)
Occupation(s)anthropologist, academic, author
EmployerArizona State University
Known forDirector, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University; President, Human Biology Association; Author, The Human Story; Senior Editor Social Science & Medicine
AwardsElected fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Conrad Arensberg Award 2023; Franz Boas Award 2024.
Websitehttps://alexbrewis.org

Alexandra Brewis Slade (born 1965) is a New Zealand-American anthropologist, professor, and author who studies how health reflects the interaction of human biology and culture. Her research and community outreach seeks sustainable solutions to complex global health and environmental challenges, such as mental health and water insecurity. She is an advocate for a reduction of stigma in global health practices. She writes under the name Alexandra Brewis.

Career[edit]

Brewis Slade is a Regent's Professor and President's Professor at Arizona State University[1] and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[2] She founded ASU's Center for Global Health, and designed and launched (in 2008) the first and largest undergraduate global health degree in the United States.[3] She was Director of ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change from 2009-2017. In 2017 the School of Human Evolution and Social Change was ranked #1 in anthropology in the US for research scale[4] and #1 in the US (#4 in the world)[5] for research impact. She also served as an Associate Vice President for Social Sciences as ASU moved from #15 to #4 ranking nationally in social science research expenditures.[6] Brewis Slade has served as president of the Human Biology Association.[7] In 2023 she was awarded the Conrad Arensberg award by the American Anthropological Association for advancing anthropology as a science,[8] and in 2024 was awarded the Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award for exemplary contributions to human biology [9] by the Human Biology Association.

Education[edit]

Brewis Slade's schooling was at St Cuthbert's College, Auckland and Selwyn College, Auckland. She earned her anthropology B.A at University of Auckland in 1985, her M.A. there in 1989, and her Ph.D from the University of Arizona in 1992.[10] Her postdoctoral training in demography was at Brown University.

Research[edit]

Brewis Slade has published 8 books and over 200 scholarly articles.[11] Her research includes collaborations with communities and scholars in many different fields, and focuses on the health implications of how human culture and biology interact. Her field research was initially based in the small island nations of the Pacific region, but has expanded over the last three decades to include collaborative research projects in the Americas, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Topically, she has published extensively on the human dimensions of fertility, body image, obesity, and water insecurity. In 2011, her research demonstrating the rapid globalization of negative views toward high body weights was covered on the Front page of The New York Times.[12] Committed to the application of social science research for public good, she writes and lectures on how to improve the impacts of international development work through anthropological methods, and on strategies for recognizing and reducing stigma in global health practice.[13] She blogs on human dimensions of global health at Psychology Today[14]

Her recent research from Haiti,[15] Ethiopia,[16] and Nepal [17] has demonstrated why unfairness around water insecurity is a trigger for both mental illness and chronic disease, a theory she has advanced over the last decade with fellow anthropologist Amber Wutich and collaborators in the international Household Water Insecurity Inexperiences (HWISE) network.[18]

Selected books[edit]

  • Brewis, A. et al. 2024. The Human Story: An Introduction to Anthropology. WW Norton, New York.
  • Brewis, A. and A. Wutich. 2019. Lazy, Crazy, and Disgusting: Stigma and the Undoing of Global Health. Johns Hopkins University Press. Winner, Carol R Ember Book Prize; Winner, Human Biology Association Book Award; Finalist, Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize.[19]
  • Brewis, A. 2011. Obesity: Cultural and Biocultural Perspectives. Rutgers University Press.
  • Brewis, A. 1996. Lives on the Line: Women and Ecology on a Pacific Atoll. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Alexandra Brewis Slade". asu.edu. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Seven ASU members elected fellows to prestigious scientific society". asu.edu. 20 November 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  3. ^ "About Alex – Alexandra Brewis (Slade)". alexbrewis.org. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  4. ^ "ASU moves up in National Science Foundation research rankings". ASU News. 15 December 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  5. ^ "Rankings by Subject - 2017 | CWUR | Center for World University Rankings". cwur.org. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  6. ^ "ASU rises in national research rankings". ASU News. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  7. ^ humbio-admin. "Human Biology Association". Retrieved 20 February 2021..
  8. ^ "Alexandra Brewis". americananthro.org. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Boas Award". humanbio.org. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  10. ^ "Alexandra Brewis Slade". asu.edu. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  11. ^ "Alexandra Brewis Slade". asu.edu. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  12. ^ Parker-Pope, Tara (30 March 2011). "Fat Stigma Spreads Around the Globe". Well. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  13. ^ "Talks/Media/Workshops – Alexandra Brewis (Slade)". alexbrewis.org. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  14. ^ "Diagnosis: Human". Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  15. ^ Brewis, Alexandra; Choudhary, Neetu; Wutich, Amber (2019). "Household water insecurity influences common mental disorders directly, and indirectly via multiple pathways: Evidence from Haiti". Social Science and Medicine. 238. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  16. ^ Brewis, Alexandra; Roba, Kedir (2021). "Household water insecurity and psychological distress in Eastern Ethiopia: Unfairness and water sharing as undertheorized factors". SSM - Mental Health. 1. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  17. ^ Brewis, Alexandra; Choudhary, Neetu; Wutich, Amber (2019). "Low water access as a gendered physiological stressor: Blood pressure evidence from Nepal". American Journal of Human Biology. 31 (3). Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  18. ^ "Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) - Research Coordination Network (RCN)". Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  19. ^ Brewis, Alexandra (2019). Lazy, Crazy, and Disgusting | Johns Hopkins University Press Books. jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu. doi:10.1353/book.68438. ISBN 9781421433356. S2CID 239272516. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
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