I am associate professor of anthropology in the Sociology, Anthropology and Media Studies Department at the American University of Beirut. I grew up in Ramallah, Palestine, earned a BA from Brown University, an MA from the Institut National des Langues and Civilisations Orientales in Paris and a PhD from MIT. I started working at AUB in 2007. My research and teaching interests are the Anthropology of medicine, science, birth, gender, war, oral history and infrastructure. I conducted field research in Palestine and Lebanon. My research has been supported by the Wenner Gren Foundation and the Palestinian American Research Center. My book project explores birth during the Second Intifada (uprising) in Palestine. It follows stories about birth in various sites of the medical infrastructure in the Central West Bank, from hospitals, to village clinics and homes. It explores the lives and work of birth-mothers, doctors, midwives, nurses and families in a context of shrinking and militarized spaces.
I have been teaching courses and mentoring students in the Sociology/Anthropology undergraduate major, the Anthropology MA program and the MA in Middle Eastern Studies program. Some of the courses I have been teaching are:
SOAN 310 Seminar in Anthropological Theory
SOAN 302 Culture and Mental Health
SOAN 237 Arab Culture and Society
SOAN 225 Gender and Culture
SOAN 218 Anthropology of Medicine and Science
SOAN 217 Anthropology of the Body
SOAN 203 Introduction to Anthropology
SOAN 103 Reading Other Cultures
Peer- reviewed articles and book chapters:
2018 The Profile of A Neighborhood: Health and Well-Being in Ras Beirut co-authored by Afamia Kaddour, Cynthia Myntti, Sawsan Abdulrahim, Nisreen Salti, Livia Wick and Huda Zurayk. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press.
2017 “Survival and negotiation: narratives of severe (near-miss) neo-natal complications of Syrian Women in Lebanon. Reproductive Health Matters: an international journal on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Volume 25, October 2017: sup1, 27-34.
2015 “Trajectories of Gendered Labor in Palestine" in A Companion to Middle East Anthropology. Edited by Soraya Altorki (Editor). New York: John Wiley and Sons.
2013 "الصحة غير المسيسة و البحوث العلمية" في الصحة في الوطن العربي تحرير سامر جبور، ريتا جقمان، إيمان نويهض، مروان خواجة و رهام يموت. مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية.
[Translation to the Arabic of the book Public Health in the Arab World in which my chapter appeared “Reflections on the De-politicization of Health and Scholarship," In Public Health in the Arab World. Edited by Samer Jabbour, Rita Giacaman, Iman Nuwayhid and Marwan Khawaja. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.]
2012 “Reflections on the De-politicization of Health and Scholarship," In Public Health in the Arab World. Edited by Samer Jabbour, Rita Giacaman, Iman Nuwayhid and Marwan Khawaja. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012
2011 “The Practice of Humanitarianism: a village birthing clinic in Palestine," Global Public Health. Vol.6. No. 5, July 2011, pp. 534-546.
2011 “The Practice of Waiting Under Closure in Palestine," City and Society. Volume 23. Issue Supplement s1, pages 24-44, September 2011.
2010 “What do First Mothers Worry About? A Study of Usage Patterns and Content of Calls Made to A Postpartum Support Telephone Hotline," co-authored by Hibah Osman, Monique Chaaya, Lama El-Zein, George Nassan and Livia Wick, BioMed Central Public Health 2010 10:611.
2009 “Cultural Beliefs that may Discourage Breastfeeding Among Lebanese Women: A Qualitative Analysis," Hibah Osman, Lama El-Zein and Livia Wick, International Breastfeeding Journal. 2009, 4:12
2008 “Building the Infrastructure, Modeling the Nation: the Case of Birth in Palestine," Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. Vol. 32 No.3 September 2008
Commentaries and Book Reviews:
2019 Book review of Space and Mobility in Palestine by Julie Peteet Anthropological Quarterly. Volume 92, Number 1, Winter 2019, pp. 283-287.
2013 Invited book review of Our Bodies belong to God: Organ Transplants, Islam and the Struggle for Human Dignity in Egypt by Sherine Hamdy for Contemporary Islam 10.1007 June 2013
2005 “The Politics of Childbirth in the Context of Conflict: Policies or De Facto Practices?" co-authored by Rita Giacaman, Laura Wick, Hanan Abdul-Rahim and Livia Wick Health Policy May 2005, 72 (2)