Contact Information
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
- Associate Director of Hispanic Serving Initiatives, University of Northern Colorado,
2024 - Present
- Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado, 2023 - Present
- Affiliated Faculty, Colorado School of Public Health, 2023 - Present
- Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado, 2018 - 2023
- Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado, 2012 - 2018
- Lecturer, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, 2012
- Adjunct Instructor, Colorado State University-Pueblo, 2013
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 麻豆传媒 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, 麻豆传媒 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
- 2024 - Yarris, Kristin E. and Whitney L. Duncan, editors. . University of Arizona Press.
- 2024 - Yarris, Kristin E. and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥淚ntroduction: Accompaniment as Ethnographic
Engagement,鈥 in , eds. Kristin E. Yarris and Whitney L. Duncan, University of Arizona Press.
- 2024 - Vargas Reyes, Erica; Lupe L贸pez, and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥淐onvivencia: Storytelling
as Accompaniment, Activism, and Care.鈥 in , eds. Kristin E. Yarris and Whitney L. Duncan, University of Arizona Press.
- 2024 - Yarris, Kristin E. and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥淧utting Accompaniment into Practice:
Considerations for Students and Scholars,鈥 in , eds. Kristin E. Yarris and Whitney L. Duncan, University of Arizona Press (Spring
2024).
- 2023 - Duncan, Whitney L. and Lupita Nabor Vazquez. 鈥溾.鈥 Social Science & Medicine Vol. 333.
- 2022 - Duncan, Whitney L. and Beatriz Reyes Foster. 鈥.鈥 Annals of Anthropological Practice 46(1): 87-90.
- 2021 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥渟.鈥 Poetry published in Anthropology and Humanism November 2021. 2nd Prize, Society for Humanistic Anthropology Ethnographic Poetry Competition.
- 2019 - Pritzker, Sonya and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥.鈥 Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 43(3): 468-495.
- 2018 - . Single-authored monograph. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Awarded the Norman
L. and Rosalea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for best book in
the area of medicine.
- 2017 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥溾.鈥 Ethos 45(4): 489-513.
- 2017 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥.鈥 Anthropology and Humanism 42(1): 35-36. Nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses.
- 2017 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥.鈥 American Ethnologist 44(1): 36-51.
- 2016 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥淕endered Trauma and its Effects: Domestic Violence and
鈥楶TSD鈥 in Oaxaca.鈥 In Culture and PTSD: Trauma in Global and Historical Perspective, eds. Devon Hinton & Byron Good. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pp.
202-239.
- 2015 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥.鈥 Medical Anthropology Quarterly 29(1): 24-41. Winner, Anthropology of Mental Health Interest Group (AMHIG) Professional Paper Prize.
Non-juried Publications, Creative Writing, Book Reviews, Media Articles, and Policy
Briefs
- 2024 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥,鈥 poetry selected for SAPIENS Magazine series, Poems of Witness & Possibility: Envisioning Futurity From Inside Zones of Conflict,
Disturbance, and Oppression. Published February 19, 2024, SAPIENS Magazine.
- 2023 - Reyes-Foster, Beatriz and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥.鈥 Regional Expert Paper Series, Columbia University Institute of Latin American Studies.
- 2022 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥.鈥 Creative non-fiction essay published on American Anthropologist website, June 21.
- 2021 - Yarris, Kristin; Sarah Horton; and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥.鈥 Society for Applied Anthropology News, 32(3).
- 2021 - Horton, Sarah B. and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥.鈥 Policy Recommendation, Scholars Strategy Network.
- 2020 - Reyes-Foster, Beatriz and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥淔acing Mexico鈥檚 Mental Health
Fallout.鈥 NACLA Report on the Americas 52(3): 282-288.
- 2020 - Horton, Sarah B. and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥.鈥 Policy Recommendation, Scholars Strategy Network 鈥淏eyond Flattening the Curve鈥
series.
- 2020 - Horton, Sarah B. and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥.鈥 The Colorado Independent, May 1, 2020.
- 2020 - Duncan, Whitney L. and Sarah B. Horton. 鈥.鈥 Health Affairs Blog April 18, 2020.
- 2019 - of Psychiatric Encounters: Madness and Modernity in Yucatan, Mexico, by Beatriz Reyes-Foster. Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
- 2018 - Horton, Sarah B., Whitney L. Duncan, and Kristin Yarris. 鈥.鈥 The Hill Opinion Piece, December 9, 2018.
- 2018 - Horton, Sarah B., Whitney L. Duncan, and Kristin Yarris. 鈥.鈥 Anthropology News Blog,鈥淚n Focus.鈥
- 2018 - Duncan, Whitney L., Lauren Heidbrink, and Kristin Yarris. 鈥溾 Hot Spots, Fieldsights, January 31.
- 2018 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥.鈥 Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots, Fieldsights, January 31.
- 2017 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥.鈥 Scholars Strategy NetworkPolicy Brief. May, 2017.
- 2017 - Duncan, Whitney L. 鈥.鈥 Sapiens Magazine, March 15, 2017.
- 2016 - Yarris, Kristin Elizabeth, Lauren Heidbrink, and Whitney L. Duncan. 鈥.鈥 Anthropology News 57(12): e29-e33.
Honors and Awards
- 2024 College of Humanities and Social Sciences College Scholar Award
- 2022 Provost Academic Revitalization and Innovation Fund to create an Accelerated
Anthropology BA and Master鈥檚 of Public Health 4+1 Degree Program (ABAMPH)
- 2022 Fellow, 麻豆传媒 Humanities and Social Sciences Grantwriting Incentive Program
- 2021 2nd Prize, Society for Humanistic Anthropology Ethnographic Poetry Competition
- 2018-2022 National Science Foundation Senior Investigator Award for 鈥淐ollaborative
Research: An Ethnographic Study of Local-Level Policy Implementation.鈥
- 2019 Diversity in the Classroom Award, College of Humanities and Social Sciences,
University of Northern Colorado
- 2015-2018 Fellow, University of Northern Colorado Sponsored Research Fellowship Program
- 2017 Book manuscript, Transforming Therapy, awarded the Norman L. and Rosalea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press
for best book in the area of medicine
- 2017 Award for Excellence in Social Science Engaged Research, University of Northern
Colorado
- 2015 麻豆传媒 Engaged Faculty Scholar Award
Course Syllabi
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