In this talk, Dr. Munyikwa, an anthropologist and practicing clinician, will present cases that help understand how social differences and their structural consequences permeate the clinical space in ways which exceed our existing language to describe them. She will then explore frameworks for conceptualizing the ethical practice of medicine and the application of human rights to medical practice, drawing optimism and inspiration from quotidian forms of clinical solidarity which may offer, alongside anthropological critiques, a lens that brings the structural and intimate aspects of clinical care into productive tension with one another, strengthening our capacity to understand how we might produce more just models of care.
Dr. Munyika graduated from the joint MD/PhD program in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. I defended my dissertation, Up from the Dirt: Racializing Refuge, Rupture, and Repair in Philadelphia, in 2019. Now I am a current resident physician in combined internal medicine and pediatrics.
Prior to my time at Penn, I studied at the College of William and Mary, where I was a Murray 1693 Scholar. I graduated in 2011 with a self-designed major in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and a second major in Anthropology. A political and medical anthropologist by training, I am most interested in understanding the relationship between political economy, history, and practices of care. My current book project, *The Spatial Promise of Refuge*, explores the relationship between refugee politics and race in the United States of America, centered on the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in Philadelphia and the institutions designed to care for them. For more of my work, see my research page.. I have also conducted research on political ideology in the United States, the use of race in biomedicine and medication education, and human rights & humanitarianism both domestically and abroad. Clinically, I am interested in work at the intersection of medicine, rights, and the law and have frequently collaborated with lawyers to advocate for patients.
Aside from research, I am passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration, education at all levels, and service.
In my non-academic life, I’m a voracious reader and lifelong diarist, am a consummate digital hoarder and technology fiend, and feel lucky to call the city of Brotherly Love my home.
Lunch will be served starting at 11:45am
Sponsorship of an event does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.