Alexandra Brewis Slade

 
Professor
Ph.D., Biological Anthropology, University of Arizona

SHESC Themes: Biological, Social and Cultural Dimensions of Human Health; Societies and their Natural Environments

Field Specializations: Biocultural Anthropology; Demographics; Human Adaptation; Human Reproduction; Medical Anthropology; Nutrition, Growth and Development

Regional Foci: Mesoamerica, Oceania, North America, International

Contact: Alexandra Brewis Slade, SHESC 206

Personal Web Page

Curriculum Vitae

ASU Directory Profile

Research:
Alexandra Brewis Slade's research is focused in the area of bio-cultural anthropology, exploring the dynamic interplay of biology, culture and ecology in the production of human health and demographic outcomes. Her current research is a good example of her transdisciplinary orientation and is looking at the social dynamics that surround children’s risk of obesity and diabetes in South Phoenix, a central city community with a very high migrant population and many very low income pockets. By working in collaboration with a team of geographers, cultural anthropologists, clinicians, health educators, cultural anthropologists, political scientists, nutritionists, demographers and modelers, inter alia, alongside stakeholders, she is attempting to use this case for two main purposes: (1) to determine how health vulnerabilities and related biological variation are shaped by the social dynamics (such as variation in cultural knowledge and social network dynamics) that must necessarily connect individual experiences to broader political-economic trends, and (2) improve the translation of bio-cultural research to supporting healthy, just and resilient communities even in unsure times and when available resources are limited.  Some of the topical ways the team is currently working on this includes considering how spatial location (access to fresh food sources and neighborhood facilities) or socio-political climate (such as the recent chilling of reception to Latino migrants in Phoenix) that are associated with different biological and demographic outcomes (risk of obesity, food insecurity, household stability) are mediated by the social dynamics in which they are embedded (people’s use of social networks to share goods and knowledge and thus stabilize resources).

One current related vein of Brewis Slade's research is trying to better understand why children living in poverty can simultaneously be at risk of both obesity and under-nutrition. A central question that weaves through her current field projects is how children's own understandings of and manipulations of their physical and social environments impacts their health and wellbeing—sometimes with positive results, sometimes not. You can read more about her current research activities at her personal Web page.

Most of her past studies have focused on women's and children's health and wellbeing, exploring such issues as reproductive health, infertility, family planning, obesity, body image, behavioral disorders (such as ADHD) and depression. Over the years, Brewis Slade has run projects in Mexico, the southeastern and southwestern U.S., Samoa, Republic of Kiribati (Micronesia) and New Zealand. At a very different scale, she also gets quite different, but complementary, insights by modeling large, comparative databases, where she attempts to identify and disentangle the ecological and social underpinnings of the really broad (global and universal) patterns of human health and population. Previous studies of this type have examined birth seasonality, sex ratios at birth, the relationship between child nutrition and poverty and temporal patterns in human sexuality (such as age-related changes or across monthly cycles).

Potential graduate students interested in working with Brewis Slade in any of these or related areas, or undergraduates looking to get involved in research, are encouraged to contact her. At this time she is encouraging students to consider working on issues related to child or household nutrition and health in low-income urban Phoenix where the South Phoenix collaborative provides a wonderful, supportive, interesting and relevant setting for dissertation work; in tropical South America or Mexico, where ASU also has a fabulous infrastructure to support students; or in Fiji or New Zealand, where she regularly runs programs. Of course, she understands that students like to do their own thing and she also has students working on projects in Alaska, Africa, elsewhere in Arizona and beyond on a whole range of bio-cultural topics related to health and population.

     Research Projects:
     Antibiotic Therapy from Both Sides of the Counter and Both Sides of the Border
     Culture, Health and Environment in Urban South Phoenix
   
Teaching:
Brewis Slade's courses typically coalesce in the areas of her own training and research interests: Her Ph.D. was in biological anthropology with a medical anthropology minor; her post-doc was in demography, and she is also active in the fields of nutritional anthropology and human biology. Other courses she greatly enjoys include grant writing and research design, and ethnographic methods, as well as issues related to the responsible conduct of research and professional development (basically, the things she wishes she'd been taught more of in graduate school). Brewis Slade tries to focus on teaching students how to learn rather than what to learn and challenges herself to make instruction as meaningful, memorable and relevant as possible, so students will really want to be involved in their own education. She directs the Ph.D. program in Social Science & Health and has been centrally involved in developing the School’s new B.A. in Global Health, the first such major offered anywhere.

Experience has also made Brewis Slade a convert to the idea that the best teaching doesn't always take place in the classroom or using a standard lecture-style of delivery. Particularly, she has found that actively managed field, study abroad and research activities—getting students outside their regular comfort zone and into a new, stimulating and challenging environment—can be the best ways to promote truly real and lifelong learning. Currently, she directs a summer program in New Zealand and Fiji exploring transdisciplinary themes related to global health, such as urban and environmental health and cross-cultural approaches to healing. Over the years she has also developed and directed interdisciplinary programs in Australia and Belize, and also has taught on study abroad in many other countries. Brewis Slade's commitment to such activities as study abroad stems from her understanding that the best way to truly engage and train students is to go out into the world with them and challenge them directly through field and research experience.

Select Publications:
Brewis, A. & Gartin, M. (2006). Biocultural construction of obesogenic ecologies of childhood: Parent-feeding versus child-eating strategies.  American Journal of Human Biology, 18, 203-213.

Brewis, A. & Meyer, M. (2005). Demographic evidence that human ovulation is undetectable (at least in pair bonds). Current Anthropology, 46(3), 465-71.

Brewis, A & Meyer, M. (2005). Marital coitus across the life course. Journal of Biosocial Science, 37(4), 499-518.

Brewis, A. (2003). Biocultural aspects of obesity in young Mexican schoolchildren. American Journal of Human Biology, 15, 446-60.

Brewis, A., Schmidt, K. & Meyer, M. (2000). ADHD-type behavior and harmful dysfunction in childhood: a cross-cultural model. American Anthropologist, 102(4), 823-28.

Brewis, A. (1999). Accuracy of attractive body judgment. Current Anthropology, 40, 548-53.

Brewis, A., Laycock, J. & Huntsman, J. (1996). Birth non-seasonality on the Pacific equator. Current Anthropology, 37(5), 842-51.