Joan D. Koss-Chioino
Professor Emerita
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1965
SHESC Themes: Biological, Social and Cultural Dimensions of Human Health; Culture, Heritage and Identity
Field Specializations: Medical Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology, Anthropology of Religion, Tropical Medicine
Regional Focus: Latin America, Caribbean, North America
Contact: Joan D. Koss-Chioino
About:
As a medical anthropologist Koss-Chioino works at the interface between anthropology, psychiatry and psychology. Her primary interest is the treatment of illness and emotional problems, whether traditional, alternative or psychotherapeutic. She had conducted fieldwork in Latino cultures in the U.S., Latin America, Puerto Rico, Spain and Thailand. Currently, she in analyzing data from a study of mood change and depression among older women in Andalucia, Spain, and beginning research into spirituality as a coping mechanism among Latinas in the U.S. living with HIV. She continues to be interested in Spiritism in Puerto Rico and is carrying out a narrative study of doctors who are also Spiritists.
She currently serves as a member of two boards of the Metanexus Institute for Religion and Science and has been an advisor to their Spiritual Transformation Scientific Research Program. She also serves on the Board of the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture and on the Scientific Committee of the World Association for Cultural Psychiatry. Koss-Chioino has appointments as research professor in psychology at George Washington University and visiting professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane University.
Select Publications:
Koss-Chioino, J.D., Baca, L. & Vargas, L. A. (2008). Group therapy with Mexican and Mexican American adolescents: Focus on culture. In U. Gielen, J. Draguns & J. Fish (Eds.), Models of multicultural counseling (pp. 231-252).
Koss-Chioino, J.D. (2006). Spiritual transformation, healing and altruism: Introduction to the symposium. Zygon, 41(4), 869-876.
Koss-Chioino, J.D. (2006). Spiritual transformation, relation and radical empathy: Core components of ritual healing process. Transcultural Psychiatry, 43(4), 652-670.
Koss-Chioino, J.D. (2006). Spiritual transformation, ritual healing and altruism. Zygon, 41(4), 877-892.
Koss-Chioino, J. & Hefner, P. (Eds.). (2006). Spiritual transformation and healing: Anthropological, theological, neuroscientific and clinical perspectives. Lanham, Maryland: Altamira Press.
Koss-Chioino, J. D. (2005). Spirit healing, mental health & emotion regulation. Zygon, 40(2), 409-422.
Koss-Chioino, J., Leatherman, T. & Greenway, C. (Eds.) (2003). Medical pluralism in the Andes. London: Taylor and Francis.