Andrea Maldonado
Areas of Interest: Latin America, especially Mexico; medical anthropology; global health; public health; extra-medical technologies; discourses and practices of self-care; urban anthropology; institutions; social class.
Status: In the field
MA Thesis: "A Members’ Only Community: Distinction and Performance of Self and Other within Social Clubs in Mexico City." Walled, gated, and highly guarded social and recreational clubs in the Mexico City metropolitan area typically denote to the public a material and symbolic representation of prestige, exclusion, and privilege. Based on participant observation and interviews with former and current club members, administrators, and employees, my MA thesis seeks to examine the relationship between club membership and the ways in which middle-class identity and status distinctions are socially, spatially, and discursively elaborated within these contexts. Specifically, I analyze ideologies and practices that club members employ to explain and proliferate boundaries that distinguish a middle-class social “Self” from a middle-class social “Other.”
Dissertation Research: "Culture: The New Drug of Choice in Mexico City."
Previous Degrees: MA in Anthropology, Brown University; BA in Sociology-Anthropology and Native American Studies, Colgate University
Contact Information: Andrea_Maldonado@brown.edu
Homepage address: http://www.watsoninstitute.org/clas/bio,%20andrea%20maldonado.cfm
