Molly Robertson
Areas of Interest: advisory services to maternal mortality committees, and continue to work on issues of religion, health and social justice in the U.S. and Brazil. I am particularity interested in the intersection of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in health research and I am committed to applied anthropology.
Status: Post field
My dissertation entitled, “São as Morenas que Gritam”: Race, Rage and Reproduction in Northeastern Brazil, explores the silence of marginality and how this silence plays a significant part in the analysis of racial disparities in maternity care in northeastern Brazil. Afro-Brazilian women are silenced in their pre-natal exams, in delivery rooms, and in the national debate over maternal mortality and morbidity. In addition, the interaction between women and the health system reinforces and reproduces racial stereotypes that place the blame for poor treatment on the women themselves. The silencing of the health concerns of Afro-Brazilian women and the reproduction of negative stereotypes are key to the creation and perpetuation of marked inequities in maternal care.
MA Theses: Migration and Marginalization: Health Knowledge and Practice in Garca Torta, Brazil
My masters thesis, Migration and Marginalization: Health Knowledge and Practice in Garça Torta, AL - Brazil, demonstrated how social exclusion between two groups in a small fishing community in Alagoas-Brazil reflected and reinforced health-care knowledge divisions. This thesis detailed the ties between marginalization and drought induced rural migration and how these ties bolstered stereotypes and hierarchies that led to a lack of information exchange regarding medicinal plants in the area, ultimately prejudicing the health of a significant portion of the community.
Previous Degrees: MA, Brown University; BA, University of Washington
Contact Information: Molly_Robertson@brown.edu