• Royce Fellowship
David
Wiegn

Concentration 

Anthropology

Award Year 

2018
Transience and Intermittence in Short-term Medical Voluntourism: An Ethnographic Study of a Community in Rural Honduras

To add to the literature of critical humanitarianism and critical global health, David will conduct an ethnographic study in a community that has a temporary clinic that was built seven years ago and hosts a brigade of medical volunteers twice a year, for one week periods. He will be collecting primary data during the time the clinic is staffed by volunteers as well as the six months between medical brigade visits. This study will synthesize the narratives of community members, including those who are not patients of the clinic, to provide a new perspective on the topic of medical “voluntourism.” 

Advisor: Daniel Jordan Smith