• PhD, Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
• MA, Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
• BA, English,聽Columbia University

• Associate Director of Hispanic Serving Initiatives, University of Northern 黑料社区, 2024 – Present
• Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern 黑料社区, 2023 – Present
• Affiliated Faculty, 黑料社区 School of Public Health, 2023 – Present
• Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern 黑料社区,聽2018 – 2023
• Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern 黑料社区, 2012 – 2018
• Lecturer, University of 黑料社区, 黑料社区 Springs, 2012
• Adjunct Instructor, 黑料社区 State University-Pueblo, 2013

黑料社区

I am a medical and psychological anthropologist whose creative and academic work centers on immigration and the sociopolitical, cultural, and global aspects of health, self, and emotion.

I have two main lines of research. First, I examine the cultural and socioeconomic dimensions of mental health in global perspective. In particular, I have researched the globalization of psychology and psychiatry in southern Mexico (Oaxaca), the emotional and mental health impacts of migration for Oaxacan migrants and their non-migrating family members, and Latinx experiences of mental health treatment and psychological care in 黑料社区.

Focusing on experiences and understandings of emotions, mental health, and psychological and psychiatric services, I am concerned with how individuals and communities make sense of and seek to resolve social and personal distress. I examine the subjective impacts of broader global and domestic processes such as migration, healthcare reform and provision, and widely circulating “psy” ideas about what it means to be a healthy person in the contemporary world, asking how such processes are transformative for and transformed by particular cultural contexts.

My first book, , based on my research in Oaxaca, was published in July 2018. Ahead of its publication the book was awarded the Norman L. and Rosalea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for best book in the area of medicine.

My second line of research directly addresses immigration, health, and Latinx health disparities, as well as the ways in which federal, state, and local health and immigration policies affect immigrant health. Please see my 2023 article in Social Science & Medicine, co-authored with UNC student Lupita Nabor Vazquez, “‘,” based on a 4-year study of Latinx immigrant health in 黑料社区.

My recent book, a co-edited volume (with Kristin Yarris, University of Oregon), titled (University of Arizona Press, 2024), brings together the experiences and voices of anthropologists, im/migrants, and students to push the boundaries of ethnography toward a feminist, care-based, decolonial mode of ethnographic engagement called “accompaniment.”

My  addresses all of the above themes, and I am currently at work on a poetry manuscript. I was a member of the 2023-2024 Lighthouse Writers Poetry Collective.

In 2014, I launched , a collaborative, interdisciplinary medical anthropological project on state health policy and immigrant understandings, experiences, and perceptions of health and healthcare. Project HealthViews is a community engagement collaboration between myself, UNC students, local safety net clinics, and immigrant-serving organizations. The goals of this project are (1) to help legislators, local organizations, and the general public better understand immigrant health and healthcare challenges; (2) to help inform policy on healthcare and health insurance coverage for 黑料社区-based immigrants’ (3) to help improve immigrant healthcare access by providing information about what services and programs are available to immigrants, regardless of immigration status; and (4) to provide students hands-on health-related research experience in the local community.

Please contact me if you’re interested in getting involved!

I am committed to public and engaged scholarship, and work actively with the , the , the 黑料社区 Immigrant Rights Coalition, and American Friends Service Committee immigrant advocacy services.

Finally, I am a certified mindfulness instructor through the ; please contact me if you are interested in taking one of my meditation courses!

黑料社区

Juried

• 2024 – Yarris, Kristin E. and Whitney L. Duncan, editors. . University of Arizona Press.
• 2024 – Yarris, Kristin E. and Whitney L. Duncan. “Introduction: Accompaniment as Ethnographic Engagement,” in , eds. Kristin E. Yarris and Whitney L. Duncan, University of Arizona Press.
• 2024 – Vargas Reyes, Erica; Lupe López, and Whitney L. Duncan. “Convivencia: Storytelling as Accompaniment, Activism, and Care.” in , eds. Kristin E. Yarris and Whitney L. Duncan, University of Arizona Press.
• 2024 – Yarris, Kristin E. and Whitney L. Duncan. “Putting Accompaniment into Practice: Considerations for Students and Scholars,” in , eds. Kristin E. Yarris and Whitney L. Duncan, University of Arizona Press (Spring 2024).
• 2023 – Duncan, Whitney L. and Lupita Nabor Vazquez. “‘.” Social Science & Medicine Vol. 333.
• 2022 – Duncan, Whitney L. and Beatriz Reyes Foster. “.” Annals of Anthropological Practice 46(1): 87-90.
• 2021 – Duncan, Whitney L. “s.” Poetry published in Anthropology and Humanism November 2021. 2^nd Prize, Society for Humanistic Anthropology Ethnographic Poetry Competition.
• 2019 – Pritzker, Sonya and Whitney L. Duncan. “.” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 43(3): 468-495.
• 2018 – . Single-authored monograph. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Awarded the Norman L. and Rosalea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for best book in the area of medicine.
• 2017 – Duncan, Whitney L. “‘.” Ethos 45(4): 489-513.
• 2017 – Duncan, Whitney L. “.” Anthropology and Humanism 42(1): 35-36. Nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses.
• 2017 – Duncan, Whitney L. “.” American Ethnologist 44(1): 36-51.
• 2016 – Duncan, Whitney L. “Gendered Trauma and its Effects: Domestic Violence and ‘PTSD’ in Oaxaca.” In Culture and PTSD: Trauma in Global and Historical Perspective, eds. Devon Hinton & Byron Good. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pp. 202-239.
• 2015 – Duncan, Whitney L. “.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 29(1): 24-41. Winner, Anthropology of Mental Health Interest Group (AMHIG) Professional Paper Prize.

Non-juried Publications, Creative Writing, Book Reviews, Media Articles, and Policy Briefs

• 2024 – Duncan, Whitney L. “,” poetry selected for SAPIENS Magazine series, Poems of Witness & Possibility: Envisioning Futurity From Inside Zones of Conflict, Disturbance, and Oppression. Published February 19, 2024, SAPIENS Magazine.
• 2023 – Reyes-Foster, Beatriz and Whitney L. Duncan. “.” Regional Expert Paper Series, Columbia University Institute of Latin American Studies.
• 2022 – Duncan, Whitney L. “.” Creative non-fiction essay published on American Anthropologist website, June 21.
• 2021 – Yarris, Kristin; Sarah Horton; and Whitney L. Duncan. “.” Society for Applied Anthropology News, 32(3).
• 2021 – Horton, Sarah B. and Whitney L. Duncan. “.” Policy Recommendation, Scholars Strategy Network.
• 2020 – Reyes-Foster, Beatriz and Whitney L. Duncan. “Facing Mexico’s Mental Health Fallout.” NACLA Report on the Americas 52(3): 282-288.
• 2020 – Horton, Sarah B. and Whitney L. Duncan. “.” Policy Recommendation, Scholars Strategy Network “Beyond Flattening the Curve” series.
• 2020 – Horton, Sarah B. and Whitney L. Duncan. “.” The 黑料社区 Independent, May 1, 2020.
• 2020 – Duncan, Whitney L. and Sarah B. Horton. “.” Health Affairs Blog April 18, 2020.
• 2019 –  of Psychiatric Encounters: Madness and Modernity in Yucatan, Mexico, by Beatriz  Reyes-Foster. Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
• 2018 – Horton, Sarah B., Whitney L. Duncan, and Kristin Yarris. “.” The Hill Opinion Piece, December 9, 2018.
• 2018 – Horton, Sarah B., Whitney L. Duncan, and Kristin Yarris. “.” Anthropology News Blog,“In Focus.”
• 2018 – Duncan, Whitney L., Lauren Heidbrink, and Kristin Yarris. “” Hot Spots, Fieldsights, January 31.
• 2018 – Duncan, Whitney L. “.” Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots, Fieldsights, January 31.
• 2017 – Duncan, Whitney L. “.” Scholars Strategy NetworkPolicy Brief. May, 2017.
• 2017 – Duncan, Whitney L. “.” Sapiens Magazine, March 15, 2017.
• 2016 – Yarris, Kristin Elizabeth, Lauren Heidbrink, and Whitney L. Duncan. “.” Anthropology News 57(12): e29-e33.

• 2024 College of Humanities and Social Sciences College Scholar Award
• 2022 Provost Academic Revitalization and Innovation Fund to create an Accelerated Anthropology BA and Master鈥檚 of Public Health 4+1 Degree Program (ABAMPH)
• 2022 Fellow, UNC Humanities and Social Sciences Grantwriting Incentive Program
• 2021 2^nd聽Prize, Society for Humanistic Anthropology Ethnographic Poetry Competition
• 2018-2022 National Science Foundation Senior Investigator Award for 鈥淐ollaborative Research: An Ethnographic Study of Local-Level Policy Implementation.鈥�
• 2019 Diversity in the Classroom Award, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Northern 黑料社区
• 2015-2018 Fellow, University of Northern 黑料社区 Sponsored Research Fellowship Program
• 2017 Book manuscript,聽Transforming Therapy, awarded the Norman L. and Rosalea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for best book in the area of medicine
• 2017 Award for Excellence in Social Science Engaged Research, University of Northern 黑料社区
• 2015 UNC Engaged Faculty Scholar Award