Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Svea Closser, PhD, MPH, studies the social relations and political dynamics that shape primary health care.
Research Interests
medical anthropology; ethnographic methods; comparative ethnography; health systems; Primary Health Care; community health workers; health workforce; rural health; disease eradication; vaccination; polio; vaccine hesitancy; human resources for health; Pakistan; India; Nepal; Ethiopia; Baltimore
Experiences & Accomplishments
I am a medical anthropologist, and I use ethnographic methods to explore the complexities of public health policymaking and implementation.
Areas of particular interest include:
- Health system support for Community Health Workers
- The experiences of frontline health staff working in challenging environments
- Strategies for building robust systems of Primary Health Care, including recruiting and retaining health workers and collaborating across sectors
- The culture and politics of disease eradication programs
Honors & Awards
2018-2020 Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, India
2010 Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize for the best book project in the area of medicine, Vanderbilt University Press
Select Publications
Selected publications from the last five years include:
Closser, Svea and Surendra Shekhawat. 2024. Running on Hope: Female Community Health Labor in Rajasthan, India. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. Open access: https://www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com/9780826507631/running-on-hope/
Closser, Svea, Abigail Neel, Sue Gerber, and Olakunle Alonge. 2024. “From Legacy to Integration in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative: Looking Back to Look Forward.” BMJ Global Health 9:e014758. Open access: https://gh.bmj.com/content/9/5/e014758
Closser, Svea, Marium Sultan, Roosa Tikkanen, Shalini Singh, Arman Majidulla, Kenneth Maes, Sue Gerber, Anat Rosenthal, Daniel Palazuelos, Yihenew Tesfaye, Erin Finley, Ann Keeling, and Judith Justice. 2023. “Breaking the Silence on Gendered Harassment and Assault of Community Health Workers: An Analysis of Ethnographic Studies.” BMJ Global Health 8:e011749. Open access: https://gh.bmj.com/content/8/5/e011749.full
Closser, Svea, Emily Mendenhall, Peter Brown, Rachel Neill, and Judith Justice. 2022. “The Anthropology of Health Systems: A History and Review.” Social Science and Medicine 300: 114314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114314. Open access version: http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/64337
Closser, Svea and Surendra Singh Shekhawat. 2022. “The Family Politics of ASHA and Anganwadi Work in Rural Rajasthan: Gender and Labor in CHW Programs.” Global Public Health 17(9): 1973-1985. Open access: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2021.1970206