Carolyn Sargent facts for kids

Carolyn Sargent is an American medical anthropologist. She studies how health and culture are connected. She used to be a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Sargent also led the women's studies program at Southern Methodist University from 2000 to 2008. She was also the president of the Society for Medical Anthropology for two terms.

Her work looks at gender studies and health. She is interested in topics like reproductive health and how low-income families manage women's health. She also studies how people make decisions about medical care. Sargent has done research in West Africa (Benin and Mali), the Caribbean (Jamaica), and with immigrant women in France. In these places, she studied things like midwifery, prenatal care, and how different cultures approach health decisions.

Sargent has been part of ethics committees at several hospitals. These committees help make sure medical care is fair and right. She really likes the French health insurance system because it tries to make sure everyone has a right to health care. She has also looked at how the French system might be changing, especially for immigrants. Sargent believes that anthropologists should learn about and get involved in national health care issues. She has asked anthropologists to help shape public discussions and policies about health.

Becoming an Anthropologist

In 1968, Carolyn Sargent finished her studies at Michigan State University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors. She studied Japanese, French, and international topics. During her last year, she took anthropology classes. A professor suggested she study anthropology more.

Sargent then received a special award called a Marshall Scholarship. This scholarship helps young Americans study in the United Kingdom. She used it to study at the University of Manchester. In 1970, she earned her master's degree in social anthropology.

Peace Corps Adventures

After her master's degree, Sargent visited her boyfriend who was in the Peace Corps in West Africa. She found out they needed a researcher for a project. She joined a project that was training draft animals like oxen to help with farming. Ten men trained the oxen, while Sargent researched the people who used them. She looked at who invested in oxen, what supplies they needed, and how much it cost.

In her free time, she visited a local maternity clinic. This sparked her interest in the health of mothers and children.

After three years in the Peace Corps, she returned to the U.S. to work on her Ph.D. Her experiences at the maternity clinics inspired her research topic. She went back to West Africa to continue her studies. In 1979, she earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from Michigan State University.

Her Career Journey

From 1980 to 1985, Sargent was an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University (SMU). She became an associate professor in 1985. In 1990, she represented the Texas Committee on Health Objectives for the 90's. This committee worked on health goals for the state.

She became a full professor at SMU in 1992. She also became the director of the Women's Studies Program at SMU in 1994. Later, she served as the president of the Society of Medical Anthropology (SMA) from 2008 to 2010 and again from 2011 to 2012.

Helping with Health Policy

As president of the SMA, Sargent suggested creating a special group. This group would look at national health insurance policies. They would then make suggestions to lawmakers about how to improve health care.

She also wanted anthropologists to make their research easier for lawmakers to use. Most research is in long articles and books that busy lawmakers might not read. Sargent thought that student groups could create short summaries of articles and books. She also suggested that anthropologists could work directly with lawmakers to do "research on demand." This means they would study specific topics that lawmakers needed help with for new policies.

Her Research Focus

During her time in the Peace Corps, Sargent worked in a maternity clinic. This clinic mainly served wealthy women. Sargent started collecting information on baby weights, even though the midwives were not happy about it. This data, along with her observations, became the main focus of her research on reproductive health.

Over the years, Sargent's interests grew. She started looking at medical ethics, which are the moral rules in medicine. She also studied the health of immigrants. She examined how government organizations work with the health care system and provide care. Many of her ideas came from her own experiences as a patient. Because of this, she supports a "single-payer" health care system for the United States. This means one main organization (like the government) would pay for most health care costs.

Other Experiences

• Ethics Committee, Barnes Jewish Hospital
• 2003: Community Representative, Parkland Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee
• 1999: Community Representative, Baylor Institutional Ethics Committee

Awards and Honors

• 1975: Rockefeller-Ford Program Award (with EUSEBE ALIHOUNOU)
• 2003: Enduring Edited Collection Book Prize (for Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge, with Robbie Davis-Floyd)
• 2005: Ford Senior Research Award, SMU
• 2006: Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Grant
• 2012: Eileen Basker Memorial Prize (with Carole Browner of UCLA) for Reproduction, Globalization, and the State: New Theoretical and Ethnographic Perspectives
• 2012: Council for Anthropology and Reproduction (CAR) Most Notable Recent Collection Award (with Carole Browner of UCLA) for Reproduction, Globalization, and the State: New Theoretical and Ethnographic Perspectives