Melanie A. Medeiros

Professor of Anthropology
Bailey 149
585-245-6269
medeiros@geneseo.edu
Pronouns: she/her

Melanie A. Medeiros has been a member of the faculty since 2014.

C.V.

Image
Portrait of Melanie Medeiros

Office Hours

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30-9:30am, 10:20-10:50am

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • MA, Ph.D, University of Arizona

  • BA, American University

Selected Publications

  • BOOKS:

    Medeiros, M.A. and Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, eds. 2023. Black Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Critical Research and Perspectives. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Medeiros, M.A. and Jennifer Guzmán, eds. 2023. Ethnographic Insights on Latin America and the Caribbean. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Medeiros, M.A. 2018. Marriage, Divorce and Distress in Northeast Brazil: Black Women’s Perspectives on Love, Respect and Kinship. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS:

    Perry, Keisha-Khan Y., and M.A. Medeiros. 2023. "Introduction." In Black Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Critical Research and Perspectives, edited by Melanie A. Medeiros and Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, 1-17. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Medeiros, M.A. 2023. "A Marriage without Fidelity is a House without a Foundation’: Black Brazilian Women’s Demands for Respect in Marriage.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 28(2): 121-130. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12656

    Medeiros, M.A., and Jennifer Guzmán. 2023. “An Ethnographic Approach to Studying Latin America and the Caribbean.” In Insights on Latin America and the Caribbean: An Ethnographic Collection, edited by Melanie A. Medeiros and Jennifer Guzmán, 15-26. Toronto, CA: University of Toronto Press.

    Medeiros, M.A. 2023. “Emotional Intimacy and the Black Matrifocal Family in Northeast Brazil.” Feminist Anthropology 4(1): 78-90. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.12113

    Medeiros, M.A. 2022. “Rejecting Remarriage: Respectability & Black Brazilian Women’s Decisions to ‘Opt Out’ of Marriage.” In Opting Out: Women Messing with Marriage around the World, edited by Dinah Hannaford and Joanna Davidson, 104-120. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, Series: Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts.

    Medeiros, M.A. 2022. “Intersectionality and Normative Masculinity in Northeast Brazil.” Gendered Lives, Global Issues, edited by Nadine Fernandez and Katie Nelson, 170-189. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. https://milneopentextbooks.org/gendered-lives-global-issues/

    Medeiros, M.A., Patrick McCormick, Erika Schmitt, James Kale. 2021. “Barbie e Ken Cidadãos de Bem: Memes and Political Participation among College Students in Brazil.” Precarious Democracy: Ethnographies of Hope, Despair, and Resistance in Brazil after the Pink Tide, edited by Benjamin Junge, Alvaro Jarrin, Lucia Cantero, and Sean T. Mitchell, 218-231. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
    ------In Portuguese: Medeiros, M.A., Patrick McCormick, Erika Schmitt, James Kale. 2022. “Barbie e Ken Cidadãos de Bem: Memes e Participação Política entre Estudantes Universitários no Brasil.” Em Democracia Precária: Etnografias de Esperança, Desespero e Resistência no Brasil, editado por Alvaro Jarrín, Karina Biondi, Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, e Lucia Cantero, 397-420. São Paulo, BR: Zouk Editora.

    Medeiros, M.A., J. Guzmán. 2020. Im/migrant Farmworker Deportability Fears and Mental Health in the Trump Era: A Study of Polimigra and Contramigra in New York State.” Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment 42(2): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12254

    Guzmán, J., M.A. Medeiros. 2020. “Damned if You Drive, Damned if You Don’t: Meso-level Policy and Im/migrant Farmworker Tactics under a Regime of Immobility.” Human Organization 79(2): 14-149. https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525.79.2.130

    Guzmán, J.R., M.A. Medeiros, G. Falkner. 2020. “Teaching Im/migration Through an Ethnographic Portrait Project.” Teaching and Learning Anthropology Journal 3(1): 37-45. https://doi.org/10.5070/T33146968

    Medeiros, M.A., T. Henriksen. 2019. "Forms of Capital, Employment and Whiteness in Northeast Brazil's Ecotourism Industry." Latin American Research Review 54(2): 366-380. https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.573
    ------Abridged and revised as “Structural Racism and Occupational Segregation in Northeast Brazil’s Ecotourism Industry” for Insights on Latin America and the Caribbean: An Ethnographic Collection, edited by M.A. Medeiros and J. Guzmán, 429-440. Toronto, CA: University of Toronto Press.

    Jennifer R. Guzmán, J.R., M.A. Medeiros. 2019. “An Unlikely Cause: The Struggle for Driver’s Licenses to Prevent Family Separation.” Practicing Anthropology 41(1): 3-7. https://doi.org/10.17730/0888-4552.41.1.3

    Medeiros, M.A., J. Guzmán. 2016. "Ethnographic Service Learning: An Approach for Transformational Learning."Teaching Anthropology 6(1): 66-72. https://doi.org/10.22582/ta.v6i0.426

    Nichter, M., M.A. Medeiros. 2015. "Critical Anthropology for Global Health: What Can It Contribute to Critical Health Psychology?" In Critical Health Psychology, edited by M. Murray. Pp. 291-307. London: Palgrave Macmillan Press.

    Medeiros, M.A. 2014. "The Other End of the Bargain: the Socioeconomics of Gender Relations and Marital Dissolution in Rural Northeast Brazil." Transforming Anthropology 22(1): 105-120. https://doi.org/10.1111/traa.12032

    M. Hingle, M. Nichter, M.A. Medeiros, S. Grace. 2013. "Texting for Health: The Use of Participatory Methods to Develop Healthy Lifestyle Messages for Teens." Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 45(1): 12-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2012.05.001

Research Interests

Dr. Medeiros is an engaged, critical medical anthropologist and feminist anthropologist whose research explores health inequities facing women of African descent in the Americas and im/migrant communities in the United States

Dr. Medeiros’ book Marriage, Divorce and Distress in Northeast Brazil: Black Women's Perspectives on Love, Respect and Kinship explores intimate relationships in rural Northeast Brazil to examine how inequality at the intersection of race, gender and class affects relationships and health and well-being in structurally vulnerable communities of African descent. 

  • Health inequity at the intersection of race, gender and class
  • Gender and health
  • Anthropology of love, marriage, divorce and kinship
  • Immigrant and migrant health
  • Healthy equity and social justice
  • Global health
  • Mental health

Classes

  • ANTH 141: First Year Experience Course

    This course is intended for first-year students in the Department of Anthropology (Sociomedical Sciences and Anthropology majors). Student work will focus on four areas: cultivating academic success by embracing good study habits, learning to navigate a diverse and inclusive campus, formulating strategies for campus and community engagement, and practicing healthy responses to stressors. Coursework will include self-reflective writing, seminar readings on success strategies, and hands-on work with advisement and goal setting.

  • ANTH 241: Peer Mentor Program

    This course is intended for students in the Department of Anthropology's Peer Mentor Program. Students will attend class with students in the department's first year experience course and participate in peer mentoring activities.

Previously Taught Courses

  • ANTH 100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
  • ANTH 141: Department of Anthropology First Year Experience
  • ANTH 216: Race, Racism and the Black Experience in Bahia, Brazil (Study Abroad)
  • ANTH 216: Race, Racism and the Black Experience in Cuba (Study Abroad)
  • ANTH 216: Race, Racism and the Black Experience in the Americas
  • ANTH 226: Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean
  • ANTH 238: Ethnomedicine in Latin America and the Caribbean
  • ANTH 241: Department of Anthropology Peer Mentor Program
  • ANTH 302: Medical Anthropology
  • ANTH 313: Global Health Issues
  • ANTH 343: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women’s Health
  • ANTH 382: Ethnographic Field Methods
  • ANTH 402: Sociomedical Sciences Capstone
  • ANTH 421: Contemporary Theory in Anthropology
  • BLKS 188: Race, Racism and Health