Vincanne Adams, PhD

Title(s)Professor, Humanities & Social Sciences
SchoolSchool of Medicine
Address3333 California Street, #485
San Francisco CA 94118
Phone415-502-6483
Emailvincanne.adams@ucsf.edu
ORCID ORCID Icon0000-0003-1153-2785 Additional info
vCardDownload vCard

    Collapse Biography 
    Collapse Education and Training
    Brown University, Providence RIBA1/82biology/medical anthropology
    University of California , Berkeley and San FranciscoPhD6/87Medical Anthropology
    Collapse Awards and Honors
    UCSF2017Distinction in Teaching
    Society for Medical Anthropology2015Honorable Mention Millennium Book Prize
    Society for the Study of Social Problems2014Finalist, C Wright Mills Prize
    International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicines2009Basham Medal
    Society for Medical Anthropology2006Polgar Prize

    Collapse Overview 
    Collapse Overview
    In my capacity as Professor in the Joint Program in Medical Anthropology (with UC Berkeley), I am committed to making a contribution to knowledge and insight about the interface between health and the harm that arises from that which cannot be strictly called biological.

    My books include the following:

    Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas (Princeton 2006)

    Doctors for Democracy: The Role of Health Professionals in the Nepal Revolution (Cambridge 1998)

    Sex In Development: Science, Sexuality and Morality in Global Perspective (with Stacy L. Pigg, editors, Duke 2005)

    Medicine Between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Grounds (with Sienna Craig and Mona Schrempf, editors, Berghahn Press 2010)

    Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina (Duke 2014)

    Metrics: What Counts in Global Health (Duke University Press, 2017)

    What's Making Our Children Sick?(with Michelle Perro, co-authors, Chelsea Green Publishers, 2018)

    Glyphosate and the Swirl: An Agrochemical on the Move (Duke, 2023)

    Arc of Interference: Anthropology for Worlds on Edge (with Joao Biehl, editors, Duke 2023)
    Collapse Global Health Equity

    Collapse Research 
    Collapse Research Activities and Funding
    Alterlife
    University of California Humanities Research Institute Jul 1, 2020 - Jun 30, 2021
    Role: Principal Investigator, with two co-investigators (Kelly Knight and Lochlann Jain)
    Description: Alterlife is a faculty working group exploring the predicaments of chemical harm and responses to the theme of 'collapsology' in relation to exposure, climate change and survival.
    Age, Disruption, and Life Reorganization after Hurricane Katrina
    NIH R01AG028621Jul 1, 2007 - Jun 30, 2012
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Blood Donation and HIV Prevention in China
    NIH R21MH073415Mar 15, 2005 - Feb 28, 2009
    Role: Principal Investigator

    Collapse ORNG Applications 
    Collapse Collaboration Interests
    Collapse Academic Senate

    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse Publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact us for help. to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    Altmetrics Details PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Chapter 1 Introduction: Medicine in Translation between Science and Religion. . 2022 Sep 30; 1-28. Adams AV, Schrempf SM, Craig CS. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    2. Chapter 5 A Tibetan Way of Science: Revisioning Biomedicine as Tibetan Practice. . 2022 Sep 30; 107-126. Adams AV, Dhondup DR, Le LP. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    3. The Production of Self and Body in Sherpa-Tibetan Society1. . 2021 Dec 16; 149-189. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    4. BOOK: Glyphosate and the Swirl (Duke University Press). 2021. Vincanne Adams. .
    5. Revitalising global social medicine. Lancet. 2021 08 14; 398(10300):573-574. Pentecost M, Adams V, Baru R, Caduff C, Greene JA, Hansen H, Jones DS, Kitanaka J, Ortega F. PMID: 34058131.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    6. Climate disasters and global social medicine. Lancet. 2021 08 21; 398(10301):656-657. Adams V, Garcia S, Jones DS. PMID: 34058134.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    7. It Takes More Than a Village: Building a Network of Safety in Nepal’s Mountain Communities. . 2021 Mar 23; 233-248. Adams AV, Craig CS, Samen SA, Bhatta BS. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    8. 4 Against Global Health? Arbitrating Science, Non-Science, and Nonsense through Health. . 2021 Jan 25; 40-58. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    9. Governing through Blood: Biology, Donation, and Exchange in Urban China. . 2020 Dec 31; 167-189. Adams AV, Erwin EK, Le LP. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    10. 13 Neoliberal Futures. . 2020 Dec 31; 288-306. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    11. Medical Anthropology in the Time of COVID-19. Med Anthropol Q. 2020 Dec 01. Adams V, Nading A. PMID: 33289159; PMCID: PMC7753736.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    
    12. Moral Orgasm and Productive Sex: Tantrism Faces Fertility Control in Lhasa, Tibet (China. . 2020 Nov 19; 207-240. adams av. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    13. Introduction. . 2020 Sep 25; 1-18. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    14. 1. METRICS OF THE GLOBAL SOVEREIGN. Numbers and Stories in Global Health. . 2020 Sep 25; 19-54. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    15. Epilogue: What Counts in Good Global Health?. . 2020 Sep 25; 225-230. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    16. 34. “Tibet on Fire”: Self-Immolation, Affect, and the Global “N of 1”. . 2019 Dec 31; 599-620. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    17. Re-imagining global health through social medicine. Glob Public Health. 2019 10; 14(10):1383-1400. Adams V, Behague D, Caduff C, Löwy I, Ortega F. PMID: 30887910.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 7     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    18. Neoliberal Futures:. . 2019 Jan 1; 288-306. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    19. It Takes More than a Village: Building a Network of Safety in Nepal's Mountain Communities. Matern Child Health J. 2016 12; 20(12):2424-2430. Adams V, Craig S, Samen A, Bhatta S. PMID: 27048434.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    20. Introduction: Ethnomedicine and medical anthropology today, in the case of Tibet. Medicine Anthropology Theory | An open-access journal in the anthropology of health illness and medicine. 2016 Sep 13; 3(2):11. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    21. The work of evidence in critical global health. Medicine Anthropology Theory | An open-access journal in the anthropology of health illness and medicine. 2016 Sep 13; 3(2):123. Biehl BJ, Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    22. What is critical global health?. Medicine Anthropology Theory | An open-access journal in the anthropology of health illness and medicine. 2016 Sep 13; 3(2):186. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    23. Metrics of the Global Sovereign. . 2016 Mar 5; 19-54. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    24. Alternative accounting in maternal and infant global health. Glob Public Health. 2016 Mar; 11(3):276-294. Adams V, Craig SR, Samen A. PMID: 25782602.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    
    25. Slow research: thoughts for a movement in global health. Med Anthropol. 2014; 33(3):179-97. Adams V, Burke NJ, Whitmarsh I. PMID: 24761973.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 21     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    26. 2. Evidence-Based Global Public Health. . 2013 Dec 31; 54-90. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    27. A History of International Health Encounters: Diplomacy in Transition. . 2013 Aug 1; 3:41-63. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    28. Evidence, Ethos and Experiment: The Anthropology and History of Medical Research in Africa. P. Wenzel Geissler and Catherine Molyneux, eds. New York: Berghahn Books 2011; 498 pp. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 2013 Jun 1; 27(2):b50-b52. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    29. The Making of a Disaster. . 2013 Jan 1; 22-54. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    30. Charity, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Affect Economy. . 2013 Jan 1; 153-175. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    31. The Other Road to Serfdom: Recovery by the Market and the Affect Economy in New Orleans. Public Culture. 2012 Jan 1; 24(1 (66)):185-216. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    32. Le « geste glorieux » du don de sang en unité de travail et les désirs postsocialistes en Chine urbaine. Les enjeux du don de sang dans le monde. 2012 Jan 1; 171. Erwin EK, Adams AV, Le LP. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    33. Ethnography and the making of modern health professionals. Cult Med Psychiatry. 2011 Jun; 35(2):313-20. Adams V, Kaufman SR. PMID: 21541822.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    34. Aging disaster: mortality, vulnerability, and long-term recovery among Katrina survivors. Med Anthropol. 2011 May; 30(3):247-70. Adams V, Kaufman SR, van Hattum T, Moody S. PMID: 21590581; PMCID: PMC3098037.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 23     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    35. "There is such a thing as too many daughters, but not too many sons": A qualitative study of son preference and fetal sex selection among Indian immigrants in the United States. Soc Sci Med. 2011 Apr; 72(7):1169-76. Puri S, Adams V, Ivey S, Nachtigall RD. PMID: 21377778.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 23     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    36. Encounters with Efficacy. Asian Medicine. 2010 Jan 1; 6(1):1-21. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    37. Governing through Blood. . 2010 Jan 1; 167-189. Adams AV, Erwin EK, Le LP. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    38. Chronic disaster syndrome: Displacement, disaster capitalism, and the eviction of the poor from New Orleans. Am Ethnol. 2009 Nov 01; 36(4):615-636. Adams V, VAN Hattum T, English D. PMID: 20161644; PMCID: PMC2818205.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5  
    39. Anticipation: Technoscience, life, affect, temporality. Subjectivity. 2009 Sep 1; 28(1):246-265. Adams AV, Murphy MM, Clarke CA. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    40. Glorious Deeds: Work Unit Blood Donation and Postsocialist Desires in Urban China. Body & Society. 2009 Jun 1; 15(2):51-70. Erwin EK, Adams AV, Le LP. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    41. Public health works: blood donation in urban China. Soc Sci Med. 2009 Feb; 68(3):410-8. Adams V, Erwin K, Le PV. PMID: 19058887; PMCID: PMC2770237.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 9     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    42. Global health diplomacy. Med Anthropol. 2008 Oct-Dec; 27(4):315-23. Adams V, Novotny TE, Leslie H. PMID: 18958783.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 17     Fields:    Translation:HumansPHPublic Health
    43. Global Pharma in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Medicines, SARS, and Identity Politics Across Nations. Asian Medicine. 2008 Jan 1; 4(1):1-28. Adams AV, Craig CS. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    44. Informed Consent in cross-cultural perspective: clinical research in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, PRC. Cult Med Psychiatry. 2007 Dec; 31(4):445-72. Adams V, Miller S, Craig S, Le PV, Varner M. PMID: 17968637.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 10     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    45. How to make consent informed: possible lessons from Tibet. IRB. 2007 Nov-Dec; 29(6):7-14. Miller S, Le PV, Craig S, Adams V, Tudor C, Tshomo M, Varner M. PMID: 18237079.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    46. The Tibetans . Matthew T. Kapstein. The China Journal. 2007 Jul 1; 58:153-155. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    47. Integrating Abstraction: Modernising Medicine At Lhasa's Mentsikhang. . 2007 Jan 1; 29-44. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    48. Having a "safe delivery": conflicting views from Tibet. Health Care Women Int. 2005 Oct; 26(9):821-51. Adams V, Miller S, Chertow J, Craig S, Samen A, Varner M. PMID: 16214796.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 18     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    49. The challenge of cross-cultural clinical trials research: case report from the Tibetan Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. Med Anthropol Q. 2005 Sep; 19(3):267-89. Adams V, Miller S, Craig S, Samen A, Varner M. PMID: 16222962.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 12     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    50. Contestations of Liberal Humanism Forged in Sexual Identity Politics. . 2005 Apr 12; 241-243. Adams AV, Rivkin-Fish RM. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    51. The Production of New Subjectivities. . 2005 Apr 12; 67-69. Adams AV, Rivkin-Fish RM. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    52. The Creation of Normativities as a Biopolitical Project. . 2005 Apr 12; 159-161. Adams AV, Rivkin-Fish RM. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    53. Introduction. . 2005 Jan 1; 1-38. Pigg PS, Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    54. Moral Orgasm and Productive Sex. . 2005 Jan 1; 207-239. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    55. Saving Tibet? An inquiry into modernity, lies, truths, and beliefs. Med Anthropol. 2005 Jan-Mar; 24(1):71-110. Adams V. PMID: 15823898.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    56. Society for Cultural Anthropology. Anthropology News. 2003 Feb 1; 44(2):49-49. Urciuoli UB, Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    57. Society for Medical Anthropology. Anthropology News. 2003 Jan 1; 44(1):52-53. Vuckovic VN, Taylor TJ, Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    58. Randomized Controlled Crime. Social Studies of Science. 2002 Dec 1; 32(5-6):659-690. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    59. Randomized Controlled Crime: Postcolonial Sciences in Alternative Medicine Research. Social Studies of Science. 2002 Dec 1; 32(5):659-690. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    60. Ultrasonographic diagnosis of pelvic echinococcosis: case report and review of the literature. J Ultrasound Med. 2002 Feb; 21(2):207-10. Ranzini AC, Hale DC, Phentok L, Adams V. PMID: 11833877.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    61. Establishing proof. . 2002 Jan 1; 200-220. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    62. Social Suffering. American Anthropologist. 1998 Dec 1; 100(4):1063-1064. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    63. Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas: An Ethnography of Himalayan Encounters. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 1997 Jun 1; 3(2):403. Holmberg HD, Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    64. Dreams of a Final Sherpa. American Anthropologist. 1997 Mar 1; 99(1):85-98. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    65. Karaoke as Modern Lhasa, Tibet: Western Encounters with Cultural Politics. Cultural Anthropology. 1996 Nov 1; 11(4):510-546. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    66. Moral Knowing in a Hindu Sacred City: An Exploration of Mind, Emotion, and Self. By Steven M. Parish. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. xii, 342 pp. $49.50 (cloth); $17.50 (paper). - The Rulings of the Night: Ethnography of Nepalese Shaman Oral Texts. By Gregory G. Maskarinec. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. xi, 276 pp. $65.50 (cloth); $22.95 (paper). - The Householder's World: Purity, Power, and Dominance in a Nepali Village. By John N. Gray. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995. xv, 302 pp. Rs 450 (cloth). The Journal of Asian Studies. 1996 May 1; 55(2):510-512. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    67. Claiming the High Ground: Sherpas, Subsistence, and Environmental Change in the Highest Himalaya. STANLEY F. STEVENS. American Ethnologist. 1996 Feb 1; 23(1):196-197. ADAMS AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    68. Tourism and Sherpas, Nepal Reconstruction of reciprocity. Annals of Tourism Research. 1992 Jan 1; 19(3):534-554. Adams AV. .
      View in: Publisher Site   Mentions:
    69. BOOK: (in Progress) Preoccupied: Life Under Surveillance in Tibet. Vincanne Adams. .
    70. BOOK: Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina Duke University Press 2013. Vincanne Adams. .
    71. BOOK: Medicine Between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Ground London: Berghahn Publishers 2010. Vincanne Adams, Sienna Craig and Mona Schrempf.
    72. BOOK: Sex and Development: Science, Sexuality and Morality in Global Perspective Durham: Duke University Press 2005. Vincanne Adams and Stacy L. Pigg. .
    73. BOOK: Doctors for Democracy: Health Professionals in the Nepal Revolution Cambridge University Press (Series in Medical Anthropology), 1998. Vincanne Adams. .
    74. BOOK: Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas: An Ethnography of Himalayan Encounters Princeton University Press, 1996. Vincanne Adams. .
    75. BOOK: What's Making Our Children Sick? How Industrial Food is causing an epidemic of chronic illness and what parents (and their doctors) can do about it. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishers, 2018. Michelle Perro and Vincanne Adams. .
    76. BOOK: Metrics: What Counts in Global Health Duke University Press 2016. Vincanne Adams, ed.
    With one click, see people who:

    Mentor Faculty

    Offer Student Projects

    Run Clinical Trials

    Work in Global Health Equity

    See more options in the Advanced Search tab

    Vincanne's Networks
    Concepts (122)
    Derived automatically from this person's publications.
    Explore
    _
    Co-Authors (4)
    People in Profiles who have published with this person.
    Explore
    _
    Similar People (60)
    People who share similar concepts with this person.
    Explore
    _
    Same Department
    Search Department
    _

    UCSF Profiles is managed by the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), part of the Clinical and Translational Science Award program funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (Grant Number UL1 TR000004) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

    We use cookies to operate our website. We also use cookies to analyze our site’s performance and improve your experience on our site. For more information about how we use cookies, please see our Website Terms of Use. This site is running Profiles RNS version pre_new_search-4-g7119b7be on PROFILES-PWEB03.

    Copyright © The Regents of the University of California.