Lauren Carruth
Biographic Data
| ID | 630807 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lauren Carruth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lauren |
| FAMILY NAME | Carruth |
| SIGNATURE | CARRUTH L |
| AFFILIATIONS | American University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6403-9930 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 63 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Diets, politics, and camel economies
Ecological grief among farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia and Kenya
Climate change is a major cause of mental distress worldwide. In many ways, climate change has become a chronic disaster, while in other ways each acute event can accumulate and present challenges within and between communities. A growing body of evidence indicates that a changing climate can precipitate a cluster of negative affective states scholars call “ecological grief.” Ecological grief reflects psychological responses to climate changes an…
The Multispecies Sociality of Digestion and the Microbiopolitics of the Belly Among Somalis in Ethiopia
Management of what Somalis call “dacar” – translated as digestive bile, bitterness, aloe, and masses of tiny beings in the gut – is key to popular health cultures and ethnophysiologies in eastern Ethiopia. Managing bodily dacar requires cultivating multispecies sociality and flows of life between humans, vegetation that nourishes livestock, and animals that produce milk consumed for therapeutic and nutritional properties. Transcending Western sci…
Global Health Interventions
Intervention" is central to global health, but the significance and effects of how intervention is practiced are often taken for granted. This review takes interventions into health and medicine as subjects for ethnographic inquiry. We highlight three lines of anthropological contributions: studies of global health interventions that serve imperial and military objectives, studies of "magic bullet" interventions arising from laboratory science, a…
Drug sensitivity of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its association with bacterial genotype in the Somali region, Eastern Ethiopia
Background Drug resistance is becoming a major bottleneck for tuberculosis (TB) control programs in countries with high TB burdens. Although several studies were conducted on the drug sensitivity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( M. tuberculosis ) in central Ethiopia, there is a lack of data on the drug sensitivity of M. tuberculosis in the peripheral regions of the country including in the Somali region. Therefore, the objective of this study was …
How Should Clinicians Express Solidarity With Asylum Seekers at the US-Mexico Border
Migrants along the US-Mexico border have been subjected to transnational violence created by international policy, militaristic intervention, and multinational organizational administration of border operations. The COVID-19 pandemic compounded migrants' vulnerabilities and provoked several logistical and ethical problems for US-based clinicians and organizations. This commentary examines how the concept of transnational solidarity facilitates an…
Syndemic effects in complex humanitarian emergencies
Building one's own house
This study uses ethnography along Ethiopian women's irregular migration routes through Djibouti to analyse the complex reasons women leave home to seek labour opportunities in the Gulf States. Theories and policies that either narrowly depict women's motivations as economic in nature or focus only on women's needs for security and protection, fail to account both for the politics of seeking employment abroad, and the ways migration provides women…
Love and Liberation
This book tells a new kind of humanitarian story. The protagonists are not volunteers from afar but rather Somali locals caring for each other: nurses, aid workers, policymakers, drivers, community health workers, and bureaucrats. The contributions of locals are often taken for granted, and the competencies, aspirations, and effectiveness of local staffers frequently remain muted or absent from the planning and evaluation of humanitarian interven…
Love and Liberation
Lauren Carruth's Love and Liberation tells a new kind of humanitarian story-the protagonists are not volunteers from afar, but rather, are Somali locals caring for each other: nurses, aid workers, policymakers, drivers, community health workers, and bureaucrats. The contributions of locals are often taken for granted, and the competencies, aspirations, and effectiveness of local staffers frequently remain muted or absent from the planning and eva…
Structural vulnerability
Based on the authors’ work in Latin America and Africa, this article describes and applies the concept ‘structural vulnerability’ to the challenges of clinical care and healthcare advocacy for migrants. This concept helps consider how specific social, economic and political hierarchies and policies produce and pattern poor health in two case studies: one at the USA–Mexico border and another in Djibouti. Migrants’ and providers’ various entangleme…
Diabetes in a humanitarian crisis
This study was designed to better understand the clinical presentations and challenges of managing type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in a humanitarian crisis-affected population. Findings are based on a long-term ethnographic study of humanitarian response in eastern Ethiopia by the first author from 2008 to 2018, and in addition, a mixed-method case study of T2DM in July-August 2018. For the case study, the authors collected anthropometric, demogr…
Aid or exploitation
Rethinking Fatness, Rethinking Diabetes
Wasting away
Disaggregating diabetes
Interest in disaggregating diabetes into numerous subtypes is growing as patients and providers recognize the limitations of standard diabetes typologies. As anthropologists, we draw attention to how 'subtyping' may reduce stigma derived from the connection between obesity and 'type 2 diabetes'. We highlight the complexities that drive diabetes and argue that an exclusive or dominant focus on diet and obesity obfuscates other underlying risks. Ye…
Refugee Health
The field of anthropology offers several unique contributions to the study of refugee health, most importantly in uncovering the challenges many refugees face in accessing adequate and appropriate medical care. Anthropological studies of refugee health may be divided into three broad categories: studies during humanitarian emergencies or within refugee camps; studies of the transit and asylum process; and studies of health and health care followi…
Thank You to Reviewers 2017
Kinship, nomadism, and humanitarian aid among Somalis in Ethiopia
This paper draws on extended ethnographic and health policy research in eastern Ethiopia to reconsider kinship and nomadism among Somalis, as both of these cultural features transform in the contexts of recurrent humanitarian crises and episodic relief operations. The emergence and importance of new patterns of travel and migration among Somalis in Ethiopia reveal significant changes in the configurations and enactments of Somali kinship, on whic…
The Data Hustle
Based on ethnographic and policy research in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, this article examines how contemporary trends in the humanitarian relief industry to mandate continual data collection, "accountability," and the "localization" of aid have increased demands for participatory and intensive research methodologies in crisis-affected communities. International humanitarian relief agencies hustle to hire local staffs and recruit enough partic…
Peace in the Clinic
Doctors without borders
As I write this review, the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa commands the attention and resources of much of the global health community. And at the front lines of the burgeoning international r
Camel milk, amoxicillin, and a prayer
Child survival during the 2002–2003 drought in Ethiopia
Droughts in Ethiopia have commonly been associated with increased child mortality. Early indications were that the 2002/03 drought, which affected 13.2 million people, was no exception, despite a large relief operation. Humanitarian agencies reported sharp increases in child deaths and pockets of acute distress in some hard-hit localities. In response, the 2004 Ethiopia Child Survival Survey (ECSS) was designed to investigate the impact of the dr…
Camel milk, amoxicillin, and a prayer
Kinship, nomadism, and humanitarian aid among Somalis in Ethiopia
This paper draws on extended ethnographic and health policy research in eastern Ethiopia to reconsider kinship and nomadism among Somalis, as both of these cultural features transform in the contexts of recurrent humanitarian crises and episodic relief operations. The emergence and importance of new patterns of travel and migration among Somalis in Ethiopia reveal significant changes in the configurations and enactments of Somali kinship, on whic…
The Data Hustle
Based on ethnographic and policy research in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, this article examines how contemporary trends in the humanitarian relief industry to mandate continual data collection, "accountability," and the "localization" of aid have increased demands for participatory and intensive research methodologies in crisis-affected communities. International humanitarian relief agencies hustle to hire local staffs and recruit enough partic…
Wasting away
Global Health Interventions
Intervention" is central to global health, but the significance and effects of how intervention is practiced are often taken for granted. This review takes interventions into health and medicine as subjects for ethnographic inquiry. We highlight three lines of anthropological contributions: studies of global health interventions that serve imperial and military objectives, studies of "magic bullet" interventions arising from laboratory science, a…
Aid or exploitation
Building one's own house
This study uses ethnography along Ethiopian women's irregular migration routes through Djibouti to analyse the complex reasons women leave home to seek labour opportunities in the Gulf States. Theories and policies that either narrowly depict women's motivations as economic in nature or focus only on women's needs for security and protection, fail to account both for the politics of seeking employment abroad, and the ways migration provides women…
Rethinking Fatness, Rethinking Diabetes
Syndemic effects in complex humanitarian emergencies
Disaggregating diabetes
Interest in disaggregating diabetes into numerous subtypes is growing as patients and providers recognize the limitations of standard diabetes typologies. As anthropologists, we draw attention to how 'subtyping' may reduce stigma derived from the connection between obesity and 'type 2 diabetes'. We highlight the complexities that drive diabetes and argue that an exclusive or dominant focus on diet and obesity obfuscates other underlying risks. Ye…
Child survival during the 2002–2003 drought in Ethiopia
Droughts in Ethiopia have commonly been associated with increased child mortality. Early indications were that the 2002/03 drought, which affected 13.2 million people, was no exception, despite a large relief operation. Humanitarian agencies reported sharp increases in child deaths and pockets of acute distress in some hard-hit localities. In response, the 2004 Ethiopia Child Survival Survey (ECSS) was designed to investigate the impact of the dr…
Camel milk, amoxicillin, and a prayer
Peace in the Clinic
Doctors without borders
As I write this review, the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa commands the attention and resources of much of the global health community. And at the front lines of the burgeoning international r
Refugee Health
The field of anthropology offers several unique contributions to the study of refugee health, most importantly in uncovering the challenges many refugees face in accessing adequate and appropriate medical care. Anthropological studies of refugee health may be divided into three broad categories: studies during humanitarian emergencies or within refugee camps; studies of the transit and asylum process; and studies of health and health care followi…
Thank You to Reviewers 2017
Kinship, nomadism, and humanitarian aid among Somalis in Ethiopia
This paper draws on extended ethnographic and health policy research in eastern Ethiopia to reconsider kinship and nomadism among Somalis, as both of these cultural features transform in the contexts of recurrent humanitarian crises and episodic relief operations. The emergence and importance of new patterns of travel and migration among Somalis in Ethiopia reveal significant changes in the configurations and enactments of Somali kinship, on whic…
The Data Hustle
Based on ethnographic and policy research in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, this article examines how contemporary trends in the humanitarian relief industry to mandate continual data collection, "accountability," and the "localization" of aid have increased demands for participatory and intensive research methodologies in crisis-affected communities. International humanitarian relief agencies hustle to hire local staffs and recruit enough partic…
Wasting away
Disaggregating diabetes
Interest in disaggregating diabetes into numerous subtypes is growing as patients and providers recognize the limitations of standard diabetes typologies. As anthropologists, we draw attention to how 'subtyping' may reduce stigma derived from the connection between obesity and 'type 2 diabetes'. We highlight the complexities that drive diabetes and argue that an exclusive or dominant focus on diet and obesity obfuscates other underlying risks. Ye…
Diabetes in a humanitarian crisis
This study was designed to better understand the clinical presentations and challenges of managing type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in a humanitarian crisis-affected population. Findings are based on a long-term ethnographic study of humanitarian response in eastern Ethiopia by the first author from 2008 to 2018, and in addition, a mixed-method case study of T2DM in July-August 2018. For the case study, the authors collected anthropometric, demogr…
Aid or exploitation
Rethinking Fatness, Rethinking Diabetes
Love and Liberation
This book tells a new kind of humanitarian story. The protagonists are not volunteers from afar but rather Somali locals caring for each other: nurses, aid workers, policymakers, drivers, community health workers, and bureaucrats. The contributions of locals are often taken for granted, and the competencies, aspirations, and effectiveness of local staffers frequently remain muted or absent from the planning and evaluation of humanitarian interven…
Love and Liberation
Lauren Carruth's Love and Liberation tells a new kind of humanitarian story-the protagonists are not volunteers from afar, but rather, are Somali locals caring for each other: nurses, aid workers, policymakers, drivers, community health workers, and bureaucrats. The contributions of locals are often taken for granted, and the competencies, aspirations, and effectiveness of local staffers frequently remain muted or absent from the planning and eva…
Structural vulnerability
Based on the authors’ work in Latin America and Africa, this article describes and applies the concept ‘structural vulnerability’ to the challenges of clinical care and healthcare advocacy for migrants. This concept helps consider how specific social, economic and political hierarchies and policies produce and pattern poor health in two case studies: one at the USA–Mexico border and another in Djibouti. Migrants’ and providers’ various entangleme…
Drug sensitivity of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its association with bacterial genotype in the Somali region, Eastern Ethiopia
Background Drug resistance is becoming a major bottleneck for tuberculosis (TB) control programs in countries with high TB burdens. Although several studies were conducted on the drug sensitivity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( M. tuberculosis ) in central Ethiopia, there is a lack of data on the drug sensitivity of M. tuberculosis in the peripheral regions of the country including in the Somali region. Therefore, the objective of this study was …
How Should Clinicians Express Solidarity With Asylum Seekers at the US-Mexico Border
Migrants along the US-Mexico border have been subjected to transnational violence created by international policy, militaristic intervention, and multinational organizational administration of border operations. The COVID-19 pandemic compounded migrants' vulnerabilities and provoked several logistical and ethical problems for US-based clinicians and organizations. This commentary examines how the concept of transnational solidarity facilitates an…
Syndemic effects in complex humanitarian emergencies
Building one's own house
This study uses ethnography along Ethiopian women's irregular migration routes through Djibouti to analyse the complex reasons women leave home to seek labour opportunities in the Gulf States. Theories and policies that either narrowly depict women's motivations as economic in nature or focus only on women's needs for security and protection, fail to account both for the politics of seeking employment abroad, and the ways migration provides women…
Global Health Interventions
Intervention" is central to global health, but the significance and effects of how intervention is practiced are often taken for granted. This review takes interventions into health and medicine as subjects for ethnographic inquiry. We highlight three lines of anthropological contributions: studies of global health interventions that serve imperial and military objectives, studies of "magic bullet" interventions arising from laboratory science, a…
The Multispecies Sociality of Digestion and the Microbiopolitics of the Belly Among Somalis in Ethiopia
Management of what Somalis call “dacar” – translated as digestive bile, bitterness, aloe, and masses of tiny beings in the gut – is key to popular health cultures and ethnophysiologies in eastern Ethiopia. Managing bodily dacar requires cultivating multispecies sociality and flows of life between humans, vegetation that nourishes livestock, and animals that produce milk consumed for therapeutic and nutritional properties. Transcending Western sci…
Ecological grief among farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia and Kenya
Climate change is a major cause of mental distress worldwide. In many ways, climate change has become a chronic disaster, while in other ways each acute event can accumulate and present challenges within and between communities. A growing body of evidence indicates that a changing climate can precipitate a cluster of negative affective states scholars call “ecological grief.” Ecological grief reflects psychological responses to climate changes an…
Diets, politics, and camel economies
Medicine (14 works) · Political science (14 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Economic growth (7 works) · Somali (7 works) · Health care (6 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Economics (5 works)