Alison Heller: Experiencing Obstetric Fistula and Treatment Seeking in Niger скачать в хорошем качестве

Alison Heller: Experiencing Obstetric Fistula and Treatment Seeking in Niger

Alison Heller Assistant Research Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Maryland—College Park Campbell Resident Scholar 2016–2017 Obstetric fistula, a maternal childbirth injury that results in chronic incontinence, is presented within donor and media discourse as a profoundly stigmatizing condition, purportedly resulting in divorce by husbands, abandonment by kin, exile from communities, and high rates of depression. Donor agencies and the global media generate and circulate a narrative of a monolithic sufferer–she is young, stigmatized, and finds physical and social redemption through surgical intervention. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic research at four fistula repair centers in Niger, Dr. Heller complicates this narrative by demonstrating that most women with fistula exhibit significant personal resilience, receive continued social and familial support, and, unexpectedly, experience ambiguous surgical outcomes. In doing so, Heller interrogates the existing logics of the fistula narrative that have had the unintended effect of obscuring global structural inequalities; diverting attention away from systemic health access reforms; and resulting in sometimes harmful fistula prevention, treatment, and reintegration interventions. About the School for Advanced Research (SAR): Founded in 1907, the School for Advanced Research (SAR) is one of North America’s preeminent independent institutes for the study of anthropology, related social sciences and humanities. SAR is home to the Indian Arts Research Center, one of the nation’s most important Southwest Native American art research collections. Through prestigious scholar residency and artist fellowship programs, public programs and SAR Press, SAR advances intellectual inquiry in order to better understand humankind in an increasingly global and interconnected world. Additional information on the work of our resident scholars, seminars, Native American artist fellowships, and other programs is available on the SAR website, https://sarweb.org/; on Facebook,   / schoolforadv.  . and on Twitter, @schadvresearch.