Critical Care is the online publication of Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Critical Care provides anthropological insights about current events; creating space for public-facing writing, worldly and speculative interpretations of research, and dissemination of work to broader audiences. Critical Care combines the theoretical legacy of medical anthropology with applied, real-world engagements, providing careful responses to urgent matters demanding our attention.
Our editorial team is always looking for innovative and accessible contributions from medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines. Submissions will be reviewed by the MAQ Digital Editor and Editor, and we will work closely with authors on revisions. Multimedia or text submissions can take the form of:
- reflections on fieldwork in progress
- introduction of emergent methodologies or concepts
- medical anthropological perspectives on current events
- amplifying underrepresented voices in medical anthropology and in biomedicine/tech at large
- reports from events, workshops, conference sessions
We also welcome online series ideas, which can resemble a journal special issue or be a collected group of submissions focused around a common theme or topic. A series can be curated by a contributor or by the digital editor.
Please contact the MAQ Digital Editor, Jessica Robbins-Panko, with submissions and ideas: jessica.robbins@wayne.edu.
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Running Late for Normality at Six Months Old
At my son Qiqi’s six-month wellness checkup in April 2024, his pediatrician noticed head shape deformity and referred us to a clinic specializing in helmet therapy for babies in Austin, Texas. The pediatrician also suggested that we visit the helmet clinic soon…
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Psychiatry, the State, and Interpretive Contests in Pakistan
The civil unrest that occurred on May 9, 2023 across Pakistan is currently under investigation. According to Dawn, Pakistan’s most circulated English-language newspaper of record, at least eight people were killed, 290 were injured, and 1,900 protesters were detained after former Prime…
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Duplicitous Trust: Village Health Work in the Wake of Humanitarian Protection Failings in Uganda
The story of Scovia Abraham, a young South Sudanese man currently living under refugee status in one of northern Uganda’s many refugee settlements, is an active member of the Village Health Team (VHT). Abraham’s contracted work involves surveilling sickness within a defined…
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“These people are lying to us”: Mutating Vaccine Fears and Colonial Histories in Arua, North-West Uganda
In Arua, a border city in the West Nile sub-region of North-West Uganda, many people questioned whether COVID-19 vaccines might harm them. From the outset of Uganda’s vaccine roll-out in March 2021, people articulated fears that the government and medical authorities were…
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The Entanglements of Trust and Distrust: Roma Reproduction in the COVID-19 Pandemic
“My baby is going to be born soon, and I am afraid,” Mira1 told me. This was her second pregnancy, and after a traumatic first birth, she was afraid that the medical staff would not pay attention to her concerns. Mira was…
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Meeting in the Middle? The slippage of “trust” in online public health briefings
It was a bleak winter in the UK: the dreaded second wave of COVID-19 swept in with the cold and rain, triggering a return to nation-wide lockdown. The government-led vaccine rollout seeded hope while generating new uncertainties as cases continued to rise.…