Rapid Response publishes essays that relate to rapidly evolving experiences.
Members of the MAQ community are invited to submit material for Rapid Responses–either contributions to an existing series or ideas for a new series–directly to the Online MAQ Editor for consideration. Submissions will be reviewed expediently and posted as quickly as possible.
Rapid Response publishes pieces from SMA’s “Takes A Stand”, an initiative which encourages medical anthropologists to collaborate on policy-related reviews and briefs.
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India’s Response to Covid-19 Pandemic: A Success Story?
On 24th March, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi announced a nation-wide lockdown as a preventive measure against the spread of the novel coronavirus in India. Overnight, all transportation services were discontinued, schools, colleges, and universities were shutdown, examinations of all sorts…
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Making Sense of Hygiene in Bangladesh
Hygiene refers to physical cleanliness, including personal matters such as regular bathing, washing hands, cutting nails, washing and changing clothes, and so on. It also includes keeping homes, workplaces, and even toilets clean and germ-free conditions that are considered as good qualities…
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Issue 3 | Medical anthropology weekly: COVID-19
“Medical anthropology weekly: COVID-19” is a weekly compilation of COVID-19-related materials across text, audio, and video formats focused on medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines. The project is a collaboration between Society for Medical Anthropology, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, and Somatosphere. Each is cross-posted on all three…
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Pedagogies of the Soul, an Anthropologist in Isolation, and the Cut
The COVID-19 pandemic, its demands for physical separation, isolation, and their psychic toll give rise to a set of reflections on how conceptual work can inform psychological anthropology. Following Stefania Pandolfo (2018), here I draw on psychoanalysis and on Islamic philosophy and…
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A wink and a recommendation: thick description in the covid-19 pandemic
In The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), Clifford Geertz discusses Gilbert Ryle’s notion of thick description with winks and twitches. Both appear as a contraction of the eyelid, but a twitch is involuntary, while a wink is a form of communication. There are countless messages…
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Issue 2 | Medical anthropology weekly: COVID-19
May 5 – May 12 “Medical anthropology weekly: COVID-19” is a weekly compilation of COVID-19-related materials across text, audio, and video formats focused on medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines. The project is a collaboration between Society for Medical Anthropology, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, and Somatosphere. Each…