Peter H. Stephenson

Interests

My research focuses on the experience of people who are members of highly vulnerable and/or isolated groups; such as refugees, the very old, migrants and people who are very ill, or in anguish. How researchers who wish to be of assistance to people in vulnerable groups can work together with them without causing further harm is a basic ethical consideration and has served as the focus for many of my recent research projects. Just how the results of such research can be used in planning, housing, health services delivery, etc. constitutes the great majority of my work.

Current Projects

I am currently working on two projects that may engage graduate students; one is a study of the ways in which seniors experience medications. The grant for the preliminary research has just been completed and involved one MA student from UVic. Along with my colleagues at the Centre on Aging, we are creating a larger grant application based on our findings to do health promotion in the broad area of adverse drug reactions among seniors on Vancouver Island. The second project with potential for some student engagement deals with parental bereavement. That work also involves Dr. Lisa Mitchell (UVic, Anthropology) and both graduate student and faculty scholars at McGill (Pediatric Oncology) and Wilfred Laurier (Social Work) along with community partners at Victoria Hospice and Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, in Vancouver.

2011-2012 Courses

• Fall 2011: ANTH 302 Globalization, Health, and the Environment
• Spring 2012:ANTH 410 Advance Topics in Medical Anthropology

Selected Publications

Books

• Forthcoming. Aging and Loss (Co-Editor, with J. Graham) Toronto: University of Toronto Press (expected 2010)
• Forthcoming. Zombie Factory: Culture, Stress and Sudden Death, (co-author, with M. Korovkin, M.D.) Sheffield, VT: Green Frigate Books (expected 2010)
• 1995 - A Persistent Spirit: Towards Understanding Aboriginal Health in British Columbia (Senior Editor) with S. Elliott, L. Foster, and J. Harris. Western Geographical Series, Vol. 31, Victoria: University of Victoria, Western Geographical Press (distributed by UBC Press).

Articles & Chapters

• 2004 - Health Care, Religion and Ethnic Diversity in Canada, in Paul Bramdat and David Seljak, (Eds)., Religion and Ethnicity in Canada, Pp. 201-221. Pearson Longman: Toronto.
• 2003 - And Steven Acheson "The Northwest Coast", in C. Ember (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology, Vol. II., Pp. 890-902. Kluwer Academic Press: Dordrecht, Netherlands
• 2002 - Aging and Dying in Cross-Cultural Perspective: An Introduction to a Critical Cross-Cultural Understanding of Death and Dying, in D.N. Weisstub, D.C. Thomasma, S. Gauthier and G.F. Tomossy (Eds), Aging: Culture, Health and Social Change. Pp. 161-173, Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht, Netherlands.
• 2002 - Aging in Hutterite Life: The Process of Growing Old and Dying in the Communal Society, in A. Guerci and S. Consigliere (Eds.) La Vecchiaia Del Mondo (Old Age in the World the World), Pp. 407-411, Biblioteca Di Anthropologia Della Salute, Erga Edizione:Genova, Italia.
• 2001 - Expanding Notions of Culture and Ethics in Health and Medicine to Include Marginalized Groups: A Critical Review. Anthropologica, XLLIII:1-15.