Dr Anna Waldstein has a PhD in Ecological and Environmental Anthropology from the University of Georgia and a BA in Medical Anthropology from Hampshire College. Her long-term area of research and teaching interest is the social, political, economic, environmental and spiritual aspects of health and healing, especially among migrants. Anna’s doctoral work focused on women’s popular medical knowledge and self-care practices in both indigenous and mestizo communities in Mexico, and among Mexican migrants in the southeastern United States.
Since moving to Kent in 2005, Anna has done ethnographic fieldwork in the south of England with Rastafari (and other) migrants from the Caribbean. This work has looked more closely at political and spiritual dimensions of migrant medicinal plant-use (especially as a response to health inequalities), as well as issues related to mental health, embodiment, and the mind-body connection. Anna also likes to explore the nature of human (and plant) consciousness in her teaching and research.
In addition to teaching and research, Anna has extensive experience in both programme design and student support and has performed the roles of Senior Tutor, Programme/Course Convenor, and Director of Graduate Studies for the School of Anthropology and Conservation. She is currently Director of Studies for the Anthropology ‘teachout.’ Anna’s leadership in teaching, curriculum development and student support formed the basis of her successful application for SFHEA.
Dr Waldstein’s first monograph (2017 Living Well in Los Duplex: Critical Reflections on Medicalization, Migration and Health Sovereignty. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press) was based on her doctoral thesis. Thirty years of public health research in the United States suggests that Mexican migrants are healthier than most American citizens, despite well-documented health inequalities for migrants. Anna's work in ‘Los Duplex’, a Mexican migrant neighbourhood in Athens, Georgia, addresses this ‘Hispanic Health Paradox.’ It suggests that the ‘health sovereignty’ of migrants helps explain why they have better health profiles than American citizens whose lives are more medicalised. While most Americans rely on medical authorities to manage their health through the consumption of pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures and formal therapy, Mexicans balance the use of professional healthcare with holistic healing alternatives (e.g., a plant-rich diet, traditional medicinal plant knowledge, social support, etc.).
Anna is currently working on her second book Anthropology and the Tree of Life: Reasonings on Consciousness, Healing and Higher Education, which will synthesise ethnographic research findings with reflections on her experiences as an educator. The United Kingdom is experiencing multiple, interconnected crises that relate to inequalities in society. Along with refugees and asylum seekers, many migrants in the UK face barriers to housing, education, employment and healthcare. Anthropology and the Tree of Life will explore Rastafari healing as a response to such health inequalities in the UK’s ‘hostile environment for immigrants.’ It will also reflect on the crisis in British higher education, its entanglement with immigration policy and the impacts on research and teaching about health and healing. The book will weave together three overlapping strands of inquiry:
1. Research on the work of Rastafari healers in the UK, which involves balancing minds, emotions and spirits through reasoning (ritualised discussions), meditation and prayer, as well as building and maintaining strong bodies through the consumption of plants. Rastafari perspectives on consciousness and spirituality contribute to new theoretical frameworks for understanding how mental, physical and environmental health are interconnected. Rastafari healing promotes self-sufficiency in matters of health and provides support to the African Caribbean diaspora in the UK, especially to migrants who are disenfranchised from mainstream medical care. This research was supported by small grants from the University of Kent Faculty of Social Science and School of Anthropology and Conservation and done in collaboration with Jason Irving and Dennis Francis.
2. Research on the embodiment of, and resistance to, the threat of deportation among Rastafari (and other Jamaican) migrants. Fieldwork for this project was done with the assistance of Dennis Francis and was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust small grant in 2017, and public engagement/impact awards from the School of Anthropology and Conservation and the Public Engagement with Research Fund at the University of Kent in 2018. This work examined how health inequalities created by hostile immigration policies impact Rastafari migrants at risk of deportation and their British families. It also explored the impacts of deportability on mental health and suggests that while deportable Rastafari men develop spiritual coping strategies their family members may still experience stress and anxiety.
3. Work to decolonise anthropology teaching at the University of Kent. The promotion of equal opportunities and engagement with learning is the primary value that drives Anna’s teaching practice. This has been inspired and reinforced by her research with Rastafari, a Pan-African spiritual movement from Jamaica. Anna’s ethnographic immersion in Rastafari culture has enabled her to better understand and embody the movement’s anti-racist and anti-colonial ethos, which has filtered through the rest of her work, including curriculum design. This work has involved making sure that module reading lists include material from a diverse range of authors and engaging students in the co-creation of module content, as well as increasing the cultural and ethnic diversity of anthropology teaching staff by recruiting global majority PhD students as graduate teaching assistants.
Throughout her 20 years at Kent, Dr Waldstein has taught a variety of modules in Medical Anthropology (including Health, Illness and Medicine; Drugs and Culture; Medical Anthropology: Causes and Consequences of Illness; Holism, Health and Healing; the Anthropology of Eating; Medicinal Plants; and Animals, People and Plants). She also taught Introduction to Social Anthropology, which achieved a Diversity Mark Award in 2024.
By offering modules in her specialist areas, social and medical anthropology, Anna is able to engage in research-led teaching. This allows students to hear about some of the latest research in their field of study, as it unfolds. A popular example of her research led teaching was an annual workshop that Anna co-led with a Rastafari research partner for her postgraduate module on Holism, Health and Healing. In this multi-sensory workshop students were able to gain knowledge of and taste a variety of Rastafari herbal products, while they learned from a local expert how Rastafari healers contribute to mental, physical and spiritual health in the African Caribbean diaspora.
Anna has also had positive experiences with ‘teaching-led research'. After teaching several modules on ‘drugs and culture' and ‘medicinal plants’, she was convinced by one of her undergraduate students to help organise the first Breaking Convention: Multidisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness. Anna hosted a workshop on cannabis for both conference delegates and students from the School of Anthropology and Conservation, which included two Rastafari speakers. This teaching event was the beginning of her research on the UK Rastafari movement.
Current Undergraduate Modules
Anna Waldstein is unable to accept any new PhD students at this time.
Current PhD students
Dr Waldstein is chair of the Schultes Award Committee for the Society for Ethnobotany and was an elected Council member from 2019-2022. She is also one of the original co-founders of Breaking Convention: A Multidisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness, and was on the organising committee of the 2011 and 2013 conferences. The first Breaking Convention took place at the University of Kent in April 2011. The event was attended by 600 delegates from 30 countries and included a programme of over 70 academic presentations, short films and art installations. Several School of Anthropology and Conservation alumni have served/ are serving as Executive Directors of Breaking Convention.
Anna has provided expertise on drugs and altered states of consciousness for the National Geographic ‘Taboo’ series and also featured on several episodes of the Dopecast, Shroom With a View and Psychedelic Salon podcasts. She has written for The Conversation and Somatosphere.
Dr Anna Waldstein is available to provide comments or in-depth discussion on alternative medicine (including herbal medicine and alternative approaches to supporting mental health), migrant health inequalities, the UK Rastafari movement, the anthropology of consciousness (in humans and plants) and cannabis reform.
Videos of public lectures
Anthropological Insights for a Post Prohibition World
The Institute for Art and Ideas: “Dangerous Desires” 2021 How the Light Gets in Festival
Radio and podcasts
Radio 4 Sunday Programme: 5 December 2021
Psychedelic Salon: “From the Shamans’ Circle to the Ivory Tower”
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