Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Faculty | Anthropology | University of West Florida
Skip to main content
Logo of University of West Florida
Marten,Meredith_211

Meredith Marten

Biography

Meredith Marten, associate professor of anthropology, teaches cultural anthropology, medical anthropology and African studies.

Marten is a cultural and medical anthropologist whose work on HIV prevention programs in East Africa led to her current research on reproductive health and maternal mortality. Her primary research interests include equity in access to HIV and maternal health services in Tanzania and northwest Florida, focusing on how volatility in donor aid and health policy affects the health and well-being of women living in poverty.

Medical anthropology incorporates both cultural and biological anthropology by examining the effects of social and cultural factors on health and health care. For her dissertation, she spent 20 months in rural and urban health-care settings in Tanzania to document the impact reduced funding can have on a health system’s ability to respond to health emergencies. She focused on US-funded programs designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and the coping strategies HIV-positive women use to manage their health in unpredictable donor aid and health care contexts. She is a recipient of a Fulbright-Hays dissertation fellowship, and has written peer-reviewed journal articles related to this work and to global health, including “From Emergency to Sustainability: Shifting Objectives in the US Government’s HIV Response in Tanzania,” published in Global Public Health, “Living with HIV as Donor Aid Declines,” published in Medical Anthropology, and “Hospital Side-Hustles: Funding Conundrums and Perverse Incentives in Tanzania’s Publicly-Funded Health Sector” in Social Science and Medicine.

Degrees & Institutions

Marten received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Michigan State University, a master’s in anthropology from Florida State University, a master’s in public health (international health and development) from Tulane University, and a doctorate in medical anthropology from the University of Florida.

Research

Medical anthropology; global health; African studies; maternal and neonatal health; HIV; health systems and policy research; medical pluralism; social inequities in health; culture, stress, and disease; global mental health

Publications

See UWF Institutional Repository

Marten, Meredith G. and Noelle Sullivan. 2020. Hospital Side Hustles: Funding Conundrums and Perverse Incentives in the Publicly-Funded Tanzanian Health Sector. Social Science & Medicine 244: 112662. 

Marten, Meredith G. 2020. Living with HIV as Donor Aid Declines in Tanzania. Medical Anthropology 39 (3): 197-210.

2017  Marten, Meredith G. From Emergency to Sustainability: Shifting Objectives in the US Government’s HIV/AIDS Response in Tanzania. Global Public Health 12 (8): 988-1003.

2017  Young, Alyson G., and Meredith Marten. Identifying and Using Indicators to Assess Program Effectiveness: Food Intake, Biomarkers, and Nutritional Evaluation. In Food Health: Nutrition, Technology, and Public Health, Janet Chrzan and John A. Brett, editors. Berghahn Press, New York.

2016 Collings, Peter, Meredith G. Marten, Tristan Pearce and Alyson G. Young. Country Food Sharing Networks, Household Structure, and Implications for Understanding Food Insecurity in Arctic Canada. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 55 (1): 30-49.

2015 Abramowitz, Sharon, Meredith Marten, and Catherine Panter-Brick. Medical Humanitarianism:
Anthropologists Speak Out on Policy and Practice. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 29 (1): 1-23. 

Keywords: Medical anthropology; global health; African studies; maternal and neonatal health; HIV; health systems and policy research; medical pluralism; social inequities in health; culture, stress, and disease; global mental health