This week Familiar Stranger Tim speaks with Dr Letizia Bonanno.
Dr Letizia Bonanno is a medical anthropologist working on issues of care and pharmaceuticals. In March 2019 she earned her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester.
In their conversation, Tim asks Letizia about her fieldwork in a social clinic of solidarity in Athens and the impact of austerity policies on people seeking healthcare in Greece at that time. They also discuss modes and practices of care during times of crisis. Their conversation also touches on the role of graphic ethnography as a form of ethnographic practice and as a way to make sense of the ironic and paradoxical situations one often finds themselves presented with during fieldwork.
Letizia is also a passionate advocate for bringing anthropology to broader audiences outside of academia and speaks about her role as a visual editor for Otherwise Magazine, an initiative dedicated to storytelling through ethnographic research, activism, fiction and non-fiction writing, poetry, and visual essays.
As someone who has been following her work for some time it was a real privilege to be able to speak with her.
Links and Citations:
Berger, J. 1972. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books.
Biehl, J. (2004). Life of the Mind: The Interface of Psychopharmaceuticals, Domestic Economies and Social Abandonment. American Ethnologist, 31 (4):475-496
Biehl, J. (2004). Care and Disregard. In A Companion to Moral Anthropology, edited by Didier Fassin, 242-263. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Atalay, S., Bonanno, L., Galman, S. C., Jacqz, S., Rybka, R., Shannon, J., . . . Wolencheck, E. (2019). Ethno/Graphic Storytelling: Communicating Research and Exploring Pedagogical Approaches through Graphic Narratives, Drawings, and Zines. American Anthropologist, 121(3), 769-772. doi:10.1111/aman.13293
Bonanno, L. (2021). The Work of Pharmaceuticals in Austerity-Burdened Athens. Modes and Practices of Care in Times of Crisis. Ethnos. doi:10.1080/00141844.2021.2013282
Bonanno, L. (2022). Of Athens, crises, and other medicines. American Anthropologist, 124(2), 417-425. doi:10.1111/aman.13722
Bonanno, L. (2019). Drawing as a Mode of Translation. American Anthropologist, https://www.americananthropologist.org/ethnographic-storytelling/bonanno-drawing-as-a-mode-of-translation
Bonanno, L. (2020). Loops of Struggle, Otherwise Magazine, https://www.otherwisemag.com/loops
Otherwise Magazine, https://www.otherwisemag.com/
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This anthropology podcast is supported by the Australian Anthropological Society, the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific and College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science and is produced in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association.
Music by Pete Dabro: dabro1.bandcamp.com
Shownotes by Timothy Johnson
Podcast edited by Timothy Johnson and Matthew Phung
Feature image “Solidarity for all” by Letizia Bonanno
