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Sharon Abramowitz’s ongoing work with the AAA Emergency Ebola Anthropology Initiative

Sharon Abramowitz has been playing a lead coordination role in the American Anthropological Association/Emergency Ebola Anthropology Initiative. The Initiative was founded in 2014 with the overarching goal of bringing together interdisciplinary and international social science experts to inform the Ebola response.  Presently, the network includes 150-200 experts in 11 countries, including U.S., U.K., Canada, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.  Most participants have 10-30 years of experience in the region and with humanitarian organizations.

Initially supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the American Anthropological Association, the International Development Research Centre, George Washington University, and the University of Florida, Abramowitz has helped the network has built strategic alliances with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the United Nations Mission for Emergency Ebola Response (UNMEER), and the World Bank to cooperatively ensure that social scientists are directly involved in helping to set the agenda for action and informing the response through consultations, the drafting of briefs, and the issuance of strategic guidance.  To date, the Emergency Ebola Anthropology Network has produced numerous advisory briefs and guidelines aimed at providing guidance to governmental and humanitarian actors involved in the Ebola response at local, national and international levels.

The network works via a publicly accessible listserv, a discussion board, and a website hosted by the UK Ebola Anthropology Platform:

Discussion Board: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ebola-anthropology-initiative

Website: http://www.ebola-anthropology.net

 

UF Ebola Research Group:

In September 2014, the Health in Africa Working Group of UF’s Center for African Studies convened an interdisciplinary research initiative to investigate the medical, socio-cultural, political and economic determinants of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa.  The group is currently comprised of 30 faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students from various disciplines across the university engaged in ongoing research and advocacy regarding the West African Ebola Crisis.

 

Events and Speaking Engagements:

  • On October 8th, UF scholars hosted a panel discussion “The West African Ebola Epidemic: A UF Faculty Discussion & Research Poster Session” featuring a panel of UF faculty who discussed the disease and its sociocultural effects.  This event was followed by a research poster session presented by undergraduate students in the UF Ebola Research Group.
  • Averting Chronically Acute Crises: Bringing Anthropology To And From The Global Ebola Response (Co-Sponsored By The University Of North Texas,  Napa & Sma. Washington Dc: American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. December 4, 2014.
  • “The Political Economy of the Ebola Crisis.” Plenary Speaker at African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN. November 20, 2014.
  • Wenner-Gren/American Anthropological Association Recommendations for Ebola Response. George Washington University, November 7, 2014. Video is available of Panel 1 and Panel 2.
  • Abramowitz, S. (2014) “The Ebola Crisis: Context, Systemic Challenges, Consequences,” Georgetown University School of Foreign Policy. September 23, 2014

 

Research Collaboration:

Sharon Abramowitz has been working in partnership with colleagues at UF, Yale and the World Health Organization in Liberia to analyze data collected during the height of the Ebola crisis in Liberia between August-October 2014.  This research has explored several critical issues informing the Ebola response, including the pace in which populations assimilated new information about Ebola, local attitudes towards mass graves and cremation, community-based responses to Ebola in urban neighborhoods, and patterns of healthcare-seeking and clusters of co-morbidity in the Ebola crisis.  Notable publications include the following working papers:

 

Publications:

  • Abramowitz, SA et al. (2014) Guidances and Recommendations: The AAA/Wenner-Gren Ebola Emergency Response Workshop.
  • Abramowitz, SA., McLean, K. McKune SL, Fallah, M., Monger, J., Tehoungue, K., Omidian, PA. (2014) “Preliminary Report on Community-based Accounts of Co-Morbidity, Co-mortality, and Health-Seeking Behaviors in Four Monrovia Communities During the West African Ebola Epidemic.” Working Paper from WHO data. Submitted to U.N. Mission Emergency Ebola Response.
  • Abramowitz, SA., McKune SL, Fallah, M., Monger, J., Tehoungue, K., Omidian, PA. The Opposite of Denial: Social Learning at the Onset of the Ebola Emergency in Liberia.” Report Submitted to the WHO.
  • Abramowitz, SA., McKune SL, Bardosh, K., Fallah, M., Monger, J., Tehoungue, K., Omidian, PA. Community-Centered Responses to Ebola in Urban Liberia: The View from Below. Under review at PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Co-author (with Juliet Bedford) of Emergency Ebola Anthropology Network/UN Mission for Emergency Ebola Response Briefs:

  • Culture and Clinical Trials (1/2015)
  • The Flow of Money at the Community Level (11/14)
  • Mobilising Youth for Ebola Education: Sierra Leone and Liberia (10/14)
  • Sierra Leone: Gift-giving During Initial Community Consultations (for CCCs) (10/14)
  • Regional Food Security, Work Migration, and Roadblocks (10/14)
  • Liberia: Handing of Bodies and National Memorials – Community Perceptions from Monrovia (10/14)

 

Media Appearances:

 

Commentaries and Online Articles: