Arachu Castro

Arachu Castro is a Professor at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, holding the Samuel Z. Stone Chair of Public Health in Latin America. She is also a Senior Research Affiliate at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research (CIPR) and has collaborated with institutions such as PAHO, WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNDP, and the World Bank. Her academic journey includes roles as Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine (2011-2012), Assistant Professor (2004-2011), and Instructor (2001-04) in Medical Anthropology.

• Education:
  • Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Barcelona (with credits from UC Berkeley, 1997)
  • Ph.D. in Social Anthropology & Ethnology, EHESS (1996)
  • MPH in International Health, Harvard School of Public Health (1998)
  • MA in Social Anthropology & Ethnology, EHESS (1992)
  • RD in Nutrition, Polytechnic Institute, Barcelona (1989)
  • MA in History/Social Anthropology, University of Barcelona (1988)

Her research focuses on medical anthropology, reproductive health, infectious disease, early childhood development, social inequality, and health policy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Recent publications address obstetric violence, maternal mortality inequities, breastfeeding impacts, and health equity frameworks. She has conducted fieldwork across Mexico, Argentina, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

Scientific awards include the 2005 Rudolf Virchow Award, 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship, and 2012 Fellowship at the Society for Applied Anthropology, along with the Burke Global Health Fellowship (2009) and Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar Chair (2009). She has supervised 5 dissertations/theses in the last 5 years and taught courses on Health and Women’s Rights, Health Equity, and Public Health in Cuba.