Raphaëlle Rabanes

Raphaëlle Rabanes is an Assistant Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology at the Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, affiliated with the College of Arts & Sciences. She is currently on leave for the 2023-2024 academic year. Her work bridges medical anthropology, Black Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Disability Studies, focusing on health, race, embodiment, and historical legacies in the African Diaspora.

Educations:

• Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley & San Francisco (2020)
• M. Phil. in Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Paris Diderot (2009)
• M. Clin. in Clinical Psychology, University of Paris Diderot (2005)

Research Interests: Her research examines the interplay of health, history, and colonialism in Guadeloupe, including ethnographic studies on memory, embodiment, and therapeutic practices. She explores how Guadeloupeans address postcolonial trauma and structural inequities through healthcare, performance, and activism. Her current project investigates how Guadeloupean mental health professionals navigate historical and racialized legacies in clinical contexts.

Awards/Grants: No specific awards or grants are listed in the provided text.

Teaching & Advising: Rabanes emphasizes critical approaches to health beyond biomedical frameworks, integrating collective and psychic dimensions. Her courses address embodiment, care, ethnography, and resistance to structural racism. She mentors students toward interdisciplinary and socially engaged research.

Labs/Teams: Engages in fieldwork and collaborations in Guadeloupe, focusing on community-based ethnography and postcolonial therapeutic practices. Her work intersects with global health justice and decolonial methodologies.