Alissa Jordan

Alissa Jordan is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania. As a multimodal cultural and medical anthropologist, she focuses on healing, embodiment, and reproductive justice for Black birthing people in Haiti and global health contexts. Her work critically examines how Black women's bodily practices and medicinal knowledge challenge Western medical frameworks and intersect with racial capitalism.

• Education:
  • MA, University of Chicago
  • PhD, University of Florida

Research spans sensory ethnography, experimental methodologies, and collaborative storytelling through film, audio, illustration, and virtual reality. She is completing her book Atlas of Nanm: Bodily Openings and Encounters in Haiti, a multimedia ethnography exploring life force (nanm) in Haitian women's bodily practices. Her projects include:

• Hospital ≠ Prison archive addressing obstetric apartheid and global health detention
• Reckoning and Repair podcast examining colonial legacies in Philadelphia's art institutions
• Collaborative documentation of Haitian Vodou infant care practices

Awards:

• 2023 Platinum Award (School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania)

Methods integrate critical theory, participatory media, and creative pedagogy to amplify marginalized voices in global health and art discourses.