Margo-Lea Hurwicz

Dr. Margo-Lea Hurwicz serves as an Associate Professor within the Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Languages and the Gerontology Program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), operating under the College of Arts and Sciences. She joined UMSL in fall 1990 and maintains a joint appointment between anthropology and gerontology, teaching undergraduate courses like Medical Anthropology and Growing Old in Other Cultures alongside graduate Gerontology Program courses including Cultural Aspects of Aging and Aging and Health Behavior.

Education:

• PhD in Behavioral Anthropology from University of California, Los Angeles (1982)
• Postdoctoral training in Social Gerontology at University of Southern California (1985-86)

Research Interests: Dr. Hurwicz specializes in medical anthropology and cultural gerontology, investigating how Hispanic and Chinese elders conceptualize health and aging through both qualitative ethnographic methods and quantitative consensus analysis. Her work centers on cultural relativism in healthcare decision-making, explanatory models of chronic illnesses, and health-seeking behaviors among minority aging populations, with fieldwork conducted in Mexico, Guatemala, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Beijing.

Publication Trends: Her 15 most recent works (1982-2016) demonstrate consistent focus on cultural frameworks of aging-related health, evolving from cross-cultural depression studies toward detailed analyses of elderly explanatory models for hypertension, influenza, and Alzheimer's. Key themes include the influence of ethnicity on physician-patient communication, gaps in understanding lifestyle-illness connections, and merging of cold/flu concepts in popular thought despite clinical distinctions.

Scientific Awards:

• NIH/NIA Shannon Award (1992) for cognitive anthropology techniques in elderly healthcare behavior research
• NIH FIRST Award (1993) for early career development

Advising and Grants: Dr. Hurwicz secured a 1998 Arthritis Foundation grant studying osteoarthritis in older adults and actively participates in the foundation's fundraising. Her NIH-funded research expanded to Chinese elders in 1995, covering health decision-making across ethnic groups. While specific students aren't named, her graduate Gerontology teaching and long-standing faculty role confirm ongoing mentoring of Master's and PhD candidates.

Labs and Teams: Her research operates through international fieldwork teams across five countries rather than fixed laboratory spaces, focusing on community-based data collection with elderly participants. Collaborations include Kaiser Permanente for chronic disease management program dissemination and multidisciplinary partnerships in rheumatology and psychiatry.