Critical Care

Critical Care is the online publication of Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Critical Care provides anthropological insights about current events; creating space for public-facing writing, worldly and speculative interpretations of research, and dissemination of work to broader audiences. Critical Care combines the theoretical legacy of medical anthropology with applied, real-world engagements, providing careful responses to urgent matters demanding our attention.

Our editorial team is always looking for innovative and accessible contributions from medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines. Submissions will be reviewed by the MAQ Digital Editor and Editor, and we will work closely with authors on revisions. Multimedia or text submissions can take the form of:

  • reflections on fieldwork in progress
  • introduction of emergent methodologies or concepts
  • medical anthropological perspectives on current events
  • amplifying underrepresented voices in medical anthropology and in biomedicine/tech at large
  • reports from events, workshops, conference sessions

We also welcome online series ideas, which can resemble a journal special issue or be a collected group of submissions focused around a common theme or topic. A series can be curated by a contributor or by the digital editor.

Please contact the MAQ Digital Editor, Jessica Robbins-Panko, with submissions and ideas: jessica.robbins@wayne.edu.

Latest Posts

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Psychiatry, the State, and Interpretive Contests in Pakistan 

Neil Krishan Aggarwal

January 2, 2024

The civil unrest that occurred on May 9, 2023 across Pakistan is currently under investigation. According to Dawn, Pakistan’s most circulated English-language newspaper of record, at least eight people were killed, 290 were injured, and 1,900 protesters were detained after former Prime Minister Imran Khan from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI,… (Continue Reading)

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Duplicitous Trust: Village Health Work in the Wake of Humanitarian Protection Failings in Uganda 

Charlotte Brown and Chiara Chiavaroli

October 19, 2023

The story of Scovia   Abraham, a young South Sudanese man currently living under refugee status in one of northern Uganda’s many refugee settlements, is an active member of the Village Health Team (VHT). Abraham’s contracted work involves surveilling sickness within a defined zone of the refugee settlement, and reporting cases upwards… (Continue Reading)

Blog Series: Theorizing Trust from Anthropological Perspectives

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“These people are lying to us”: Mutating Vaccine Fears and Colonial Histories in Arua,  North-West Uganda 

Elizabeth Storer and Innocent Anguyo

March 31, 2023

In Arua, a border city in the West Nile sub-region of North-West Uganda, many  people questioned whether COVID-19 vaccines might harm them. From the outset of Uganda’s vaccine roll-out in March 2021, people articulated fears that the government and medical authorities were deceiving them and lying about potential risks of… (Continue Reading)

Blog Series: Theorizing Trust from Anthropological Perspectives

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Meeting in the Middle? The slippage of “trust” in online public health briefings

Milena Wuerth

December 22, 2022

The main hall of London Bridge train station during the government-mandated winter lockdown (10 January 2020). A sign reads "You must wear a face covering unless exempt. £6,400 maximum fee applies." (Photo by M. Wuerth) It was a bleak winter in the UK: the dreaded second wave of COVID-19 swept in… (Continue Reading)

Blog Series: Theorizing Trust from Anthropological Perspectives

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Vaccine Anxieties and the Dynamics of Trust: reflecting on pandemic landscapes in Uganda and Sierra Leone

Hayley MacGregor and Melissa Leach

November 19, 2022

Photo by Robert OkelloA meeting of the Ugandan COVID Task Force. The COVID-19 pandemic moved into a new phase in 2022 with intensifying focus on technological responses. An increasing reference to “trust” in global-level policy discourse has been noticeable as we have engaged as social scientists and invited participants in global… (Continue Reading)

Blog Series: Theorizing Trust from Anthropological Perspectives