Dr Rachel Hall-Clifford

Rachel Hall-Clifford is a medical anthropologist working at the intersections of anthropology and public health.  She currently works on illness narratives research in the Department of Primary Care, focusing on how to increase the accessibility of autopathographies to patients.  She is investigating the motivations for writing book-length accounts of illness, the appeal of these works to fellow patients, and the role that such works play in communicating about illness in contemporary society.  

Dr. Hall-Clifford holds degrees in Anthropology (BA – University of the South), Medical Anthropology (MSc – University of Oxford, PhD – Boston University), and Public Health (MPH – Boston University).  She has also held medical anthropology research positions at Harvard University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  Dr. Hall-Clifford has conducted fieldwork in the central highlands of Guatemala on treatments for childhood diarrhea and the delivery of primary health care.  She is interested in the measurement of long-term impacts of public health intervention and inequalities in the distribution of health services.  She is also currently a Research Associate in the School of Anthropology.