Senate Faculty

Nancy N Chen
  • Title
    • Professor
  • Division Social Sciences Division
  • Department
    • Anthropology Department
  • Phone
    831-459-5198
  • Email
  • Office Hours By Appointment
  • Mail Stop Social Sciences 1 Faculty Services
  • Courses ANTH-208A- Ethnographic Practice, ANTH-228 - Grantwriting, ANTH-194M- Advanced Topics in Medical Anthropology, ANTH-196D - Food and Medicine, ANTH-134- Intro to Medical Anthropology, ANTH-110K- Culture Through Food, ANTH-110M- Cultures of Mental Health

Summary of Expertise

As a medical anthropologist, Nancy N. Chen focuses on healing practices and health institutions. Her early ethnographic project compared how psychiatry and mental health become national agendas for social integration while, simultaneously, alternative forms of healing resurged. Her interests include the study of healing narratives, chronic and infectious diseases, traditional medical knowledge, and mental health. Chen’s recent research examines medicinal and novel foods. 




Research Interests

Teaching Specialties: Medical anthropology, visual anthropology, food and culture.

Areas of Research: food and medicine, mental health and psychiatry, traditional and complementary healing practices


Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D. Medical Anthropology, UC Berkeley and San Francisco
M.A. Anthropology, UC Berkeley
B.A. Stanford University, Human Biology and Humanities Honors

Honors, Awards and Grants

Society of Medical Anthropology - Medical Anthropology Student Association:  Graduate Mentorship Award

Social Sciences Division: Golden Apple Teaching Award

UCSC Committee on Teaching:  Distinguished Teaching Award