Lesley Jo Weaver, PhD, MPH, is an academic expert in medical anthropology, global health, mental health, race, gender, chronic diseases, food insecurity, and homelessness. Her research focuses, broadly, on the social production of health and illness. In the US, Weaver's federally funded research addresses the ongoing crisis of houselessness in the Pacific Northwest by exploring stress and health among people living with insecure housing. In India, Weaver’s federally funded research explores how the day-to-day management of type 2 diabetes shapes North Indian women’s abilities to participate in social roles considered appropriate for women of their age, class, and caste groups. She also studies how South Indian women explain and understand distress, and what they do when they are so stressed that they need to seek help. In Brazil, Weaver’s work has examined how food insecurity influences physical and mental wellbeing. In addition to this fieldwork, Weaver co-hosts and co-produces the academic podcast Speaking of Race, a longstanding program that explores the history and present-day reverberations of scientific racism around the world.
Caste discrimination or persecution, Coercive population control, Disability, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Forced marriage, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, HIV/AIDS, Likelihood of destitution or homelessness, Mental illness, Political persecution, Religious discrimination or persecution, Risk of retaliation, Sexual abuse/assault, Specialized medical services, Tribal discrimination or persecution, Violence against children/child abuse
2023 Weaver, Lesley Jo, Alison Karasz, Kiranmayee Muralidhar, Poornima Jaykrishna, Karl Krupp, and Purnima Madhivanan. Will increasing access to mental health treatment close India’s mental health gap? Social Science & Medicine-Mental Health: 100184. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100184.
2022 Weaver, Lesley Jo. The Laboratory of Scientific Racism: India and the Origins of Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 52: 67-88. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-041320-024344.
2022 Weaver, Lesley Jo, and Alison Karasz. “Tension” and distress in South Asia: A systematic literature review. Social Science & Medicine-Mental Health: 100092. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100092.
2021 Weaver, Lesley Jo, Caroline Owens, Fasil Tessema, Ayantu Kebede, and Craig Hadley. Unpacking the “Black Box” of Global Food Insecurity and Mental Health. Social Science & Medicine 282: 114042. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114042.
2020 Bosire, Edna, Emily Mendenhall, and Lesley Jo Weaver. Comorbid Suffering: Breast Cancer Survivors in South Africa. Qualitative Health Research 30(6): 917-926. DOI: 10.1177/1049732320911365.
2019 Sugar and Tension: Diabetes and Gender in Modern India. Rutgers University Press. ISBN-13: 978-1978803008.
2019 Hadley, Craig, Lesley Jo Weaver, Fifi Tessema, and Fasil Tessema. Do People Agree on What Foods are Prestigious? Evidence of a Single, Shared Cultural Model of Food in Urban Ethiopia and Rural Brazil. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 58(2): 93-103. DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2019.1566131.
2018 Howells, Michaela, Christopher D. Lynn, and Lesley Jo Weaver. Zika Virus in American Samoa: Challenges to Prevention in the Context of Health Disparities and Non-Communicable Disease. Annals of Human Biology 45(3): 229-238. DOI: 10.1080/03014460.2018.1465594.
2017 Weaver, Lesley Jo and Sarah Trainer. Shame, Blame, and Status Incongruity: Health and Stigma in Rural Brazil and the Urban United Arab Emirates. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 41(3): 319-340. DOI: 10.1007/s11013-016-9518-3.
2015 Weaver, Lesley Jo and S.V. Madhu. Type 2 Diabetes and Anxiety Symptoms Among Women in New Delhi, India. American Journal of Public Health 105(11): 2335-2340. DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302830.
2015 Weaver, Lesley Jo, Carol M. Worthman, Jason A. DeCaro, and S.V. Madhu. The Signs of Stress: Embodiments of Social Inequality among Women in New Delhi, India. Social Science & Medicine 131: 122-130. DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.002.