New Books In Public Health

What does medical anthropology look like in the twenty-first century?

That is the central question of Mapping Medical Anthropology for the Twenty-First Century, a new edited volume by Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer, Junko Kitanaka and Eugene Raikhel, published by Rutgers University Press in 2026.

Rather than simply offering an overview of the field, the book invites us to rethink where medical anthropology has been, where it is now, and where it might be going.

What makes the collaboration particularly interesting is that the editors work across different geographical and intellectual locations. Their perspectives come together in a book that itself crosses borders, disciplines and medical worlds.

The book is also particularly timely as medicine is being transformed by AI, genetic technologies, digital health, pharmaceuticals and climate change, while longstanding questions of inequality, race, colonialism and access to care remain.

In my New Books Network conversation with the editors, we explore these questions and also the story behind the collaboration itself: How did three scholars working across different intellectual and geographical contexts come together? Why map medical anthropology through keywords? What should the field retain, rethink and confront in the twenty-first century?

Mapping Medical Anthropology for the Twenty-First Century does not offer a final map and invites us to keep redrawing the territory.
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What went wrong with global mental health?

Under the Gaze of Global Mental Health: A Critical Reflection (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) critically examines how the globalisation of mental health through the dominant medical model has created barriers to understanding and responding to distress with reference to cases from Malawi and Sri Lanka. Its authors argue that mental health must be understood within the overall health of an individual, and individual health is located within the social, political, cultural, economic, and environmental context in which they live. Their analyses demonstrate that supplanting locally developed responses to distress with a Western medicalised model of mental health inhibits a meaningful engagement with individuals and communities in need of care. Further, they argue that this ‘supplanting’ is analogous with a colonial endeavour, and one which diverts attention from the real problems of development. Across contexts the book highlights the difficulties that mental health professionals face in facilitating individuals’ capacities within structurally damaging socio-economic environments and increasingly commercially orientated health systems.

Janaka Jayawickrama is Professor of Social Anthropology and Director at the Research Centre for Health and Wellbeing at Shanghai University.

Jerome Wright is Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, University of York.

Lucas Tse is Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
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In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Leah Kim about her powerful book, Mom, Unfiltered: Maternal Mental Health and Finding Freedom Through Motherhood (Bloomsbury, 2026).

A deeply personal examination of the dire state of our maternal and postpartum care for mothers.For expecting and new parents, too often the care is so focused on a healthy baby that the mother's physical and mental needs are overlooked. Mothers face intense pressure to have the perfect birth plan, breastfeed with ease, and immediately bond with their baby. Unfortunately, these expectations can lead to anxiety, depression, and overwhelm. But it doesn't have to be that way. In Mom, Unfiltered: Maternal Mental Health and Finding Freedom Through Motherhood, Leah Kim explores her own pregnancy and early motherhood experience as a person of the global majority, the ways society fails new mothers, the mental health struggles of expecting and new mothers, the systemic neglect in care for mothers with marginalized identities, and how motherhood can be the inspiration for getting help and healing. Her story, enhanced with expert interviews, valuable resources, and the testimonies of other mothers, not only illuminates the impact of insufficient maternal care but also shows readers what can be done to improve care for mothers.Mom, Unfilteredis profoundly personal and brutally honest, yet it is ultimately deeply hopeful. It is about survival and growth, an invitation to move beyond our current social, cultural, and familial realities to support mothers in a meaningful way-physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Leah 수진 Kim is a storyteller, author, consultant, podcaster, and community organizer. She is a recovering yoga teacher and spent 10 years as Nike's Global Yoga Ambassador. Her first book "Mom, Unfiltered" will be published in April 2026.

About the host:

Hollay Ghadery is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024 and was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, was released with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children’s book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is a host on The New Books Network, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Founder of River Street, and the co-chair of the League of Canadian Poets BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. She is also a member of The National Book Critics Circle, The Creative Nonfiction Collective, and The Writers Union of Canada. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com.
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Diseases Have No Eyes: Valley Fever and Environmental Health Justice (Temple University Press, 2026) investigates
how communities in Central Valley, California deal with Valley Fever, a
painful illness caused by a soil fungus. The airborne disease’s
symptoms can last from two months to a patient’s lifetime and may be
fatal. Nearly a
third of the national cases are reported in California, where those
infected are disproportionately farmworkers and people incarcerated in
the region. Poverty, pollution, and prison expose these groups to
cumulative environmental and health risks that deny Valley Fever
patients adequate medical treatment.

Dr.
Sarah M. Rios examines how these populations face racial health
disparities and develop strategies of care. She connects environmental
justice activists as well as prison advocates and abolitionists who
mobilize protests and issue calls to action to the past and ongoing
efforts for medical autonomy and healthy communities. Diseases Have No Eyes emphasizes that vulnerable groups have developed an expertise
and understanding of Valley Fever out of necessity. In the process,
these community members offer an alternative public health response that
extends beyond the individual body.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
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In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick chats with Dr. Nicole Marinaro, a sociolinguist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg. Her work explores how language policies shape people's experiences of accessing healthcare and other public services. Dr. Marinaro’s research focuses on linguistic justice, examining how communication barriers affect patients who speak a language other than the majority language and how these barriers can lead to unequal access to care. Today she and Brynn discuss her 2025 paper "Operationalising linguistic unease for the evaluation of language policies in healthcare".

In this paper, Dr. Marinaro expands on the concept of "linguistic unease" as a practical framework for evaluating whether healthcare language policies truly meet patients' communication needs. Through her research, Dr. Marinaro aims to help policymakers and healthcare organizations create more inclusive systems that ensure everyone can communicate confidently and receive equitable care.

References

Gazzola, M., & Marinaro, N. (2022). Sprachenpolitik und Integration in Ausländerbehörden und Krankenhäusern: Der Fall Berlin und Leipzig. Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik, 2022, 57–84.

Marinaro, N. (2025). Operationalising linguistic unease for the evaluation of language policies in healthcare. Revista de Llengua i Dret (84), 73–93. DOI here

For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here.
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