Hunt, Linda M.
(Ph.D. Harvard University, 1992)
Professor - Center for Ethics and Humanitities in the Life Sciences
huntli@msu.edu

Dr. Hunt is Professor jointly appointed to the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University (1992). She has conducted research both within the US and in Mexico, primarily concerned with issues in health care and health research on Latino and other minority populations, focusing on ethnicity and health, the management of chronic illness, heath disparities, and the culture of biomedicine. In her current research she is examining the ways that health researchers and clinicians view minority populations, particularly how assumptions about cultural and biological difference are manifest in current health policy, interventions, professional training, and research agendas. In one recent project she studied how clinicians present the opportunity for prenatal genetics diagnosis to Latinas and how those patients perceive and respond to the offer. In another, she is examining how a group of genetic scientists conceptualize racial and ethnic variables in their work, and how these concepts both reflect and produce social constructs of racial and ethnic differences.

Dr. Hunt currently teaches Overview of Medical Anthropology; Issues in Latino Health: Theory and Method in Minority Health Research; and Methods in Cultural Anthropology

A few recent publications include:

• Hunt, L.M. (1998) Moral Reasoning and the Meaning of Cancer: Causal Explanations of Oncologists and Patients in Southern Mexico. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 12(3):298-318.
• Hunt, L.M., M.A. Valenzuela, J.A. Pugh (1998) Porque me tocó a mi?: Mexican American diabetes patients' causal stories and their relationship to treatment behaviors. Social Science and Medicine. 46 (8):959-969.
• Hunt, L.M., J.A. Pugh, M.A. Valenzuela (1998) How Patients adapt self-care recommendations in everyday life. Journal of Family Practice. 46(3): 207-215.
• Hunt, L.M., R. Tinoco, N. Schwartz, and D. Halperin. (1999) Balancing Risks and Resources: Applying Pesticides without Using Protective Equipment in Southern Mexico. IN Anthropology in Public Health : Bridging Differences in Culture and Society . R.A. Hahn and K. W. Harris (eds.) Oxford University press, 235-254.
• Hunt, L.M., N.H. Arar, and L.L. Akana. (2000) Herbs, Prayer and Insulin: Use of Medical and Alternative Treatments by a Group of Mexican American Diabetes Patients. Journal of Family Practice 49(30):216-223.
• Hunt, L.M., N.H. Arar. (2001) An Analytical Framework for Contrasting Patient and Provider Views of the Process of Chronic Disease Management. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 15(3):1-21.
• Hunt, L.M. and K.B. de Voogd. (2003) Autonomy, Danger and Choice: the Moral Imperative of an "At Risk" Pregnancy for a Group of Latinas in Texas. IN Risk, Culture, & Health Inequality: Shifting Perceptions of Danger and Blame, B. Herr Harthorn and L. Oaks, eds. Westport, CN: Praeger Press. Pp. 37-56.
• Hunt, L.M, S. Schneider, B. Comer. (2004) Should "Acculturation" be a Variable in Health Research? A Critical Review of Research on U.S. Hispanics. Social Science and Medicine 59/5 pp. 973-986.
• Hunt, L.M., de Voogd, K. B., & Castaneda, H. (2005) The routine and the traumatic in prenatal genetic diagnosis: does clinical information inform patient decision-making? Patient Education and Counseling 56 (3):302B312
• Hunt, L.M. (2005) Health Research: What's culture got to do with it? The Lancet. 366(9486):617-618.
• Hunt, L.M. and K.B. DeVoogd. (2005) Clinical Myths of the Cultural Other: Implications for Latino Patient Care. Academic Medicine 80(10):918-924.
• Hunt, L. M., Castaneda, H. & de Voogd, K. B. (2006) Do Notions of Risk Inform Patient Choice? Lessons from a Study of Prenatal Genetic Counseling. Medical Anthropology, 25(3): 193-219.
• Hunt, LM. and KB de Voogd. (2007) Are good intentions good enough?: informed consent without trained interpreters. Journal of General Internal Medicine 22:598–605.
• Hunt, L. M. & Megyesi, M. S. The ambiguous meanings of the racial/ethnic categories routinely used in human genetics research. Social Science & Medicine 66:2 (349-361). 2007.