My name is Michelle Munyikwa, and I'm a third year student in a joint MD/PhD program in medical anthropology. I have a wide range of influences from the biological sciences, anthropology, medicine and social epidemiology. As an undergraduate at the College of William & Mary, my honors research investigated molecular mechanisms of the cellular stress response. Now, as a student of anthropology & medicine, I am beginning to examine how stress affects health on a larger scale. Broadly, my interests include the body, race, feminist and queer of color critique, and disability studies. I hope to understand how oppression, social exclusion, and bias influence access to and experiences with healthcare. I am also interested in the emerging field of digital anthropology, and using creative methods to explore how increasing use of the internet is shaping new forms of personhood and affecting how both physicians and patients make sense of chronic illness.
Areas of Research
medical anthropology, race, chronic illness and disability
Publications
Bondzi, C., Brunner, A. M., Munyikwa, M. R., Connor, C. D., Simmons, A. N., Stephens, S. L., Belt, P. A., Roggero, V. R., Mavinakere, M. S., Hinton, S. D., and Allison, L.A. (2011) Recruitment of the oncoprotein v-ErbA to aggresomes. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology.
Barr, Justinn; Munyikwa, Michelle; Frazier, Elizabeth; Hinton, Shanta. (2012) The Pseudophosphatase MK-STYX Inhibits Stress Granule Assembly Independently of Ser149 Phosphorylation of G3BP-1. FEBS Journal.