Anthropology Department: Kassen Lecture by China Scherz, Ph.D.

China Scherz, Ph.D., Professor of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame Keough School of Global Affairs, will present a lecture based on her recent book: Higher Powers: Alcohol and After in Uganda's Capital City

Dr. China Scherz’s research explores care, connection, and community as factors in well-being and health. Her recent book draws on four years of anthropological fieldwork examining ways in which Ugandans attempt to reconstruct their life after alcohol. Through collaborative and engaged fieldwork, Scherz and her co-authors explore various therapeutic resources employed by Ugandans struggling with alcohol addiction, including herbal aversion therapies, engagements with balubaale sprits, and forms of deliverance and spiritual warfare practiced in Pentecostal Churches.

Through this work, Scherz and colleagues argue for a reconceptualization of addiction and recovery that may prove relevant well beyond Uganda.

The Kassen Lecture, presented annually by the CWRU Department of Anthropology, features the work of prominent female social scientists. The Kassen Lecture series is made possible by the generous support of the estate of the late Drs.
Aileen and Julian Kassen.

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