Donna M. Goldstein
· Professor • Department ChairUniversity of Colorado Boulder · Anthropology
Active 1994–2026
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About
Donna M. Goldstein is a Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder, having joined the faculty in 1994. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a B.S. in Rural Sociology from Cornell University and an Ed.M. in Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research extensively explores the intersection of race, gender, poverty, and violence in Brazil. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book 'Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown,' which focuses on the lives of impoverished domestic workers in Rio de Janeiro’s shantytowns and their ways of coping with suffering, violence, and social abandonment. This work received the Margaret Mead Award in 2005 for contributions to public anthropology. Currently, Professor Goldstein is engaged in projects within medical anthropology and the anthropology of science, including studies on pharmaceutical politics and neoliberalism in Argentina and the United States, as well as the history of genetics, Cold War science, and the health of populations in Brazil. She leads a collaborative interdisciplinary research project with colleagues at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Brazil and CU, investigating health issues related to populations near the Angra nuclear complex. She has served as Director of the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) and…
Research topics
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Computer Science
- Law
- Art
- Epistemology
- Psychology
- Philosophy
- Nursing
- Virology
Selected publications
2019-07-01 · 174 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingDonna M. Goldstein presents a hard-hitting critique of urban poverty and violence and challenges much of what we think we know about the "culture of poverty" in this compelling read. Drawing on more than a decade of experience in Brazil, Goldstein provides an intimate portrait of everyday life among the women of the favelas, or urban shantytowns in Rio de Janeiro, who cope with unbearable suffering, violence and social abandonment. The book offers a clear-eyed view of socially conditioned misery…
Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2020 · 71 citations
Early in his campaign, Donald Trump boasted that 'I know words. I have the best words', yet despite these assurances his speech style has sown conflict even as it has powered his meteoric rise. If the Trump era feels like a political crisis to many, it is also a linguistic one. Trump has repeatedly alarmed people around the world, while exciting his fan-base with his unprecedented rhetorical style, shock-tweeting, and weaponized words. Using many detailed examples, this fascinating and highly to…
Limitations of COVID-19 testing and case data for evidence-informed health policy and practice
Health Research Policy and Systems · 2023 · 66 citations
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a pandemic within a matter of months. Analysing the first year of the pandemic, data and surveillance gaps have subsequently surfaced. Yet, policy decisions and public trust in their country's strategies in combating COVID-19 rely on case numbers, death numbers and other unfamiliar metrics. There are many limitations on COVID-19 case counts internationally, which make cross-country comparisons of raw data and policy responses difficult. PURP…
The social life of corruption in Latin America
Culture, theory and critique/Culture, theory & critique · 2018-10-02 · 21 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingThis essay serves as the introduction to the special issue titled, ‘The social life of corruption in Latin America’. The six authors featured in this special issue of Culture, Theory and Critique exhibit a range of scholarship around questions of corruption and anti-corruption in the region. All have been involved in long-term ethnographically based research projects in particular locations in Latin America, including Brazil (three contributions), Peru (one contribution), Colombia (one contribut…
Trump’s Comedic Gestures as Political Weapon
Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2020-08-31 · 13 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingThis chapter argues that the success of Trump's candidacy in the 2016 Republican primary was due in part to its value as barbed comedic entertainment, generated through gesture. The chapter builds on semiotician Mikhael Bakhtin's notion of the "grotesque body" to examine the ways that Trump's unconventional communicative style, particularly his use of gesture to critique the political system and caricature his opponents, brought momentum to his campaign by creating spectacle. By reducing a targe…
Recent grants
Frequent coauthors
- 16 shared
Carolyn Nordstrom
- 16 shared
Stéphanie Riès
San Diego State University
- 16 shared
Cont Ributing
Hawaii Pacific University
- 16 shared
E Itors
Hawaii Pacific University
- 16 shared
Philippe Bourgois
University of California, Los Angeles
- 16 shared
Robert Borofsky
University of California System
- 16 shared
Naomi Schneider
The Ohio State University
- 14 shared
Kira Hall
University of Colorado Boulder
Labs
CARTSSPI
The Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences
Education
B.S., Rural Sociology
Cornell University
M.A., Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley
Other, Psychology
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Awards & honors
- Margaret Mead Award (2005)
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