Vania Smith-Oka

Biography

Vania Smith-Oka is a cultural and medical anthropologist whose research focuses on the culture of medicine and the interactions between institutions (medical, economic, development) and people living/working within them.

Her first book, Shaping the Motherhood of Indigenous Mexico (Vanderbilt, 2013), explored the impact of an economic development program on the reproductive lives and motherhood of Indigenous women in the Huasteca region of Mexico. Her second book, Becoming Gods: Medical Training in Mexican Obstetric Wards, (Rutgers, 2021), addressed how skills, practices, and attitudes of medicine are transmitted to medical students in Puebla, Mexico.

Past research includes the role of space/place, notions of social and medical risk, and quality of care in hospitals in Mexico; how practices such as obstetric violence become prevalent across some societies; a collaborative project with architects and health professionals on how medical space impacts care and patient experience; and a comparative analysis of cesarean section data from hospitals in Puebla and Indiana.

She is currently engaged in three projects: (1) “Incision Decisions”, which brings together anthropologists and obstetricians to understand decision-making around cesarean sections; (2) “Motherhood and Migration Stories,” a collaborative arts-based, community-based project exploring how art can become a language to narrate stories or trauma and joy; and (3) “Uncertainty in Emergency Medicine,” which explores how providers in high-stress environments make decisions despite uncertainty.