Arc of Interference

“This is a book about life and death and about the aftermath of death. That alone makes it relevant to our species and to others, but Arc of Interference is also a book about the possibility of something more and something wonderful: across the continents, people struggle to care for one another.” - Paul Farmer, from the Foreword

“In this rich collection, leading medical anthropologists demonstrate ethnography as care. Attending to intimate realities and to the productive power of narrative, they use anthropology for collective healing.” - Helena Hansen, coauthor of Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America

“Arc of Interference is essential reading for anyone who cares about our troubled times. Its ethnographic creations mend what is broken by asking us to listen, care, and act.” - Angela Garcia, author of The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande

“A major undertaking of humanist anthropology, this volume insists on the necessity of medical anthropology for facing the great challenges of our time, from pandemics and structural violence to climate change and political oppression. Arc of Interference is a milestone in medical anthropology.” - Susan Reynolds Whyte, editor of Second Chances: Surviving AIDS in Uganda

“Biehl, Adams, and their contributors have . . . penned a classic in Arc of Interference. . . . In our current times of reckoning–both global and disciplinary–contributions like Arc of Interference are a good place to start.” 

"As a family physician who treats patients, not disease states, I found this book both reinvigorating and challenging. ... The book is a worthwhile read for physicians who care for their patients, whether domestically or globally."

"As a professor of psychiatry, anthropology, and global health at Harvard University, [Arthur] Kleinman has taught generations of students to see the world from cross-cultural perspectives. Each author in this collection of fine essays discusses Kleinman’s theories as they relate to her or his own research. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." - I. Glasser, Choice

"Arc of Interference pays tribute to [Arthur] Kleinman’s career through the writings of his students and colleagues, many of them renowned scholars in their own right. . . . The book is especially relevant for students and scholars interested in learning more about the approach that the authors describe as critical medical anthropology, especially as applied to global health (notably, including global mental health)." - Steven P. Black, Journal of Medical Humanities

"Arc of Interference will hold great interest for students, especially at the graduate level, and for nonanthropologists eager to understand how and why medical anthropology has come to wield powerful influence—and to interfere with tenacity—across so many domains of inquiry. Each exquisite chapter broadens our understanding of what medical anthropology, broadly construed, can offer in this multifaceted moment of reckoning. . . ." - Sarah S.Willen, Medical Anthropology Quarterly