Elanah Uretsky, Ph.D.

Elanah Uretsky is Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health.

A medical anthropologist, Professor Uretsky's longstanding interests lie at the nexus of China, the global HIV pandemic, and gender and sexuality. She has spent the past 15 years conducting research in China, and has served as a consultant to numerous international organizations involved with HIV/AIDS programs in that nation. Professor Uretsky's work highlights the interaction of governance and HIV/AIDS in China and raises awareness of the pivotal role that men play in the spread of the epidemic. She currently collaborates on the China Multidisciplinary AIDS Prevention Training Program, a joint project sponsored by the Chinese Center for Disease Control, UCLA, and Yale University, to help train HIV/AIDS researchers in that country. Previously, as a postdoctoral fellow, Professor Uretsky helped to design a project to survey sex workers in China, with an eye towards launching an intervention that promotes use of the female condom. She has also helped to design a multilateral project to reduce the vulnerability to HIV infection of children orphaned and affected by HIV/AIDS in southwestern China. Professor Uretsky coordinates the MA/MPH program jointly sponsored by SPHHS and the Elliot School of International Affairs.

Bachelor of Science (Economics and East Asian Studies), New York University, 1990
Master of Arts (International relations), The George Washington University, 1997
Master of Arts (East Asian languages and civilizations), Harvard University, 2000
Doctor of Philosophy (Sociomedical sciences/medical anthropology), Columbia University, 2007

PubH 6401: Comparative Regional Determinants of Public Health, Department of Global Health

Dr. Uretsky's current research draws on 18 months of field experience at the "ground-zero" of China's HIV epidemic. She is focused on the role governance plays in the development and administration of HIV/AIDS, and the impact of China's contemporary climate of male sexuality on the epidemic.

Professor Uretsky serves on the board of the Beijing Gender Health and Education Institute, an organization funded by the Ford Foundation to conduct research and outreach to gay men in China. She has guided many start-up grassroots HIV/AIDS organizations in China and founded an organization on the Chinese-Burmese border that teaches music and dance to youth from rural ethnic minority communities, and uses the arts as a tool to advance HIV prevention.